Heading out to Phoenix a few years back, I was surprised by the size of the windfarms west of Oklahoma City. They went on for miles on both sides of the freeway.
I went with Sunnova. They warranty everything for 25 yrs so I supposedly just call them and they come fix it w/o it costing me, and they are local to me so I would use them. I don't think they want anyone else working on their equipment.
There's a story from one of his books about the CA Almond King (who lives in Beverly Hills), a place where he planted hundreds of acres of groves where there is literally no natural water, a processing plant and mini-town, and the farmworkers who live there. Which I will tell you some time when I have the time.
there'd be ... the expense of, as Roberts put it, "basically rebuilding a new electricity grid" that will rely on sources that may vary with the weather, so we'll need a lot of new transmission lines to move that power around. So it'll be pricey, and subsidized by government spending, but it'll also create millions of jobs.
But not in Texas! It's got the only fully intrastate grid, which is therefore immune to federal meddling!
And if it sounds pricey, you also have to consider that the costs of climate change will be far higher.
What's a little ice storm that decapitates the Texas economy and kills a few dozen people, between friends. Especially since those severe weather events are likely to occur no more often than once every three years! who can even plan that far ahead!
The summer heat increases to Nabatean levels can be ignored, of course. Humans can just fire up more air conditioners, and livestock do fine in the interior of the Arabian peninsula, after all. Right? RIGHT?
Energy market boffins are already recognizing that renewables make more sense than continued use of fossil fuels, particularly coal.
Only if you love COMMUNISM.
/s
The beauty of this whole thing is that Texas will be able to largely opt out from grid renewing programs and thus beat off all those pesky high tech jobs at the border. And they're going to use that ability constantly and repeatedly until our climate emergency reaches its climax.
Yes, I said said what I said you filthy 12 year olds. Get over yourselves. The real joke is that Texas is going to kill its capitalist economy to spite the nation it says it loves every time a 3 year old accidentally kills a family member with a carelessly placed gun.
I read a report recently that said 5% of power plants globally were responsible for something like 75% of the pollution (again globally), It seems like a goal to identify the worst 5% in the US and shut them down (or more likely convert the, from coal to natural gas.
OR - possibly - showing the "old farts how to get things done" entails proposing GND and letting said old farts submit the legislation to the floor, on account of how they might have a bit more experience?
The Biden administration yesterday released an Energy Department study examining how the US could meet nearly half its energy needs with solar power by 2050.
Step one: Never elect republicans.
If we don't follow step one, there are no further steps.
Just got my monthly electric bill. In the middle of summer (September is still summer down here). It was about 25 dollars. I used to pay a minimum of 300 at this time of the year.
Now, we've had a mild summer, by our standards, with most days staying below 95. Last summer at this time I payed closer to $50. During the first part of the summer, I had credit left over at the power company from a winter's worth of electricity generated on my roof. And it is true that San Antonio is a great place for solar technology, as most days are sunny. We get our rain almost exclusively in thunderstorms, with the classic "rainy day" being fairly rare around here.
Note that I pay $125 a month to pay for my panels. My homeowner's insurance also went up by about $20 a month (which is not bad, considering the aforementioned thunderstorms, which cause hail now and then). But I pay considerably less in the hottest months for electricity and in the winter I don't pay a dime out of pocket.
Some places have set ups where you can rent out your roof to your power company. You get some but not all of the credit from what gets generated because they pay for the panels and for the insurance.
tl;dr. If you own your house you should really look into solar panels.
This is the sort of thinking I like. The tops of all those huge stores like Walmart. The environmental damage has already been done. A roof over parking lots, ditto.
My panels, which provide so much power that I just paid $25 for my August electric bill in San Antonio, cost about 25K. I'm paying $125 a month for them, plus about $20 a month in increased insurance (hail storms bad enough to completely destroy them can happen here). I'm hooked up to the power company, so no batteries. That means when the city power goes off mine does too. You have to decide what works best for you and right now batteries are still really expensive.
I suspect that those are old numbers. You should check into it again. Also, of course, renters are up shit creek. Maybe tax incentives for landlords? And your local climate is, indeed a problem, but that does not mean that, in general, personal solar panels don't work.
This is an extremely cool idea.
Heading out to Phoenix a few years back, I was surprised by the size of the windfarms west of Oklahoma City. They went on for miles on both sides of the freeway.
I went with Sunnova. They warranty everything for 25 yrs so I supposedly just call them and they come fix it w/o it costing me, and they are local to me so I would use them. I don't think they want anyone else working on their equipment.
There's a story from one of his books about the CA Almond King (who lives in Beverly Hills), a place where he planted hundreds of acres of groves where there is literally no natural water, a processing plant and mini-town, and the farmworkers who live there. Which I will tell you some time when I have the time.
there'd be ... the expense of, as Roberts put it, "basically rebuilding a new electricity grid" that will rely on sources that may vary with the weather, so we'll need a lot of new transmission lines to move that power around. So it'll be pricey, and subsidized by government spending, but it'll also create millions of jobs.
But not in Texas! It's got the only fully intrastate grid, which is therefore immune to federal meddling!
And if it sounds pricey, you also have to consider that the costs of climate change will be far higher.
What's a little ice storm that decapitates the Texas economy and kills a few dozen people, between friends. Especially since those severe weather events are likely to occur no more often than once every three years! who can even plan that far ahead!
The summer heat increases to Nabatean levels can be ignored, of course. Humans can just fire up more air conditioners, and livestock do fine in the interior of the Arabian peninsula, after all. Right? RIGHT?
Energy market boffins are already recognizing that renewables make more sense than continued use of fossil fuels, particularly coal.
Only if you love COMMUNISM.
/s
The beauty of this whole thing is that Texas will be able to largely opt out from grid renewing programs and thus beat off all those pesky high tech jobs at the border. And they're going to use that ability constantly and repeatedly until our climate emergency reaches its climax.
Yes, I said said what I said you filthy 12 year olds. Get over yourselves. The real joke is that Texas is going to kill its capitalist economy to spite the nation it says it loves every time a 3 year old accidentally kills a family member with a carelessly placed gun.
I read a report recently that said 5% of power plants globally were responsible for something like 75% of the pollution (again globally), It seems like a goal to identify the worst 5% in the US and shut them down (or more likely convert the, from coal to natural gas.
OR - possibly - showing the "old farts how to get things done" entails proposing GND and letting said old farts submit the legislation to the floor, on account of how they might have a bit more experience?
Just a thought.
By way of a co-sign.
The Biden administration yesterday released an Energy Department study examining how the US could meet nearly half its energy needs with solar power by 2050.
Step one: Never elect republicans.
If we don't follow step one, there are no further steps.
Just got my monthly electric bill. In the middle of summer (September is still summer down here). It was about 25 dollars. I used to pay a minimum of 300 at this time of the year.
Now, we've had a mild summer, by our standards, with most days staying below 95. Last summer at this time I payed closer to $50. During the first part of the summer, I had credit left over at the power company from a winter's worth of electricity generated on my roof. And it is true that San Antonio is a great place for solar technology, as most days are sunny. We get our rain almost exclusively in thunderstorms, with the classic "rainy day" being fairly rare around here.
Note that I pay $125 a month to pay for my panels. My homeowner's insurance also went up by about $20 a month (which is not bad, considering the aforementioned thunderstorms, which cause hail now and then). But I pay considerably less in the hottest months for electricity and in the winter I don't pay a dime out of pocket.
Some places have set ups where you can rent out your roof to your power company. You get some but not all of the credit from what gets generated because they pay for the panels and for the insurance.
tl;dr. If you own your house you should really look into solar panels.
Good for you.
This is the sort of thinking I like. The tops of all those huge stores like Walmart. The environmental damage has already been done. A roof over parking lots, ditto.
My panels, which provide so much power that I just paid $25 for my August electric bill in San Antonio, cost about 25K. I'm paying $125 a month for them, plus about $20 a month in increased insurance (hail storms bad enough to completely destroy them can happen here). I'm hooked up to the power company, so no batteries. That means when the city power goes off mine does too. You have to decide what works best for you and right now batteries are still really expensive.
I suspect that those are old numbers. You should check into it again. Also, of course, renters are up shit creek. Maybe tax incentives for landlords? And your local climate is, indeed a problem, but that does not mean that, in general, personal solar panels don't work.
We tried but they turned us down - they said something about the way our roof was built. (The whole damn house is pretty bootleg.)
Being done. Here's a reasonably good source for the state of the business https://www.solarpowerworld...
Has anyone gotten one of the Tesla roofs? They seem very cool.