In his State of the Union address, President Obama noted that although America invented solar energy technology, we have fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it. He is right of course.
I remember when America was leading the pack on clean energy in the 1970s. We abdicated that leadership thanks to the influence of a fossil fuel industry with deep pockets and friends in the White House. But Obama reminded us of an important aspect of the American character: ingenuity. We are a nation of innovators, and we can harness that resourcefulness again to build a better future.
I saw that ingenuity emerge three decades ago, when the promise of renewable energy became clear to many of us. We were so eager to spread the word about solar power that we created "Sun Day," the solar equivalent of Earth Day. We had events from Maine to Chicago to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir even agreed to participate in one event.
People were just starting to get excited about pollution-free power, but then Ronald Reagan became president and took the solar panels off the White House and the policies promoting renewable energy were stripped from the books.
In 1975 I produced a short film called "The Solar Film." The people interviewed say they like how solar power cuts down on their bills, doesn't have to be imported, and makes them worry less about terrorists. All of those benefits remain extremely relevant today, but we have lost three decades in the effort to extend them to more Americans.
I was too early in my efforts to promote solar power, but now is the time. We are getting a second chance--another American trait. If we don't seize this moment, we will be too late to get the competitive advantage in a global marketplace, too late for the economic dividends, and too late to stave off the worst of global warming.
The Obama administration wants to see America double our supply of renewable energy in the next three years. Many lawmakers want to pass a national renewable portfolio standard, which would require a certain percentage of our country's electricity generation to come from clean sources like solar and wind. Congress will likely vote this year on a bill to limit global warming pollution that will dramatically expand the market for clean power. These are the kind of bold, visionary actions we need right now. I urge you to call on your representatives to support them.
In this time of economic crisis and uncertainty, I am reminded of being a child during World War II. I have no nostalgia for the turmoil and suffering of those days, but I do recall the communal effort, the sense that we all rallied around to support the greater good. Today we are trying to achieve the greater good of shared prosperity, and I believe it will be built on a clean and affordable energy economy. With enough resourcefulness, I know we can do it this time around..
http://www.edn.com/article/CA6640264.html
http://www.firstsolar.com/projects_applications.php
No government fiat caused people to recognize that whale oil was getting more scarce, causing people to move to Kerosene, or from Kerosene to crude or from crude to gasoline. Prices did that. When one resource became more scarce, it signaled the market to correct itself in the development of newer resources that were relatively less expensive and more efficient. Imagine that.
It's called markey manipulation, and it happens on a scale you could scarcely imagine.
You sound like you understand the way a free market is supposed to behave, in the classroom!
Meanwhile, out here in the world as it actually is, dirty deeds are done dirt cheap, and good ideas are routinely crushed in their infancy if they show any risk of cutting into the profits of the big players. And those big players got that way by knowing how to manipulate the government (and thereby the market) to advance their own ends and crush the competition. The higher the stakes, the more true this becomes, and fewer areas have stakes as high as the energy business.
the second thing we need to know is that FEED IN TARIFFS are not only the most successful way to ramp up clean, democratic, non-lethal renewable energy -right where it is needed, but they are also the most successful way to get people to CONSERVE power.
Don't be taken in by the Big Energy GREENWASH. NOT a single acre of our wilderness needs to be or should be killed "for the sake of the planet." we have 190% of the solar resources we need right in urban load centers, on existing rooftops and urban brownfields. Let's work on that and STOP KILLING OUR WILDNERNESS FOR PROFITS.
Once again there has been an oil crash and the alternative energy industry is finding itself challenged by the market (I worry in particular about the ethanol plant in Soperton, Georgia, that may or may not have the capital to make it through the next two years). While Americans may be more wary of volatile energy prices, some new incentives must be thought of to keep green energy investment and industry alive. As a layman, I don't have a solution that would fit in the space of a HuffPo comment, but I hope you and other high-profile advocates like Boone Pickens will continue to soldier on and keep enough people motivated to move this country towards responsible and environmentally-friendly self-sufficiency. We won't run out of sunlight or wind.
We need jobs and a lot of them. Manufacturing and installing solar and wind units could employ a million people. Subsidies in the form of tax credits and federally guaranteed loans for individuals and businesses would make solar and wind power viable economically. Warehouse owners with acres of roof could generate enough power at a profit for local use without expanding the grid. Likewise mall owners could provide covered parking with thousands of solar panels. The possibilities are limitless if you think small.
And it all comes from that same mentality that pulled the solar panels off the White House.
The “free” market exists to serve those within its sphere. People and the Earth do not exist to serve the “free” market. When a viable solution runs afoul the market the market must be changed to allow the solution to be implemented. One simple solution is to place a tax on gas used to generate electricity as a variable rate to yield an overall cost that makes wind power “competitive”. If market forces pushed gas up the tax would go down and vice versa. In that way investors would be assured of a return on their investments in wind power. The gas that is freed up could be used as transportation fuel replacing imported oil.
It would also be of great benefit economically to place a higher tax on automobile gasoline and diesel. This tax would not be levied on natural gas or biofuels. An 85% ethanol blend would escape 85% of the tax. Biodiesel would be untaxed. This would give biofuels a leg up on the competition.
I remember how many of us highly criticized Jimmy Carter for literally giving away the Panama Canal; it appears that presidents who succeeded him have given away far more than the land of the Panama Canal. I am so hopeful that it is indeed not toooo late for recovery.
I happen to come from a Land Down Under, aka Australia. We are masters of not innovating a single thing. We are quite happy to wander along, following a stupid game called football, and we stifle our brain-power to the point that all intelligent Australians go to the vast talent-pools overseas, the ones offered by other countries.
We have sun for about three-hundred and fifty days a year. In the northern states it is more. And what, do you suppose we do with it? Bugger all. With the exception of private individuals who have gone solar, our governments-State, Federal, and Local, give no encouragement to the Solar Power Industry at all. Which is why our leading solar- power thinkers have gone to live overseas. Of course we have mega-acres of coal-black, brown and grey. The owners of these industries have used every stinking bit of extortion in the book in order to bring our governments to heel. This is why we are a nation of mediocrity and docile followers.
As an active participant then, but at an age likely to preclude serious future action, I ought to urge that it be tougher and learn from the easy disposal of its 1970s predecessor; which happened right after Sun Day, at least in Berkeley; not normally expected in the pocket “of a fossil fuel industry with deep pockets”. Jimmy Carter was still early in his first term and had encouraged government research labs to take part in Sun Day events. My copy of the memo had been withheld until three weeks after my participation without that. For that the “influence” of purveyors of Dirty Obsolete Energy (DOE) sources is simpler to trace. Since President Obama is likely to listen to Robert Redford, if he knows what's good for him, he might also be urged to keep up his guard toward anti-solar networks that include employees of his.
http://members.shaw.ca/ElSol/One_Life/Part_VI.html#TOWARD_SUN_DAY is a personal account of the 1970s California solar movement leading up to Sun Day.
Our house is about 210 sq meters. It takes about 44 solar cells (150 MM x 150 MM) to cover 1 sq meter. That is 9,240 to cover our roof (not considering the slope). At $13.00 each, that comes out to $120,120 plus ancillary electronics plus installation.
That is the kind of surface size you need to power a mdoern house, particularly in winter.
$120,120 is more than 1/3rd the price of my house. Based on mortgage costs, this would add approximately $800 a month ot my mortgage while my electricity averages out to $150 a month. There is no payback - not ever.
If there was, TV would be filled with ads pushing solar power for your house.
Well it does. See my profile for details of the great growth in solar and wind installations and technology.
Wind is cheaper than coal in many cases.
Rooftop Solar is cheaper than Natural gas turbines used to Air condition peak load through the country. It has a less than 3 year break even point installed on large commercial roofs.
You can buy assembled solar panels for about 3-4$ per peak watt.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90599
In a good location you will get about 1 average watt per 4 peak watt rating.
that's 16 $ per average watt. electricity coast about a dollar per watt per year or more since it's peak air conditioning load. So it has a very pessimistic worst case 16 year payback time, then you electricity is free for probably another 20 years or more.
if you average 3KW it will cost you 48k$.
Which is less than the cost of electricity if you don't install it.
City states and us gov all are offering lots of money to help you afford it, some utilities are giving interest f4ree loans, other utilities are building the solar system on your house for free, just to save them the highest cost noon demand.
You should search around.
How about you invest the $48,000 in equipping my house with solar panels (assuming that they generate enough electricity for my usage even without a a miracle plug-in car). I will pay you at the same rate as my electric bill minus whatever I have to buy from NOVEC when the sun doesn't shine for a couple of days?
You will make a nice profit. You can build a nice company and get rich. You get rich and it costs me the same as electricity from NOVEC.
That beats all of our governments taxing me to pay me to put in solar panels.
You will get really rich, like an oil company or a coal company, and I don't have to be taxed to give myself a subsidy on installing the panels.
Generally speaking, you should be measuring your energy by kilowatts and kilowatt hours, not by square feet. You can look at your current electricity bill (don't forget to add the gas bill if you're thinking about replacing gas heated hot water with solar hot water and gas furnaces with electric) to get the amount of energy you use.
THEN - and most importantly - think about some of the easy ways you can reduce that expense. For those kinds of ideas, look at the list that came with Al Gore's book and movie. Unplug your "vampires" (your cable box overnight, your chargers during the day), never leave a light on in any room you're not occupying, in hot climates consider induction cooking so you don't add heat to the house, replace EVERY ONE of those xenon and halogen lightbulbs, etc., etc., etc. Even though those don't seem like much, they do add up. In other words - don't just solve the question as if energy is only about power production. It's bound up in power use, too.