In article ,
says...

On Wed, 12 Sep 2012 16:46:43 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:32:09 -0400, iBoaterer wrote:

Even more amazing, they can be suspended in liquids and printed on
flexible materials, allowing the cells to be places on any surface. What
if your entire car was covered in these powerhouses? Bye bye, Chevron.

===

That's a bit optimistic even though the technology is interesting.

One of the credibility problems with solar power is the wildly
optimistic press releases that come out periodically. They raise
expectations to unrealistic levels which casts doubt on the whole
effort. It's always better to under promise and over deliver.

That said, with the price of solar panels down to about $1/watt, we
will be starting to see a lot more of them. I'm in the preliminary
planning stage for a small "proof of concept" project, probably a grid
tied system that will help meet our peak power needs in some small
way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid-tie_inverter


When someone can successfully power a medium sized US city 24/7 using solar
and wind then I'll be impressed. Until then we're tied to oil, coal, and
natural gas because the environmental nutters are against nuclear power.

I'm sure that when the automobile was invented that backwards thinking
people said about the same thing. I'll also bet that when electricity
became available that a lot of people said that too.

On Thu, 13 Sep 2012 12:41:01 -0400, Sarah Ehrett
wrote:

I'm in RI. Three wind turbines here have already failed and they're each
barely powering one building.

Wind Turbine Failures
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=...1024&bih =587

===

There's an interesting and well balanced reliability discussion he

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...ox-reliability

Block Island, RI has some of the highest electric rates on the east
coast and also has outstanding average wind velocity. Champlain's
Marina put in their own diesel gensets almost 30 years ago because
they felt they could generate at lower rates than the local muni plant
was charging. The demand there is highly seasonal however and
probably does not justify a big infrastructure investment like a wind
farm.

In article ,
says...

On Thu, 13 Sep 2012 12:41:01 -0400, Sarah Ehrett
wrote:

I'm in RI. Three wind turbines here have already failed and they're each
barely powering one building.

Wind Turbine Failures
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=...1024&bih =587

===

There's an interesting and well balanced reliability discussion he

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...ox-reliability

Block Island, RI has some of the highest electric rates on the east
coast and also has outstanding average wind velocity. Champlain's
Marina put in their own diesel gensets almost 30 years ago because
they felt they could generate at lower rates than the local muni plant
was charging. The demand there is highly seasonal however and
probably does not justify a big infrastructure investment like a wind
farm.

Here's some interesting stuff:

http://www.erec.org/fileadmin/erec_d...ations/global%
20energy%20grid%20scenario.pdf

In article ,
says...

On Thu, 13 Sep 2012 12:41:01 -0400, Sarah Ehrett
wrote:

I'm in RI. Three wind turbines here have already failed and they're each
barely powering one building.

Wind Turbine Failures
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=...1024&bih =587

===

There's an interesting and well balanced reliability discussion he

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...ox-reliability

Block Island, RI has some of the highest electric rates on the east
coast and also has outstanding average wind velocity. Champlain's
Marina put in their own diesel gensets almost 30 years ago because
they felt they could generate at lower rates than the local muni plant
was charging. The demand there is highly seasonal however and
probably does not justify a big infrastructure investment like a wind
farm.

Friend of my works in the energy field and he says that the wind
turbines are still have the problem of eating themselves more often than
not.

On 9/13/2012 10:05 AM, Wayne.B wrote:

There's an interesting and well balanced reliability discussion he

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...ox-reliability

Well that sucks... a simple mechanical problem is significantly altering
ROI. It's fixable however.

In article ,
says...

On Thu, 13 Sep 2012 08:35:46 -0400, iBoaterer wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Wed, 12 Sep 2012 16:46:43 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:32:09 -0400, iBoaterer wrote:

Even more amazing, they can be suspended in liquids and printed on
flexible materials, allowing the cells to be places on any surface. What
if your entire car was covered in these powerhouses? Bye bye, Chevron.

===

That's a bit optimistic even though the technology is interesting.

One of the credibility problems with solar power is the wildly
optimistic press releases that come out periodically. They raise
expectations to unrealistic levels which casts doubt on the whole
effort. It's always better to under promise and over deliver.

That said, with the price of solar panels down to about $1/watt, we
will be starting to see a lot more of them. I'm in the preliminary
planning stage for a small "proof of concept" project, probably a grid
tied system that will help meet our peak power needs in some small
way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid-tie_inverter


When someone can successfully power a medium sized US city 24/7 using solar
and wind then I'll be impressed. Until then we're tied to oil, coal, and
natural gas because the environmental nutters are against nuclear power.

I'm sure that when the automobile was invented that backwards thinking
people said about the same thing. I'll also bet that when electricity
became available that a lot of people said that too.

I'm sure they did but putting a light bulb in someone's home, or seeing a
car drive down a rutted back road was far easier to do than to power a US
city 24/7 with solar and wind power.

No, not really.

In all the years we've had solar and wind technology, where has anyone ever
used either or both to power a city the size of a medium US city? Any
where in the world, 24/7 ?

Because people are stuck thinking the only energy source is fossil
fuels.

I'm in RI. Three wind turbines here have already failed and they're each
barely powering one building.

I'm in PA and they are putting them up here and in western NY at a
staggering pace.

Wind Turbine Failures
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=...1024&bih =587

What about pollution from oil spills, on land and in oceans? What about
oilfield failures from weather, fire and such?

On Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:06:03 -0400, Sarah Ehrett
wrote:

And how about all the new electric cars we'll have to buy. Off to work
where we'll plug them in to recharge for 11 hours, then back home again to
plug them in again. With the needed electricity daily blackouts will
become lengthy and stretch all across the country.

===

Is it possible that you are slightly prone to exaggeration?