Ken9876
Senior Member
- Location
- Jersey Shore
You get my vote!
So it is the biggest Government supported scam that exist,out of YOUR tax $-s.
Funny the same could be said about the tax dollars used to build nuke plants
You get my vote!
So it is the biggest Government supported scam that exist,out of YOUR tax $-s.
I am no expert on solar power and I'm not even a student of it. I really know very little about it. I do have the impression that in its current form it is a waste of money if your goal is to reduce your electricity costs. Does anybody disagree?
I realize to improve the technology there has to be a market for solar and that market exists because governments are willing to provide tax credits to those that install solar systems. But it seems like with the current technology there is never a return on investment. I have heard calculations on a particular system that would pay for itself in 20 years and then the power is free. Does anybody believe this?
I'm thinking about the costs that typically don't come to mind when people do the math. For instance, if the roof is only going to last 20 years, what about the cost of replacing a roof with all those panels sitting on top. If you were to have a battery connected to store power, I would imagine the batteries would have to be replaced every few years. Maintenance costs seem like a real unknown. And if the system has a break even cost after 20 years, 20 years from now you will probably have already replaced the system with something more effecient, so you never realize the pay back. Even inflation and the time value of money should be considered in the analysis. For instance, if I invest 20K in a solar system and the payback is 20 years, I should compare that investment with putting 20K in a mutual fund investment that would likely quadruple in 20 years (using 7% gaine per year).
For all of the above reasons I have real doubts about solar having any real value in its present form. If my ignorance of solar is showing please let me know what I don't know.
Why does there need to be a return on investment in a solar system?
For all of the above reasons I have real doubts about solar having any real value in its present form. If my ignorance of solar is showing please let me know what I don't know.
What electric bill? If you actually make all the electricity you use you would not have an electric bill.I have a 2.8 KW system that does save me money every month off of my electrical bill. We actually make all of the electricity we use. Still pay back time is a long way out.
In the past that has been true. They were making up the rules as we went along. Most of the opposition was because of fear-mongering by environmentalists. Not the environmentalists have softened on nuclear as people have begun to understand the facts about nuclear.On the contrary. The federal government and most state governments have been putting up regulatory roadblocks for several decades on new and existing nuclear plants. The disincentives have resulted in hardly any new plants being built in the last 30 years.
Amen to that.The opposite is true regarding solar, which has been heavily subsidized for the last ten years and would hardly exist if not for ratepayer and taxpayer funds.
If people are so worried about spewing and such then they should just quit using electricity and go back to being a true environmentalist and live like the Native Americans used to.I beg of you to come up with viable reasons to employ solar and wind power generation, especially in a grid tied configuration.
Beside the fact that I am going to attend a class at our local college for installation of such devices, I think that it's good for the environment not to have to spew noxious gasses into the atmosphere to provide our energy needs.
Oh, and in the wake of said viable reasons I hope you manage to sell hundreds or thousands of the systems so I may have a shot at getting back into the trade. Journeymen are a dime a dozen here and most will pull rope at a wage I consider an insult to my training and experience.
I also think that solar and wind power has an optimistic coolness about it that is being overlooked for marketing purposes for some reason.
Every kWh we get without feeding the obscenely profitable corporate energy machine the better. For all of us. Baby harp seals included.
The up and coming industrial societies that don't care about the environment are eating our lunch and buying us lock, stock, and barrel.
It is smart on their part as long as they do no fear we will not pay our debt. Why spend money on the environment when you can take that same money and buy the U.S.A.? Let the us clean up the environment while China sells us products made with little concern for the environment. It is the biggest scam in the world. They are buying us with our own money.Where are most of the cells made? China by slaves, then dump the waste into?
In the U.S.A. we have to do it clean and pay people!
Funny the same could be said about the tax dollars used to build nuke plants
and i don't think you have missed much.... except in the title....
"free power from the sun"....
Not quite all but most for sure.Not quite. He got it right. All power comes originally from the sun.
That would be the best way but our society is very wasteful. The animals live like they did thousands of years ago. If we would do the same we would be in better harmony with the environment. The problem is, it is in the nature of man to change things and try to make them better (a relative term, I know). As long as we live here it will always be that way.The better we get at using the suns energy directly as it comes to us, the better off we will be. Better siting of homes and buildings, better placement of windows, passive collectors, passive storage, realization that we don't need (can't afford) to live in an artificially heated/cooled 70 degree world, etc.
What electric bill? If you actually make all the electricity you use you would not have an electric bill.
Then just tell them you want the service disconnected as it is bringing you no value and have a nice steak every month instead!My POCO charges 32 dollars a month just to have there meter on my house. regardless if you use any electricity or not.