184 replies to this topic

[diogenes227]

Unable to stop the future from arriving, science and human ingenuity keeps on glowing...



WORLD'S LARGEST SOLAR-POWERED BOAT CROSSES ATLANTIC CRUISES INTO LONDON

Eco expedition

The $16 million vessel cut an impressive figure as it cruised beneath London's raised Tower Bridge, marking the end of an almost three-month scientific expedition along the Atlantic's warm Gulf Stream.

Heading off from Miami in June, the boat's team of scientists examined water and air samples, as part of their research into climate change.

Led by University of Geneva climatologist Martin Beniston -- a member of a United Nations-backed panel on climate change that won the 2007 Nobel peace prize -- they used high-tech "vacuum cleaners" to measure aerosols (fine particles in the air) and winches which plunged 200 meters below the water.

"The fact that the boat doesn't create any pollutants means what we measure is as natural as possible," said Beniston.

"And in terms of awareness-raising, we're carrying out the research in a boat which could be connected to the future and reducing our carbon footprint."

Record breaking design

It's not the first time the high-tech vessel has made headlines around the world. In May last year it also became the first solar-powered vessel to circumnavigate the globe, traveling at an average speed of five knots.

It continued to break the record books earlier this year when it made the fastest solar-powered crossing of the Atlantic -- traveling from Spain to the West Indies in 22 days and breaking its own previous record by four days.

[stocks]

How Gore & billionaires profiteer on taxpayer subsidies for solar energy

SolarCity has never recorded a profit, but powered by subsidies, its stock price is $57 a share.

SolarCity's business model is powered by government subsidies, which also fueled the 500% stock run-up and turn to profit this year of the electric-car maker Tesla. Steering both companies is Elon Musk.

In addition to being the chairman of SolarCity and CEO of Tesla, Mr. Musk is the largest shareholder in both companies. The increase in their stock prices has raised his net worth by more than $5 billion over the past year.

SolarCity's second-quarter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission notes that the company's "ability to provide solar energy systems to customers on an economically viable basis depends on our ability to finance these systems with fund investors who require particular tax and other benefits".


A thick layer of state and local incentives also supports SolarCity. California, for example, has allocated $3.3 billion in rebates for solar installations through 2016 and compensates residents between $0.20 and $0.35 cents per watt of expected performance (about 5% to 10% of the total cost of installation). San Francisco, which has a 100% renewable goal, provides additional rebates ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 per residential installation.

Meantime, school districts in California have received a total of $400 million this year for energy-efficiency projects, including window-glazing and solar-panel installations. SolarCity has contracted with school districts in Barstow, Simi Valley, Los Angeles and other cities.

SolarCity also benefits from "net metering" policies that 43 states, including California, have adopted. Utilities pay solar-panel customers the retail power rate for the solar power they generate but don't use and then export to the grid. Retail rates can be two to three times as high as the wholesale price of electricity because transmission and delivery costs, along with taxes and other surcharges that fund state renewable programs, are baked in.

So in California, solar ratepayers on average are credited about 16 cents per kilowatt hour on their electric bills for the excess energy they generate—even though utilities could buy that power at less than half the cost from other types of power generators.


http://hockeyschtick...ofiteer-on.html

[diogenes227]

How Gore & billionaires profiteer on taxpayer subsidies for solar energy

SolarCity has never recorded a profit, but powered by subsidies, its stock price is $57 a share.

SolarCity's business model is powered by government subsidies, which also fueled the 500% stock run-up and turn to profit this year of the electric-car maker Tesla. Steering both companies is Elon Musk.

In addition to being the chairman of SolarCity and CEO of Tesla, Mr. Musk is the largest shareholder in both companies. The increase in their stock prices has raised his net worth by more than $5 billion over the past year.

SolarCity's second-quarter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission notes that the company's "ability to provide solar energy systems to customers on an economically viable basis depends on our ability to finance these systems with fund investors who require particular tax and other benefits".


A thick layer of state and local incentives also supports SolarCity. California, for example, has allocated $3.3 billion in rebates for solar installations through 2016 and compensates residents between $0.20 and $0.35 cents per watt of expected performance (about 5% to 10% of the total cost of installation). San Francisco, which has a 100% renewable goal, provides additional rebates ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 per residential installation.

Meantime, school districts in California have received a total of $400 million this year for energy-efficiency projects, including window-glazing and solar-panel installations. SolarCity has contracted with school districts in Barstow, Simi Valley, Los Angeles and other cities.

SolarCity also benefits from "net metering" policies that 43 states, including California, have adopted. Utilities pay solar-panel customers the retail power rate for the solar power they generate but don't use and then export to the grid. Retail rates can be two to three times as high as the wholesale price of electricity because transmission and delivery costs, along with taxes and other surcharges that fund state renewable programs, are baked in.

So in California, solar ratepayers on average are credited about 16 cents per kilowatt hour on their electric bills for the excess energy they generate—even though utilities could buy that power at less than half the cost from other types of power generators.


http://hockeyschtick...ofiteer-on.html

More of the same.

Energy Subsidies Favor Fossil Fuels Over Renewables

And lot of the renewable subsidies go to what actually be a scam, ethanol!

But again, to get this back on topic, which stock would you have rather owned this year sluggard Exxon-Mobile or illustrious Solar City?

You know, stocks, you could actually make some if you'd quit believing what you believe and accept some reality. You are so stuck in last century.

[stocks]

Germany's Green Energy Fiasco

Germany came perilously close to a network breakdown in a February cold snap due to errors in the forecasts for
balancing power made by suppliers

In Germany, 75 percent of electricity goes to industry, for which a secure supply -- that is, at every second, and with constant voltage -- is indispensable. Neither solar nor wind power are suitable for that purpose today. Both fluctuate and provide either no secure supply or only a small fraction of a secure supply

Grid fluctuations lead to very unpleasant systemic effects. We have voltage fluctuations within the grid that create problems for industry. Or we overload the grids in neighboring countries. Poland is in the process of installing technical equipment to protect its grids by keeping out surplus German electricity.

Modern industrial power grids cannot tolerate the huge moment-to-moment energy fluctuations of intermittent unreliable energy sources such as big wind and big solar. Whenever attempting a large scale conversion to "green power," initial economic costs are exorbitant. The cost of the power plants themselves, the cost of new power grid infrastructure, and the huge cost of maintaining spinning backup power sources. And then there is the cost to society as lower and middle income customers strain to pay skyrocketing power bills.

But the real costs of such an ideologically driven, top-down attempt to transform a national power grid and power supply, begin to emerge as the unreliables approach 20% or more of total power capacity to the grid. The violent and unpredictable intermittency of big wind power in particular, leads to power failures -- blackouts, brownouts, selective shutdowns of power customers, etc.



http://alfin2300.blo...re-problem.html

German Solar Insanity, Wind Insanity

In 2012, solar had a capacity factor of just 11 percent. The capacity factor of German wind was 17 percent. By comparison, fossil-fueled plants can achieve capacity factors of 80 percent or more. And electricity production from Germany’s 12 GW of nuclear capacity in 2012 was 99 TWh, a capacity factor of 94 percent.

Wind and solar can never fully replace nuclear power, because they can’t equal the reliability of nuclear reactors. The main job of the new fossil-fueled plants is not to retire grungy old coal boilers, but to replace nukes with grungy new coal boilers. To see why, we have to consider the distinction between dispatchable and intermittent generators.

“Dispatchable” generators—nuclear, coal, gas, hydro, and biomass— can ramp up and down on command to match their power output with current electricity demand. Unfortunately, wind turbines and photovoltaic panels can’t do that. They generate power when the wind and sun decree, often going dead when electricity is needed and then overproducing when it isn’t. These “intermittent” generators result in “common-mode failure”: night, winter, summer, and passing weather fronts cause swathes of generators to fizzle all at once, for weeks on end, on a continental and even hemispheric scale.

How will a Germany run largely on wind and solar generators survive the long periods when they shut down completely in the dead of winter?

To escape long blackouts many times a year, Germany is planning to back up every gigawatt of wind and solar average capacity with another gigawatt of gas or coal. As it builds its intermittent fleet it will not be able to shut down existing fossil-fueled plants; they will remain in service, complete with staff, maintenance, and overhead expenses and the infrastructure of transmission lines, coal mines, and gas pipelines. And because the dispatchable nuclear generators that could have backed up wind and solar are being shuttered, additional coal and gas plants must be built to take their place—as we see happening now.



http://thebreakthrou...en-energy-bust/

European Economic Stability Threatened By Renewable Energy Subsidies

The stability of Europe’s electricity generation is at risk from the warped market structure caused by skyrocketing renewable energy subsidies that have swarmed across the continent over the last decade.

This sentiment was echoed a week ago by the CEOs of Europe’s largest energy companies, who produce almost half of Europe’s electricity. This group joined voices calling for an end to subsidies for wind and solar power, saying the subsidies have led to unacceptably high utility bills for residences and businesses, and even risk causing continent-wide blackouts

The group includes Germany’s E.ON AG, France’s GDF Suez SA and Italy’s Eni SpA, and they unanimously pointed the finger at European governments’ poorly thought-out decision at the turn of the millennium to promote renewable energy by any means.


http://www.forbes.co...ergy-subsidies/

[stocks]

Spain, China, Germany etc are finding out -- Solar energy is a gigantic waste of capital

At the bottom of the energy efficiency barrel there lies solar – the most inefficient, least reliable and expensive form of power we have. Directly converting the sun’s rays into electricity is a horribly inefficient way to generate power simply because the energy – in that form – is so disperse. The energy density, in other words, is very, very low. There is no way to change that fact, or the fact that the sun doesn’t shine all the time.

Solar power is not and cannot be a major player in the direct generation of electric power. That is the simple, scientific reality.


link

"Renewable energy" has entered it's death spiral - the snowball is rolling downhill and picking up speed

Clean Energy Investment Headed for Second Annual Decline

Clean-energy investment fell 14 percent in the third quarter from the prior three months as Europe curbed subsidies and cheaper U.S. natural gas lured investment.

The $45.9 billion spent makes it “almost certain” that annual investment in renewables and energy-smart technologies will fall for the second consecutive year from $281 billion in 2012, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in a statement.

Investment in the quarter was 20 percent lower than the same period last year as spending in China, the U.S. and Europe fell. The U.S. saw the largest decline, sliding 41 percent to $5.5 billion, according to the London-based research company.



http://www.bloomberg...al-decline.html

[Rogerdodger]

Feds Seek Company to Turn Sunshine Into Gasoline...

It is not known yet which political funds bundlers will get the multi-million dollar Solyndra-type contract.

In the meanwhile ocean organisms bathed in sunlight continue to turn carbon into vast quantities of natural, organic fuel, as they have done for millions of years...with no government funding.

"Cyanobacteria, an ocean-dwelling, one-celled organism fixes, or digests, carbon. These bacteria build miniature factories inside themselves that turn carbon into fuel."
Drill baby Drill.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 02 November 2013 - 09:36 AM.

[Rogerdodger]

Haters hate the free market, but a free market would have never invested in this money hole.
But even if it did, it would not be at the expense of taxpayers and for the profit of government cronies.

Shades of SOLYNDRA: Feds stayed mum as another green energy firm went bust...
November 5, 2013
Failing to heed the lessons of the Solyndra debacle, Energy Department officials kept quiet about their knowledge that a government-backed electric car charger company was sliding toward bankruptcy and putting taxpayer money at risk, the agency’s chief watchdog has found.
Inspector General Greg Friedman admonished department officials for failing to disclose during an audit this summer what they knew about San Francisco-based Ecotality’s financial troubles and the possibility that the firm might not meet the terms of its taxpayer funding. The company received $100 million in aid from the 2009 stimulus.
Ecotality filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 16, but officials at the Energy Department failed to give the inspector general notice in the months leading up to the bankruptcy.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 06 November 2013 - 09:52 AM.

[Rogerdodger]

The FED hates pipelines of natural, organic fuel because they might hurt the feelings of lizards.
Meanwhile green worshiping wind and solar are killing untold numbers of endangered species.

That's pure irrational, blind religious dogma on display.
But any sacrifice to Gaia will be rewarded by her divine and mysterious blessings.

Solar Panels Fry Birds Along Major Migration Path...

Birds are dying in one of two ways. In some cases, they imagine the shining solar panels to be bodies of water and dive straight into them. There they die when they smash into the panels from the sky.
Others "feel the wrath of the harnessed sunlight." The ultra polished solar mirrors bounce sunrays strong enough to burn the feathers off birds that quickly crash to the ground, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Many of the fowl dying as a result of their unfortunate flight paths over solar facilities are birds protected by the federal government under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
There are also thousands of birds killed by wind turbine farms throughout the country. This means that untold numbers of birds, some of them protected species, are being killed by green energy.

Solar bird cooker:

Edited by Rogerdodger, 15 November 2013 - 09:44 AM.

[stocks]

Germany's Green Energy Fiasco

Modern industrial power grids cannot tolerate the huge moment-to-moment energy fluctuations of intermittent unreliable energy sources such as big wind and big solar. Whenever attempting a large scale conversion to "green power," initial economic costs are exorbitant. The cost of the power plants themselves, the cost of new power grid infrastructure, and the huge cost of maintaining spinning backup power sources. And then there is the cost to society as lower and middle income customers strain to pay skyrocketing power bills.

But the real costs of such an ideologically driven, top-down attempt to transform a national power grid and power supply, begin to emerge as the unreliables approach 20% or more of total power capacity to the grid. The violent and unpredictable intermittency of big wind power in particular, leads to power failures -- blackouts, brownouts, selective shutdowns of power customers, etc.


http://alfin2300.blo...re-problem.html

German Solar Insanity, Wind Insanity

In 2012, solar had a capacity factor of just 11 percent. The capacity factor of German wind was 17 percent. By comparison, fossil-fueled plants can achieve capacity factors of 80 percent or more. And electricity production from Germany’s 12 GW of nuclear capacity in 2012 was 99 TWh, a capacity factor of 94 percent.

Wind and solar can never fully replace nuclear power, because they can’t equal the reliability of nuclear reactors. The main job of the new fossil-fueled plants is not to retire grungy old coal boilers, but to replace nukes with grungy new coal boilers. To see why, we have to consider the distinction between dispatchable and intermittent generators.

“Dispatchable” generators—nuclear, coal, gas, hydro, and biomass— can ramp up and down on command to match their power output with current electricity demand. Unfortunately, wind turbines and photovoltaic panels can’t do that. They generate power when the wind and sun decree, often going dead when electricity is needed and then overproducing when it isn’t. These “intermittent” generators result in “common-mode failure”: night, winter, summer, and passing weather fronts cause swathes of generators to fizzle all at once, for weeks on end, on a continental and even hemispheric scale.

How will a Germany run largely on wind and solar generators survive the long periods when they shut down completely in the dead of winter?

To escape long blackouts many times a year, Germany is planning to back up every gigawatt of wind and solar average capacity with another gigawatt of gas or coal. As it builds its intermittent fleet it will not be able to shut down existing fossil-fueled plants; they will remain in service, complete with staff, maintenance, and overhead expenses and the infrastructure of transmission lines, coal mines, and gas pipelines. And because the dispatchable nuclear generators that could have backed up wind and solar are being shuttered, additional coal and gas plants must be built to take their place—as we see happening now.


http://thebreakthrou...en-energy-bust/

Germany’s Greens help the coal industry, while the US cut emissions by ignoring the greens

The coal industry must be praying for more Green activism:

“IT’S been a black Christmas for green thinkers as Germany, the world leader in rooftop solar and pride of the renewable energy revolution has confirmed its rapid return to coal.

“…new figures show that coal power output in 2013 reached its highest level in more than 20 years.

The stats: Germany is using almost as much coal as it did in 1990:

It’s the dirtiest kind of coal increasing the most

The reason coal is so popular is because coal is cheap and (oh the irony) because of the Green anti-nuclear stance.

China, meanwhile, last year approved new coal production of more than 100 million tons and has plans to add another 860 million tons by 2015.

India is set to follow China, and the IEA says coal is the fossil fuel nearly everybody wants.



http://joannenova.co...ing-the-greens/

[Rogerdodger]

GREEN COLLAPSE: Europe to Ditch Climate Protection Goals; Pave Way for Fracking...
"The climate is no longer of much importance to the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, either. Commission sources have long been hinting that the body intends to move away from ambitious climate protection goals."

Edited by Rogerdodger, 19 January 2014 - 08:49 PM.