If you can't make this work, it is hard to imagine what would. The poles
are already there and the investment in new transmission is essentially zero.
PV is still not cost-competitive without subsidy. Subsidies make sense to
get a technology into a competitive position, but the economies in
photovoltaics have yet to bring the costs down into a competitive range,
despite many years of subsidy. We are getting close, though. If costs can
be cut in half once more, PV could compete without subsidy.
Joel
At 10:04 AM 8/4/09 -0400, you wrote:
I think their math is a bit fuzzy. Powering 80,000 homes on 80MW would
only give each home 1kW and I think typical homes use more like 4-6kW.
I heard the jury is still out of whether solar panels are worth it. The
embodied energy, manufacturing processes, and shipping of panels
across the world is probably not the most sustainable use of our resources.
As always, I wonder how far $515 million would go towards education and
making local solutions for low-energy living. Just imagine if groups like
Sustainable Tompkins were given MILLIONS to educate - it would go a very
long way I believe. Maybe it doesn't create 100 jobs (although maybe it
does!), but it goes a lot farther to protect our resources than just
slapping up solar panels that will be trash a few decades down the road.
-Andy
From: George Frantz <[email protected]>
I came across the following editorial from the Towanda PA, Sunday
Review. Anybody else hear of utilities turning their transmission lines
into energy sources through use of small scale solar electric panels?
George Frantz
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_______________________________________________
For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please
visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/
RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for:
[email protected]
http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins
Questions about the list? ask [email protected]
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