Solar ... In the news

Martyn1981

Sometimes it's best just to laugh!

"Fox News Claims Solar Won't Work in America Because It's Not Sunny Like Germany" :eek:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/02/07/fox_news_expert_on_solar_energy_germany_gets_a_lot_more_sun_than_we_do_video.html

"According to maps put out by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, virtually the entirety of the continental United States gets more sun than even the sunniest part of Germany"

Mart.

Energetic_2

Saw that one, great research. Fox news, news for people who don't want to know anything...

Cardew

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Sometimes it's best just to laugh!

"Fox News Claims Solar Won't Work in America Because It's Not Sunny Like Germany" :eek:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/02/07/fox_news_expert_on_solar_energy_germany_gets_a_lot_more_sun_than_we_do_video.html

"According to maps put out by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, virtually the entirety of the continental United States gets more sun than even the sunniest part of Germany"

Mart.

The qualification to appear on Fox is to have nice legs and be able to slam Obama on every occasion.

Actually much of what she said was correct(obviously excluding her wacky views on Germany's climate).

Solar contributes one tenth of 1%(0.1%) to America's grid and has recieved Billions of dollars in subsidy($90 Billion??) and many companies have just gone bust. China just undercuts their prices.

Bear in mind also that in large parts of the USA, for much of the year, peak demand is during the day(when PV output is highest) to run Air Conditioning

Solyndra was one of the solar manufacturing companies listed in that clip as going bust after receiving US$535 million in subsidies(stimulus sic)

'Google' the company!

Energetic_2

Cardew wrote: »

The qualification to appear on Fox is to have nice legs and be able to slam Obama on every occasion.

Actually much of what she said was correct(obviously excluding her wacky views on Germany's climate).

Solar contributes one tenth of 1%(0.1%) to America's grid and has recieved Billions of dollars in subsidy($90 Billion??) and many companies have just gone bust. China just undercuts their prices.

Bear in mind also that in large parts of the USA, for much of the year, peak demand is during the day(when PV output is highest) to run Air Conditioning

Solyndra was one of the solar manufacturing companies listed in that clip as going bust after receiving US$535 million in subsidies(stimulus sic)

'Google' the company!

Solyndra was a farce, however the tentacles of Goldman Sachs aka the Vampire Squid were all over its demise. And they were handsomely rewarded for their efforts. When the banks are involved nothing is quite so straightforward.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/solyndra-schadenfreude-goldman-sachs-played-key-role

Martyn1981

Cardew wrote: »

Bear in mind also that in large parts of the USA, for much of the year, peak demand is during the day(when PV output is highest) to run Air Conditioning

Totally agree, one of the best things about PV is that all of its generation corresponds with heightened demand. :T

Mart.

Cardew

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Totally agree, one of the best things about PV is that all of its generation corresponds with heightened demand. :T

Mart.

????

Max demand in UK is late afternoon/early evening in Winter when PV produces zilch/zero - which is one of the worst things about PV

spgsc531

Cardew wrote: »

????

Max demand in UK is late afternoon/early evening in Winter when PV produces zilch/zero - which is one of the worst things about PV

cardew, why won't you answer this simple question?

spgsc531 wrote: »

Isn't it strange that they can't answer the simple question

For what specific reasons are you so anti-FiT?

Martyn1981

Cardew wrote: »

????

Max demand in UK is late afternoon/early evening in Winter when PV produces zilch/zero - which is one of the worst things about PV

Sorry, you misunderstand. I said that all PV generation corresponds with heightened demand. If you look at UK demand:

http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Electricity/Data/Realtime/Demand/demand24.htm

you'll see that during daylight hours, demand is well above baseload, making PV an excellent means to help reduce CO2. :T

Mart.

zeupater

Cardew wrote: »

... Solar contributes one tenth of 1%(0.1%) to America's grid and has recieved Billions of dollars in subsidy($90 Billion??) .....

Hi

Although it's correct to say that pv is currently contributing <0.1% of annual US energy (actually 0.04% in 2011), this must really be placed into context. Over the past few years the installed utility scale pv capacity in the USA has doubled each year (2009-473MWp, 2010-918MWp,2011-1855MWp). Additionally, considering that the total installed capacity was 2528MWp at ye2010 and 4383MWp at ye2011, it can be construed that small scale pv capacity increased from 1610MWp to 2528MWp during 2011, so an increase of ~900MWp of small-scale pv in a year. To place these figures in context, the UK's current total installed capacity is ~1500MWp. As at the mid point of 2012 the USA was actively constructing an additional 3400MWp of utility scale pv generation and has a further 20.6GWp currently planned.

As can be seen, after a very slow start in accepting the technology within the USA, the growth in pv capacity is huge and accelerating quickly, it would therefore be appropriate to take this into consideration when viewing the future contribution of solar energy and not base conclusions on a historical point in time ....

Will it really make a difference ? ... well at some time in the past <0.1% of the vehicles on the road were motorised, at other points <0.1% of household had electricity, televisions, radios, freezers, central heating, foreign holidays, etc .... technology, once consumers perceive the benefits and suppliers perceive the opportunities, has a habit of becoming pretty popular, pretty quickly .... americans may not have always been the ones who invented products, but they certainly have a history of rapid take-up of technologies once they have been accepted ....

HTH
Z

Source Data :
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_the_United_States

Energetic_2

The facts are very encouraging. Monbiot has 'facts' available to him that nobody else does, the Germans took offence recently to his misrepresenting their current generation mix...

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/02/05/debunking-common-myths-about-nuclear-coal-power-in-germany-this-time-repeated-by-the-guardian/

Can't remember if this has been posted already, apologies if it has...