Perhaps the US should think about it - investing the US$800+ as long term national infrastructure. It should be evaluated as capital expenditure, rather than expenses. Excellent opportunity for creating a lot of jobs as well! I guess.
Solar panels and the environment. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...r-panel-manufacturing-sustainability-ranking/ Solar and wind on efficient. http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/renewable-energy-is-not-working.aspx The answer is nuclear and every thinking person who has done any current day research knows this.
Looks quite promising! Q The SVTC said it's leading an effort to develop a first ever sustainability standard for solar panels, similar to the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED, within the next two years. That effort will get under way as new solar panel factories come online in the U.S. and elsewhere: Mission Solar just opened a plant in San Antonio, Texas, and SolarCity plans to open a five-billion-dollar factory in western New York. UQ Seems not ideal yet? Q Over the past ten years the world has invested more than $600 billion in wind power and $700 billion in solar power. Yet the total contribution those two technologies are now making to the world primary energy supply is still less than 2 per cent. Ouch. If we had spent that sum on research, and steadily replaced coal with gas as a source of electricity, we would have done far more to cut carbon emissions and kept prices low. A new report by Charles Frank of the Brookings Institution has come to the startling conclusion that if you encourage gas to replace coal, you get fewer emissions per dollar spent than if you use wind or solar. In Mr Frank’s words: “Solar and wind facilities suffer from a very high capacity cost per megawatt, very low capacity factors and low reliability, which result in low avoided emissions and low avoided energy cost per dollar invested.” In short, we are picking losers. UQ
Perhaps we should encourage the government to pick the technology that will succeed and subsidize it. That way we can all help those individuals that try it whether we can afford it or not!
Q http://www.juancole.com/2016/01/top-6-wind-energy-stories-today-cost-down-60-since-2009.html Top 6 Wind Energy stories Today: Cost down 60% since 2009 By Juan Cole | Jan. 14, 2016 | 1. This press release from Windpower Engineering notes that in 2015: “The German electricity system has reached a new milestone, generating 85.4 billion kWh of wind power in 2015, the highest amount ever recorded and 66% more than 2014. Nationwide, wind energy accounted for 13.3% of German electricity generation during the last year. According to grid operators storm “Bjarni” set a new output record of 32.6 million kWh at the end of the year. Consequently wind power saw its best month ever in December 2015. With an electricity generation of 12.7 billion kWh it achieved a new record and was even ahead of lignite coal powered production. Hence, wind is Germany’s most important source of energy for that month.” 2. In Scotland in 2015, “Turbines provided 10,392,439 MWh of electricity to the National Grid, enough on average to supply 2.34 million homes, up 16 per cent compared to the previous year.”In 6 of the 12 months, wind supplied enough electricity to power 97% of the region’s households, and over all it supplied 41 percent of electricity for both residential and business sectors. 3. In the United States, there are now 50,000 wind turbines, generating 70 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, enough to power 19 million homes. The cost of wind-generated electricity is down 66% since 2009. It is now nearly 5% of American electricity, up from 1 percent in 2007. In Iowa, wind power accounts for over 25% of electricity generation. UQ