Solar energy is dead

[mdn2000]

Now be honest and tell the forum how much water is used for oil shale and tar sands. It dwarfs the amount alleged in your faux concern above, OP.

Just what IS with the boner you guys have for ever-dirtier hydro-carbon energy? You'll learn soon enough just what's at play here.

Shhhh

ASPO-USA: Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas

My point made again, you have to use fossil fuels, no choice, Solar energy needs fossil fuel to manufacturer the panels, so you are going to burn more fossil fuels to make the millions of square miles of panels you propose, that creates more demand for water.

Water as everyone knows is scarce in the desert, there is a drought in California and Arizona.

Burn fossil fuels to make solar panels to make electricity, its best just to use the electricity from fossil fuels to power industry and homes. It is less wasteful.

How come every agency posted, every study, is all funded with tax money. My money.

 

[mdn2000]

Famous last words.

Betting against green technologies is a bet against human and American ingenuity. Silicon Valley is pouring billions of dollars into green technologies. Don't know when they will become economically viable but economically viable they will become.

That not exactly how ROI works.

This from the camp that never factors in the full costs of fossil fuel extraction, including environmental damage, when figuring out honest EROEI for oil, gas and coal.

This damage is greater when you have to use fossil fuel to manufacturer a weak source of power such as solar.

Why are you not factoring this fact into Solar research and Solar panel manufacturer.

 

[rdean]

NASA isn't going to be throwing off any technology anymore that it hasn't had for 20 years, or wasn't co-developed for the military.

Press releases from government aren't research.

I don't know. I went to White Sands for two weeks. The company I worked for signed a contract with NASO to work on a Cone Calorimeter which is used to verify that materials in an O2 enriched environment aren't flammable. They had astronauts die because of a fire that occurred with O2 enrichment. There are two problems with a fire in such an environment. Once it gets started, it's difficult to put out and second are the toxic gases found in the effluence.

Everyone that goes there has to sign an agreement that they won't talk about what they've been shown. But I can tell you this, put a lot a brilliant scientists out in the desert and they are thrilled to show anyone that shows up what they are working on, even a lowly engineer like me. I spent a week working and a week touring. They would just come and get you. It's not like you would want to say no and not everything is "secret".

Funny, there are two rovers on Mars that have been operating for years. Not bad for people who aren't developing any "technology", wouldn't you say?

NASA - Budget Documents, Strategic Plans and Performance Reports

I like guns and rockets and extraterrestrial rovers, but that's not technology with any consumer throwoff.
Google stands a better chance of delivering energy and technology solutions consumers will accept.

That's a joke, right?

The Space Place :: Inventions (Spinoffs) from Space

50 Consumer Technologies Developed by NASA in the Last 50 Years

http://gizmodo.com/5061120/50-consumer-technologies-developed-by-nasa-in-the-last-50-years

 

[mdn2000]

All large scale power generating plants require huge amounts of water. I would say any power generating plants except for hydro would face this problem in the southwest. This of course is one the advantages of wind power.

Water used in power plants for cooling is not actually consumed. True some of the water is lost to evaporation but much of the water can be returned to it's source for other uses. I think there is a lot more to this story than what's reported in this thread.

Hydro uses the most water, that is why its called Hydro.

Water for Solar is not an idea or concern, its a reality, today we have no water for the Solar power plants.

It is also not an advantage of wind power, you use massive amounts of fossil fuels to make fiberglass, that takes huge amounts of water. You think making weak inferior energy sources has no impact on the environment. The least you can do is think your idea through.

 

[mdn2000]

Thats right, Solar is dead, non sustainable.

Seems someone forgot about the lack of water in the Arizona and California desert

http://ndep.nv.gov/news/temp_news/water093009.pdf

September 30, 2009
Alternative Energy Projects Stumble on a
Need for Water
By TODD WOODY

In California, solar developers have already been forced to switch to less water-intensive
technologies when local officials have refused to turn on the tap. Other big solar projects
are mired in disputes with state regulators over water consumption.
To date, the flashpoint for such conflicts has been the Southwest, where dozens of
multibillion-dollar solar power plants are planned for thousands of acres of desert.

I think that is sufficient to begin. All solar power plants consume water, at the very least each plant must keep the mirrors or collectors clean of dust, there is a lot of dust in the desert. The water required to clean one solar power plant is millions of gallons of water.

Add the drought in California, the over use of the Colorado river, depleting the aquifers, the better use of water in agricultural food production.

Solar energy is dead.

Oh Really. Today over eight thousand megawatts of power in Germany is supplied by solar power. At the current rate of expansion, solar power will provide 25% of the power needs of the country by 2050. By the end of the century most of the electric power in the country will be provide by the sun. If technological breakthroughs occur, which are most probably Germany could be completely energy independent by the middle of this century.

Unless policies in the US change, it seem likely that United States in 2050 will be even more dependent on fossil fuels and foreign oil than are now.

Solar power in Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit
Germany Gets Creative with Renewables : TreeHugger

Wikipedia, you got to be kidding, so you are learning as you go.

Oil is needed for Solar panel manufacturer, you use the negative impact of fossil fuel as a reason Solar is better when Solar needs massive amounts of fossil fuel.

You could just as easily googled the negative impact of the solar energy plants in germany and spain.

Right now Germany and Spain are halting their Solar energy plans.

Spain's economy is real bad because of investment in Solar. Go ahead, use your google.

Your cut and paste is old, Germany and Spain are cutting the funds, stopping the use of solar.

and again, Solar is 100% dependent on fossil fuel, it can never end our "dependence" on energy, Solar uses more energy so it increases "dependence".

 

[edthecynic]

Thats right, Solar is dead, non sustainable.

Seems someone forgot about the lack of water in the Arizona and California desert

http://ndep.nv.gov/news/temp_news/water093009.pdf

I think that is sufficient to begin. All solar power plants consume water, at the very least each plant must keep the mirrors or collectors clean of dust, there is a lot of dust in the desert. The water required to clean one solar power plant is millions of gallons of water.

Add the drought in California, the over use of the Colorado river, depleting the aquifers, the better use of water in agricultural food production.

Solar energy is dead.

Oh Really. Today over eight thousand megawatts of power in Germany is supplied by solar power. At the current rate of expansion, solar power will provide 25% of the power needs of the country by 2050. By the end of the century most of the electric power in the country will be provide by the sun. If technological breakthroughs occur, which are most probably Germany could be completely energy independent by the middle of this century.

Unless policies in the US change, it seem likely that United States in 2050 will be even more dependent on fossil fuels and foreign oil than are now.

Solar power in Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit
Germany Gets Creative with Renewables : TreeHugger

Wikipedia, you got to be kidding, so you are learning as you go.

Oil is needed for Solar panel manufacturer, you use the negative impact of fossil fuel as a reason Solar is better when Solar needs massive amounts of fossil fuel.

You could just as easily googled the negative impact of the solar energy plants in germany and spain.

Right now Germany and Spain are halting their Solar energy plans.

Spain's economy is real bad because of investment in Solar. Go ahead, use your google.

Your cut and paste is old, Germany and Spain are cutting the funds, stopping the use of solar.

and again, Solar is 100% dependent on fossil fuel, it can never end our "dependence" on energy, Solar uses more energy so it increases "dependence".

BioSolar Solar Panels - Solar Panels Made from Plants - The Daily Green

Plant-Based Solar Panels to Remove Oil from the Equation
BioSolar is producing components for solar panels made from plant-derived plastics.

BioSolar starts with recycled cotton and castor beans, and produces a protective backing for solar cells. Its product is intended as a competitor to Tedlar, a petroleum-derived film made by DuPont that is the industry standard for silicon-based solar cells. And it's 25% cheaper, too.

Oil Rig of the Future: A Solar Panel That Produces Oil: Scientific American

Oil Rig of the Future: A Solar Panel That Produces Oil
Researchers propose a novel approach to producing biofuel using diatoms

The researchers propose creating a biological solar panel, which will contain diatoms instead of photovoltaic cells. Diatoms would float about in a nutrient-rich water solution and produce oil when exposed to sunlight.

A Solar-Powered Oil Field? - NYTimes.com

BrightSource Energy has broken ground on a 29-megawatt solar steam plant at a Chevron oil field in Coalinga, Calif.

The 100-acre project’s 7,000 mirrors will focus sunlight on a water-filled boiler that sits atop a 323-foot tower to produce hot, high-pressure steam.

In a conventional solar power plant, the steam drives a turbine to generate electricity. In this case, the steam will be injected into oil wells to enhance production by heating thick petroleum so it flows more freely. Oil companies typically rely on steam generated by natural gas or other fossil fuels to maximize oil recovery in places like the oil patch in California’s Fresno and Kern counties, where the petroleum is heavy and gooey.

My Brain Hurts — Solar Powered Oil Fields are Coming – CleanTechnica

It’s a little hard to wrap your head around this one, but global oil giant Chevron (yes, that Chevron) has just announced plans to install a solar power system at the Kern River oil field in California. This ain’t no small potatoes, either. All together, Kern River is the fifth largest oil field in the U.S. and Chevron’s solar array will consist of 7, 700 solar panels, according to Reuters. The system is designed to generate 740 kilowatts of electricity to run Chevron’s oil pumps and pipelines at the field.

The Kern River solar array is just one piece of a $2 billion investment Chevron plans for solar and alternative energy. That’s a tidy little chunk of the oil company’s change, which seems to indicate that the company sees the writing on the wall for fossil fuels. Not that oil will disappear, just that the potential returns from solar power and other alternative energy in the retail market are starting to look mighty attractive. Once again, follow the money…

Chevron and Solar Power

The 8-acre Kern River site will serve as a test ground for seven different types of solar energy that could be deployed at Chevron’s facilities worldwide, as detailed in a recent Los Angeles Times story. That’s actually old news; according to the Times, Chevron started using solar at its facilities since 1992.

Chevron as a Solar Power Supplier

Chevron isn’t only using solar to pump more fossil fuels. It’s also becoming a solar installer and supplier. Last month the company announced that it is building a solar array in Mexico, on a 20-acre mine tailing site that it owns. Solar energy from the installation will be sold to the local grid. The company is also building a 3.7 megawatt solar project in partnership with a school district in San Jose, California. The company has become quite the solar expert and will do the project from soup to nuts, including designing, building, and operating it, as well as assessing its performance. If Chevron gets out of the oil business it won’t be any time soon, but it’s sure positioning itself to follow the money out of fossil fuels when the time comes.

 

[Revere]

If energy policy is left to government, you'll get the equivalent of the Trabant and the rotary phone.

 

[Flopper]

Thats right, Solar is dead, non sustainable.

Seems someone forgot about the lack of water in the Arizona and California desert

http://ndep.nv.gov/news/temp_news/water093009.pdf







I think that is sufficient to begin. All solar power plants consume water, at the very least each plant must keep the mirrors or collectors clean of dust, there is a lot of dust in the desert. The water required to clean one solar power plant is millions of gallons of water.

Add the drought in California, the over use of the Colorado river, depleting the aquifers, the better use of water in agricultural food production.

Solar energy is dead.

Oh Really. Today over eight thousand megawatts of power in Germany is supplied by solar power. At the current rate of expansion, solar power will provide 25% of the power needs of the country by 2050. By the end of the century most of the electric power in the country will be provide by the sun. If technological breakthroughs occur, which are most probably Germany could be completely energy independent by the middle of this century.

Unless policies in the US change, it seem likely that United States in 2050 will be even more dependent on fossil fuels and foreign oil than are now.

Solar power in Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit
Germany Gets Creative with Renewables : TreeHugger

Wikipedia, you got to be kidding, so you are learning as you go.

Oil is needed for Solar panel manufacturer, you use the negative impact of fossil fuel as a reason Solar is better when Solar needs massive amounts of fossil fuel.

You could just as easily googled the negative impact of the solar energy plants in germany and spain.

Right now Germany and Spain are halting their Solar energy plans.

Spain's economy is real bad because of investment in Solar. Go ahead, use your google.

Your cut and paste is old, Germany and Spain are cutting the funds, stopping the use of solar.

and again, Solar is 100% dependent on fossil fuel, it can never end our "dependence" on energy, Solar uses more energy so it increases "dependence".

Nope

The law, which both the German parliament and Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet are to consider in the coming weeks, would cut state-guaranteed prices by 15 percent for energy produced by solar panels on open ground. It would also cut prices by 16 percent for solar panels on roofs, where 80 percent of solar panels in Germany are, and eliminate subsidies for panels placed on arable land. A previous plan by Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen was criticized for not going far enough.
"The objective is to reduce excessive stimulation without hindering an expansion of green energy."
Germany to cut subsidies for solar energy | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 23.02.2010

Spain is one of the most advanced countries in use of solar energy. Just short of 3% of Spain's electric power comes from solar. Considering the financial situation in Europe it is not surprising that Spain would cut back on subsidies. Solar power in Spain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a far cry from your ridiculous claim that they halted solar energy plans.

There is some truth in your claim that oil is used to manufacture solar panels but since the life of a solar is at least 20 to 25 years, the small amount of oil used in the manufacture is no consequence when you consider the amount of energy produced. Panels using Castor beans and cottonseed oil are now coming on the market.
Miss Solar, Solar Panel, Photovoltaic, PV, Solar module, Solar Battery Charges, Solar Brick, Solar Lights
BioSolar Solar Panels - Solar Panels Made from Plants - The Daily Green

 

[uscitizen]

Now be honest and tell the forum how much water is used for oil shale and tar sands. It dwarfs the amount alleged in your faux concern above, OP.

Just what IS with the boner you guys have for ever-dirtier hydro-carbon energy? You'll learn soon enough just what's at play here.

Shhhh

ASPO-USA: Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas

My point made again, you have to use fossil fuels, no choice, Solar energy needs fossil fuel to manufacturer the panels, so you are going to burn more fossil fuels to make the millions of square miles of panels you propose, that creates more demand for water.

Water as everyone knows is scarce in the desert, there is a drought in California and Arizona.

Burn fossil fuels to make solar panels to make electricity, its best just to use the electricity from fossil fuels to power industry and homes. It is less wasteful.

How come every agency posted, every study, is all funded with tax money. My money.

LOL, you do not pay nearly enough in taxes. You might have bought the project a sheet of paper form your tax contribution, but I doubt even that much.

 

[Revere]

Nobody in this country is undertaxed.

 

[Trajan]

Famous last words.

Betting against green technologies is a bet against human and American ingenuity. Silicon Valley is pouring billions of dollars into green technologies. Don't know when they will become economically viable but economically viable they will become.

actually they are not going to go much further. In the thread I created a few days ago, (search- 'solyndra') I have linked to an article which has commentary from the biggest VC grp. here in the valley.

Included is a brief on the tech. involved, we are not close, at all.

 

[Trajan]

Oh Really. Today over eight thousand megawatts of power in Germany is supplied by solar power. At the current rate of expansion, solar power will provide 25% of the power needs of the country by 2050. By the end of the century most of the electric power in the country will be provide by the sun. If technological breakthroughs occur, which are most probably Germany could be completely energy independent by the middle of this century.

Unless policies in the US change, it seem likely that United States in 2050 will be even more dependent on fossil fuels and foreign oil than are now.

Solar power in Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit
Germany Gets Creative with Renewables : TreeHugger

Wikipedia, you got to be kidding, so you are learning as you go.

Oil is needed for Solar panel manufacturer, you use the negative impact of fossil fuel as a reason Solar is better when Solar needs massive amounts of fossil fuel.

You could just as easily googled the negative impact of the solar energy plants in germany and spain.

Right now Germany and Spain are halting their Solar energy plans.

Spain's economy is real bad because of investment in Solar. Go ahead, use your google.

Your cut and paste is old, Germany and Spain are cutting the funds, stopping the use of solar.

and again, Solar is 100% dependent on fossil fuel, it can never end our "dependence" on energy, Solar uses more energy so it increases "dependence".

BioSolar Solar Panels - Solar Panels Made from Plants - The Daily Green

Plant-Based Solar Panels to Remove Oil from the Equation
BioSolar is producing components for solar panels made from plant-derived plastics.

BioSolar starts with recycled cotton and castor beans, and produces a protective backing for solar cells. Its product is intended as a competitor to Tedlar, a petroleum-derived film made by DuPont that is the industry standard for silicon-based solar cells. And it's 25% cheaper, too.

Oil Rig of the Future: A Solar Panel That Produces Oil: Scientific American

Oil Rig of the Future: A Solar Panel That Produces Oil
Researchers propose a novel approach to producing biofuel using diatoms

The researchers propose creating a biological solar panel, which will contain diatoms instead of photovoltaic cells. Diatoms would float about in a nutrient-rich water solution and produce oil when exposed to sunlight.

A Solar-Powered Oil Field? - NYTimes.com

BrightSource Energy has broken ground on a 29-megawatt solar steam plant at a Chevron oil field in Coalinga, Calif.

The 100-acre project’s 7,000 mirrors will focus sunlight on a water-filled boiler that sits atop a 323-foot tower to produce hot, high-pressure steam.

In a conventional solar power plant, the steam drives a turbine to generate electricity. In this case, the steam will be injected into oil wells to enhance production by heating thick petroleum so it flows more freely. Oil companies typically rely on steam generated by natural gas or other fossil fuels to maximize oil recovery in places like the oil patch in California’s Fresno and Kern counties, where the petroleum is heavy and gooey.

My Brain Hurts — Solar Powered Oil Fields are Coming – CleanTechnica

It’s a little hard to wrap your head around this one, but global oil giant Chevron (yes, that Chevron) has just announced plans to install a solar power system at the Kern River oil field in California. This ain’t no small potatoes, either. All together, Kern River is the fifth largest oil field in the U.S. and Chevron’s solar array will consist of 7, 700 solar panels, according to Reuters. The system is designed to generate 740 kilowatts of electricity to run Chevron’s oil pumps and pipelines at the field.

The Kern River solar array is just one piece of a $2 billion investment Chevron plans for solar and alternative energy. That’s a tidy little chunk of the oil company’s change, which seems to indicate that the company sees the writing on the wall for fossil fuels. Not that oil will disappear, just that the potential returns from solar power and other alternative energy in the retail market are starting to look mighty attractive. Once again, follow the money…

Chevron and Solar Power

The 8-acre Kern River site will serve as a test ground for seven different types of solar energy that could be deployed at Chevron’s facilities worldwide, as detailed in a recent Los Angeles Times story. That’s actually old news; according to the Times, Chevron started using solar at its facilities since 1992.

Chevron as a Solar Power Supplier

Chevron isn’t only using solar to pump more fossil fuels. It’s also becoming a solar installer and supplier. Last month the company announced that it is building a solar array in Mexico, on a 20-acre mine tailing site that it owns. Solar energy from the installation will be sold to the local grid. The company is also building a 3.7 megawatt solar project in partnership with a school district in San Jose, California. The company has become quite the solar expert and will do the project from soup to nuts, including designing, building, and operating it, as well as assessing its performance. If Chevron gets out of the oil business it won’t be any time soon, but it’s sure positioning itself to follow the money out of fossil fuels when the time comes.

how much energy nation wide on a corporate scale, do you think ( or does the articles if they do, state) this will net out to as a savings, or that as a supplement, taking up the slack and adding to what we use as compared to other sources now? 2%, 5%...10%?


Oh and when they actually get it up and running let me know, the last time they tried to get variances in California for the transmission lines necessary to carry the output to urban areas they got stopped cold.

 

[Flopper]

All large scale power generating plants require huge amounts of water. I would say any power generating plants except for hydro would face this problem in the southwest. This of course is one the advantages of wind power.

Water used in power plants for cooling is not actually consumed. True some of the water is lost to evaporation but much of the water can be returned to it's source for other uses. I think there is a lot more to this story than what's reported in this thread.

Hydro uses the most water, that is why its called Hydro.

Water for Solar is not an idea or concern, its a reality, today we have no water for the Solar power plants.

It is also not an advantage of wind power, you use massive amounts of fossil fuels to make fiberglass, that takes huge amounts of water. You think making weak inferior energy sources has no impact on the environment. The least you can do is think your idea through.

Again you are neglecting to consider the life of the wind turbine and it's energy output which far out ways the detrimental aspect of the petroleum used to manufacture it.

A wind turbine typically lasts around 20-25 years. During this time, as with a car, some parts may need replacing.

The very first of the mass-produced turbines celebrated its 20th birthday in May 2000. The Vestas 30kW machine has operated steadily throughout its lifetime, with none of the major components needing to be replaced. A wind turbine typically lasts around 20-25 years. During this time, as with a car, some parts may need replacing.

The very first of the mass-produced turbines celebrated its 20th birthday in May 2000. The Vestas 30kW machine has operated steadily throughout its lifetime, with none of the major components needing to be replaced. Even after 25 years the most likely overhaul is the replacement of the power generator and bearings. No, petroleum used in the manufacture is of little consequence when you consider the power produced and the life expectancy.

RenewableUK - Frequently Asked Questions

 

[Toro]

Famous last words.

Betting against green technologies is a bet against human and American ingenuity. Silicon Valley is pouring billions of dollars into green technologies. Don't know when they will become economically viable but economically viable they will become.

actually they are not going to go much further. In the thread I created a few days ago, (search- 'solyndra') I have linked to an article which has commentary from the biggest VC grp. here in the valley.

Included is a brief on the tech. involved, we are not close, at all.

Oh, I agree. We are still some ways off.

 

[edthecynic]

Nobody in this country is undertaxed.

Not according to your MessiahRushie! The truly wealthy pay no taxes and CON$ habitually complain that about 50% pay no income taxes.

August 7, 2007
CALLER: And, you know, and the way our tax system works, we have an overly complex system, which in and of itself is a problem, but the way our tax system works and the way the tax laws are written, it's based on a few kind of like hinge numbers like adjusted gross income and taxable income, and while the soak the rich -- or however you choose to describe it -- really doesn't come down that way. It really comes down to much lower income levels.

RUSH: It does, exactly, and here's the dirty little secret if you ever to pull it off. It's hard. This is why most people don't understand the tax-the-rich business. You've got to structure your life so you have no "earned" income. I'm out of time. I'll explain that. There's a category called earned income versus other kinds of income. Earned income is what the income tax rate is on. That's how "the rich" do it. They don't have "earned" income.
END TRANSCRIPT

47% of Tea Partiers Pay No Federal Income Taxes! - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic

Taxed Enough Already? Or not taxed at all?
One of the striking ironies of Fox News running with the statistic that 47% of Americans might not owe federal income taxes is that Fox News also moonlights as the unofficial station of the Tea Party movement, which clamors for lower taxes. You might ask: half of the country pays no income tax, how much lower do you want? Here's a more troubling point: if the Tea Party movement has a similar share of Americans making under $50,000 as the broader population (as a recent Gallup poll suggests), then why is this movement rallying under the banner "Taxed Enough Already!" when half of them aren't taxed at all?

Forty-five percent of self-identified "Tea Partiers" make less than $50,000 per year, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll. Similarly, 50% of the total population makes less than $50,000 in the same poll. Despite this author's lack of direct access to the tax returns of the Tea Party movement, it seems safe to assume that if about half the country avoids federal income taxes, a similar percentage of the Tea Party movement gets away with the same even as they march and scream about their tax burden.
This is a gotcha point. But it's a gotcha point worth making, if only to shine light on the sad intellectual bankruptcy of the Tea Party, a political movement that has taken over the news cycle like a particularly aggressive strain of ragweed. Tea Partiers want lower income taxes. But many of them probably don't pay income taxes. If we listen to them and bring even more Americans into the zero-income tax pool, we would only concentrate more of the tax burden on wealthy earners ... which conservatives are against. Tea Party apologists on TV will explain that what they're really asking for is lower rates and a broader tax base to diffuse America's tax responsibility. But if half the Tea Party doesn't pay income taxes today, a broader tax base -- even with minuscule rates -- would raise many of their taxes!

 

[Oddball]

Nobody said anything about Limpbagh and income taxes aren't the only taxes people pay.

Your text wall of misdirection and obfuscation fails.

 

[Big Fitz]

Nobody said anything about Limpbagh and income taxes aren't the only taxes people pay.

Your text wall of misdirection and obfuscation fails.

Oh my gawd! Revere just hit the tripwire and blew up the entire thread with a EdtheCretin Limbaugh rant.

Look at him go, now the whole thread will have to repeat the obstacle course over again.

 

[Charles_Main]

I actually just ordered some panels to install on my roof. Don't tell me it's dead. I don't think I can get a refund now

 

[fyrenza]

Thats right, Solar is dead, non sustainable.

Seems someone forgot about the lack of water in the Arizona and California desert

... links ...

I think that is sufficient to begin. All solar power plants consume water, at the very least each plant must keep the mirrors or collectors clean of dust, there is a lot of dust in the desert. The water required to clean one solar power plant is millions of gallons of water.

Add the drought in California, the over use of the Colorado river, depleting the aquifers, the better use of water in agricultural food production.

Solar energy is dead.

Well, we knew the Greenies weren't exactly Rocket Scientists, eh?

(Got a FAB smilie for that, too: )

OOPS!

 

[mdn2000]

Oh Really. Today over eight thousand megawatts of power in Germany is supplied by solar power. At the current rate of expansion, solar power will provide 25% of the power needs of the country by 2050. By the end of the century most of the electric power in the country will be provide by the sun. If technological breakthroughs occur, which are most probably Germany could be completely energy independent by the middle of this century.

Unless policies in the US change, it seem likely that United States in 2050 will be even more dependent on fossil fuels and foreign oil than are now.

Solar power in Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit
Germany Gets Creative with Renewables : TreeHugger

Wikipedia, you got to be kidding, so you are learning as you go.

Oil is needed for Solar panel manufacturer, you use the negative impact of fossil fuel as a reason Solar is better when Solar needs massive amounts of fossil fuel.

You could just as easily googled the negative impact of the solar energy plants in germany and spain.

Right now Germany and Spain are halting their Solar energy plans.

Spain's economy is real bad because of investment in Solar. Go ahead, use your google.

Your cut and paste is old, Germany and Spain are cutting the funds, stopping the use of solar.

and again, Solar is 100% dependent on fossil fuel, it can never end our "dependence" on energy, Solar uses more energy so it increases "dependence".

BioSolar Solar Panels - Solar Panels Made from Plants - The Daily Green

Plant-Based Solar Panels to Remove Oil from the Equation
BioSolar is producing components for solar panels made from plant-derived plastics.

BioSolar starts with recycled cotton and castor beans, and produces a protective backing for solar cells. Its product is intended as a competitor to Tedlar, a petroleum-derived film made by DuPont that is the industry standard for silicon-based solar cells. And it's 25% cheaper, too.

Oil Rig of the Future: A Solar Panel That Produces Oil: Scientific American

Oil Rig of the Future: A Solar Panel That Produces Oil
Researchers propose a novel approach to producing biofuel using diatoms

The researchers propose creating a biological solar panel, which will contain diatoms instead of photovoltaic cells. Diatoms would float about in a nutrient-rich water solution and produce oil when exposed to sunlight.

A Solar-Powered Oil Field? - NYTimes.com

BrightSource Energy has broken ground on a 29-megawatt solar steam plant at a Chevron oil field in Coalinga, Calif.

The 100-acre project’s 7,000 mirrors will focus sunlight on a water-filled boiler that sits atop a 323-foot tower to produce hot, high-pressure steam.

In a conventional solar power plant, the steam drives a turbine to generate electricity. In this case, the steam will be injected into oil wells to enhance production by heating thick petroleum so it flows more freely. Oil companies typically rely on steam generated by natural gas or other fossil fuels to maximize oil recovery in places like the oil patch in California’s Fresno and Kern counties, where the petroleum is heavy and gooey.

My Brain Hurts — Solar Powered Oil Fields are Coming – CleanTechnica

It’s a little hard to wrap your head around this one, but global oil giant Chevron (yes, that Chevron) has just announced plans to install a solar power system at the Kern River oil field in California. This ain’t no small potatoes, either. All together, Kern River is the fifth largest oil field in the U.S. and Chevron’s solar array will consist of 7, 700 solar panels, according to Reuters. The system is designed to generate 740 kilowatts of electricity to run Chevron’s oil pumps and pipelines at the field.

The Kern River solar array is just one piece of a $2 billion investment Chevron plans for solar and alternative energy. That’s a tidy little chunk of the oil company’s change, which seems to indicate that the company sees the writing on the wall for fossil fuels. Not that oil will disappear, just that the potential returns from solar power and other alternative energy in the retail market are starting to look mighty attractive. Once again, follow the money…

Chevron and Solar Power

The 8-acre Kern River site will serve as a test ground for seven different types of solar energy that could be deployed at Chevron’s facilities worldwide, as detailed in a recent Los Angeles Times story. That’s actually old news; according to the Times, Chevron started using solar at its facilities since 1992.

Chevron as a Solar Power Supplier

Chevron isn’t only using solar to pump more fossil fuels. It’s also becoming a solar installer and supplier. Last month the company announced that it is building a solar array in Mexico, on a 20-acre mine tailing site that it owns. Solar energy from the installation will be sold to the local grid. The company is also building a 3.7 megawatt solar project in partnership with a school district in San Jose, California. The company has become quite the solar expert and will do the project from soup to nuts, including designing, building, and operating it, as well as assessing its performance. If Chevron gets out of the oil business it won’t be any time soon, but it’s sure positioning itself to follow the money out of fossil fuels when the time comes.

Solar is dead without water, you cannot address this fact so you post links to propaganda.

Where do you get the water?