Wish we had more sunshine around these parts to make it worth the investment!

It makes Dave feel all warm and fuzzy though.

Ain't going to work around my house, what I need is some minature turbines on my downspouts.

Tell those oils sands and tar sands guys about that "too expensive" to extract it schit...solar is getting cheaper every day, and will continue to do so...your corporate masters who love oil and killing brown people will have to get along with it sooner or later.

Fish on...

Todd

That should be enough energy to charge your cell phone. :>)

Wind will work just fine as a supplement to keep my toaster going.

I'm waiting for this State to declare that they own the sunshine, just like the rain. That will take care of the "profits". I can see the old hag drooling at the possibilities.

I'm not especially against solar power..... but it has to be feasible first. The battery issues alone are not a minor issue.

The grid can be the battery.

When Hankster discovers the solar foil hat it will be repel and absorb...repel and absorb. What a nightmare.

Here we go DV.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/8380...-potential.html

It's not so much a "need sunshine in the PNW" problem, it's a "need efficient transmission to get it from New Mexico" problem. That's the pipeline we should be investing in if you ask me.

I live near Port Townsend......Greenie capitol of the Pacific NW....I've toured houses with solar power. I've asked the cost and the projected break even point.......at this time you have to just have money to throw away for the "looks"......no way is it worth the cost....presently.

Since there's no heating cost in HI, that stretches the payback even farther into the future I'd guess. Takes a couple decades or more around here I've heard. Just hearsay tho.

There are other considerations as well such as appliances....at least for those who wish to be totally off the grid. Water delivery can also be a problem depending on where you are considering converting to solar power. Well pumps don't like to run on less than 220v......so you're stuck with either a public water source or a rain water collection system.....but with La Nina in our immediate future that might work out OK. A lot of considerations and presently with our cheap electricity rates, it's a tough one to beat.

Here's more bad news for the conservative America haters.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/first-solar-claims-1-a-watt-industry-milestone/

Solar will have a tough time competing here where we have some of the world's cheapest electric rates. But in many places with high priced diesel or coal power plants and with much more sun, solar shines. When we were in Alice Springs, Australia we saw that most homes had at least some solar power.


I don't see solar ever becoming our primary source of power but it may save us a lot of dependence on foreign oil and cause much less pollution than coal powered electricity. I see that as a win win.

Don't disagree in the least, Dave. I did a research paper on the feasibility on this side of the mountains (some time ago). Couldn't make it pencil out, but on the East side, different story.....much closer to feasible.

We are a ways out yet, but we may get there. My wife and I are very low impact users, so it may not become a reality in my lifetime, but who knows?

I think that the solar hot water heaters might be the way to go around here, but going beyond that isn't very feasable.

Slab... Germany has a climate very similar to ours here on the "wet" side of the mountains. Solar power is now knocking on the door to take over as the primary source of electrical generation there.

Are you sayin' the Germans are more innovative than we are?