Want to point everyone’s attention to this article Macquarie Group: Rooftop Solar Is Unstoppable regarding an analysis comparing fossil fuel power generation with wide scale distributed energy prepared by one of the lenders for the chromite strip miners ORC (Oregon Resources Corp).
…solar PV can even offer savings at industrial and commercial grid prices which are even lower at €0.11-0.17/kWh.
“Consequently, solar installations could continue at a rapid pace even without subsidies,” Macquarie notes. “Ultimately, this would threaten the role of coal-fired generation as the price setter in wholesale power price formation.”
Macquarie says that these effects seem self-reinforcing and hard to stop, unless there is a total power system overhaul. That, though, is unlikely. “We cannot see political will for such an overhaul. Quite to the contrary, German Environment Minister (Peter) Altmaier proposed in October 2012 to lift the country‟s 2020 renewable energy target to 40 per cent” (and its 2030 target to 80 per cent).
The report is about Europe, Germany specifically which elected to shutdown all nuclear power production in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster and focus upon renewable energy sources. Macquarie notes that the cost of solar has gone down placing rooftop solar on a parity with its dirtier energy producing cousins without the downstream environmental degradation. Producing power at the point of consumption, eliminating transmission losses, will always be more efficient and there is a lot of unused rooftop real estate ready and waiting for solar and wind turbine installations.
Regrettably, the local economic development agencies have yet to catch up with these new opportunities.
Solar investment debacles aside, perhaps you could report on recent developments to Australia’s wind energy efforts – in the interest of objectivity.
According to Bloomberg “unsubsidised renewable energy is now cheaper than electricity from new-build coal- and gas-fired power stations in Australia.”
Got milk?
Eastern Australia consumes over 18,000 megawatts of power even when it sleeps. To generate that kind of power with wind they’ll need approximately 270,000 square miles of wind turbines – assuming they can find that much territory where the wind blows 25% of the time. Only 250+ square miles for solar panels – assuming they get sun 50% of every day. Yes, on paper a renewable kw requires fewer subsidies to generate, but in practical terms even a country of only 23 million people would find it difficult to rely on solar or wind for all their energy needs. Combine all the windmills in America (the ones still working) and you might be able to keep San Francisco lit.
You think linearly al.
The U.S. Department of Energy found that wind power has the technical potential to provide more than 10 times today’s U.S. electricity needs. Plus provide about 500,000 jobs.
Solar more than 4 times.
Bioenergy about 40%
Geothermal about 113%
Hydropower 21%
And we haven’t even touched on the biggest and easiest potential, conservation and buildings.
That’s just the doable stuff now. We don’t know what future breakthroughs might come, such as graphene supercapacitors.
http://memolition.com/2013/02/20/the-super-supercapacitor/
We need 21st century planning.
I think the key words are “technical potential”. At this point in time neither wind nor solar are economically or technically feasible to deliver America’s needs. I’m not sure what “linear” thinking is, but I hope it has something to do with pragmatism. The Dept. of Energy should probably spend a few moments trying to determine why 14,000 windmills sit idle in one of the world’s premier wind locations (N. California).
It’s a great business – and story – until the taxpaid subsidies run dry.
There’s nothing special about pragmatism. It can be used to be to do things that are wrong and/or evil. The meatheads that got us into the Iraq war did it in a very pragmatic manor. And you can form a fetish with it that can develop an ideology that is inescapable, which reminds me of the stories in Vim’s book, which IMHO should have the subtitle “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”
Promoting a path that will ultimately ruin the earths climate is not an example of something that works. I might be willing to entertain a pragmatic view of ROI. Unfortunately I can’t see much of an ROI for Coos County on the hundreds of millions of dollars the port has spent.
A very interesting article.
That won’t sit well with those infected with the religion m.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
― Isaac Asimov
Isn’t that so true? One sees displayed in pubic quite often. I believe it stems from, in at least a large portion, from people to ashamed to say “I don’t know.” I don’t see anyone here on mgx offering up any particular panacea for all our problems on the south coast, however, pointing out tired non solutions is not being “negative.”
I partially blame history for our stagnation. At least those who perpetuate a false history. We have never been, and will never be a “manufacturing” area. There is no “let’s get back to what we used to be.” We cannot get back to something that never existed. It is a phantom. We practice Bokononism in our little granfalloon.
DeVriend’s book is an interesting chronicle of how controlling the narrative has driven one boondoggle after another. I highly recommend reading it but I must offer a warning first. You might get a sore neck from all the back and forth shaking of your head, and a slight feeling of embarrassment if you supported one or more of the boondoggles he writes about. Read it if you haven’t.
I am a fan of “If You Build It They Will Come”!
A Boon Doggle Of The People & For The People is the key to unlocking prosperity for the poor working stiffs of Coos Blight.
Identify trends. The trend is overseas companies appeasing the restless Indians by bringing a meager portion of their operations back to the U.S. of A..
Build a state of the art manufacturing facility that has yet to be tooled. Use the same blueprint China has for the past 20 years. Caterpillar landed in a small Arkansas town with around 5,600 jobs for a plant made just for them to refurbish heavy equipment. If the Port & its cronies really wanted to do for its people & schools it would recognize the trend & act accordingly. Have Messerle’s Hen hire the best hookers money can buy & put them up at the Dunes to entertain CEO’s of multinational companies whom are courted with a free weekend of 19 holes played out @ the Dunes. You would be surprised how far an investment in a good hooker will get you in the business world. I would wager to bet you will have several companies lined up to land in Coos Blight!
Pffft, “investment in a good hooker” was so last century.
http://youtu.be/rjPFqkFyrOY
One of the other important development projects local development agencies have “forgotten” is the internet revolution. Seems to me a few years ago when the transpacific optic cable came ashore near Bandon and snaked it’s way through Coos County to inland connections, cities and towns along the way were given the options to build their own networks in exchange for the public right of way.
Most communities know that the internet is a prime starter on business and media transactions. Fast access can draw international business large and small. Right now we are stuck with several options, each slower or more expensive than the other.
Let’s benefit the public in the process and give our populations fast connections as well. C’mon Coos County, bring us into the 21st century instead the railroad connection to the 19th.
Yo Essay, you have ORCA’s service provided by the fabricated Ko-Kwell Tribe…