Re: Making 'Clean Energy' Pay | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Lion Kuntz (lionkuntzyahoo.com) | |
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 21:31:02 -0700 (PDT) |
--- Andrew Netherton <andrewnetherton [at] gmail.com> wrote: > An exerpt: > > "Under the plan, the Ontario Power Authority will purchase > electricity > produced by wind, biomass or small hydroelectric at a base price of > 11 > cents per kilowatt-hour. The fixed price for solar will be 42 cents > per kilowatt-hour." > > Instead of trying to make solar power practical at our currently > rock-bottom rate of less than $0.06/kWh, you get a guaranteed buyer > at > $0.42/kWh. MUCH more attractive. Before anybody gets TOOOO excited about this, it ends up not meaning much. Most people don't live where the winds blow strong on frequent basis. That really reduces the issue to solar or biomass. Doubtful that many compact communities can generate enough biomass to make electricity production important, which reduces it down now to just solar. The US government provides good maps showing the long-term solar energy by month and by yearly averages, but I found their interface too awkward so I made my own version. http://h2-pv.tripod.com/PV/solar_maps.html Look and see if you are in an area of really good solar energy, and you will find that only six southwestern sunbelt states have the best, and even places like the "Sunshine State" of Florida are not so good. Canada is not included, but you can get some idea based on Alaska and the norther Tier of states what kind of expectations to have up north. You might find it interesting that Northern Alaska gets more, better, solar energy than south Alaska, but even so, the cost of panels is the same in Arozona as Alaska and Arizona gets 5 times the sunshine falling on the same panels, so the cost is 5 times greater per kilowatt of panels up north. The further north the more seasonal bias, so that the long days (24 hours in the Arctic mid summer) means a big boost in summer and nothing much the rest of the year. Since you are only getting that $0.42 in peak summer and buying grid electricity much of the year, it is not quite the money generator that it first looks. Solar may actually produce at greater quantities under certain snow and cloud conditions in mid winter than it does in peak hours in mid summer, but those are going to be rare exceptions to the rule. Therefore, I smell an industry incentive here for biogas, corporate wind farms, and solar manufacturers, with som window-dressing for a Kyoto signatory showing they are "trying". China has a serious government funded program to develop mass manufacturing techniques for large volume production of solar hot water heating, which is a better energy investment than heating hot water with electricity or carbon-energy sources. A national policy about passive solar homes, removal of zoning restrictions requiring houses to be oriented towards the streets instead of oriented towards the winter sun, would show that are taking the issue seriously. For people who are not quite sure how seriously to take the issues I have composed some show-and-tell about a few of 2006 tropical storms and hurricanes that you might not have heard of. BENINCA happened near the Phillipines in early October. It put on a spectacular show than dissipated. The radiant energy recorded was computed at 276 megawatts of TNT per hour just in the glowing hot core. The hot core was measured 306 miles in diameter, large enough to drop category-5 hurricane IOKE into. IOKE was another of those tropical storms nobody heard of, but it ended up in the Arctic where it melted 38,000 square miles of ice ten feet thick. BEBINCA, what ever happened to Bebinca? It broke both ends of the Alaska Pipeline this week, dropped 9 inches of rain on Valdez, and pushed out a great mass of cold air which it followed. Those of you under snow from Chicago to Buffalo, under sleet from St. Louis to Kentucky, say hello to Bebinca. Show & Tell: http://ecosyn.us/Temp_4/Bebinca/Bebinca_01.html http://ecosyn.us/Temp_4/Bebinca/ioke_bebinca_compare.html http://ecosyn.us/Temp_4/Bebinca_to_Alaska/Bebinca_to_Alaska2.html http://ecosyn.us/Temp_4/Bebinca_into_Alaska//Bebinca_into_Alaska2.html http://ecosyn.us/Temp_4/Arctic_Ice_Melt.html http://ecosyn.us/Temp_4/Mystery_Solved/Ice_Mystery_Solved.html http://ecosyn.us/1/temp_sep_06/IOKE_IR_Funktops.html http://ecosyn.us/1/temp_sep_06/IR_WEUS.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
- Re: Making 'Clean Energy' Pay, (continued)
- Re: Making 'Clean Energy' Pay Lion Kuntz, October 13 2006
- Re: Making 'Clean Energy' Pay Brian Bartholomew, October 14 2006
- Re: Making 'Clean Energy' Pay Andrew Netherton, October 13 2006
- Re: Making 'Clean Energy' Pay Brian Bartholomew, October 14 2006
- Re: Making 'Clean Energy' Pay Lion Kuntz, October 13 2006
- Re: Making 'Clean Energy' Pay John Beutler, October 15 2006
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