A week in Scottsdale, Az

[whitehall]

Scottsdale Az is a relatively afluent suburb of Phoenix and the blue sky shined every day. I did an unofficial and admittedly amateur survey of the curved ceramic roofs in the area as my grand kids drove me around. I noted the lack of solar panels on the roofs in the "valley of the sun". My daughter in law who leans liberal explained to me that the solar technology was expensive and most people could not regain the investment of solar panels even in an area where the sun shines all the time. So, it seems that people understand that green technology doesn't work so why does the president keep telling us that "Americans need to be weaned off fossil fuels" while citizens suffer in cold winters because they can't afford heating oil supplied by foreign countries. There is a clear disconnect between the policies of the party of socialism and the lives of American citizens.

 

[Middleoftheroad]

Scottsdale Az is a relatively afluent suburb of Phoenix and the blue sky shined every day. I did an unofficial and admittedly amateur survey of the curved ceramic roofs in the area as my grand kids drove me around. I noted the lack of solar panels on the roofs in the "valley of the sun". My daughter in law who leans liberal explained to me that the solar technology was expensive and most people could not regain the investment of solar panels even in an area where the sun shines all the time. So, it seems that people understand that green technology doesn't work so why does the president keep telling us that "Americans need to be weaned off fossil fuels" while citizens suffer in cold winters because they can't afford heating oil supplied by foreign countries. There is a clear disconnect between the policies of the party of socialism and the lives of American citizens.

Actually your daughter-in-law is incorrect. The return on investment is around 8 years for solar power, which has a half-life of 20 years (produces 50% at 20 years of age).
Further Arizona has solar power plants and is building more. In 2009 Arizona added 21 MW of energy through solar power, and in 2010 it added 55 MW.
The main problem with solar panels is this. Those that are most worried about their electricity costs, don't have the money to invest, and those that do have the money to invest, aren't usually that worried about their electricity costs.

 

[Old Rocks]

AOL Search

Mar 10, 2011 ... The U.S. solar power market grew a record 67% last year, making it the ... "This remarkable growth puts the solar industry's goal of powering 2

 

[Navy1960]

now generating electricity for 4,200 customers.

It's the first facility to reach commercial operation as part of the AZ Sun Program. APS also placed the Cotton Center Solar Plant in commercial operation earlier this week adding 17 megawatts of electricity. Both plants are located in Gila Bend.

Arizona Solar Power Plant Goes Online | Fox News

The Solana Generating Station is a 250-megawatt (MW) concentrating solar power (CSP) plant to be built 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, near Gila Bend, Arizona. The plant will be located on the northwest corner of Interstate 8 (I-8) and Painted Rock Dam road.

It will produce enough energy to serve 70,000 APS customers when operating at full capacity. The plant will be built by Abengoa Solar Inc., and is scheduled to provide renewable energy beginning in 2013
APS :: About Solana - Arizona's Largest Solar Power Plant

As of December 2010, Arizona has over 100 megawatts (MW) of solar power. A Renewable Portfolio Standard set by the Arizona Corporation Commission requires 15% renewable energy by 2025 among regulated utilities, 4.5% of which must come from distributed renewable energy sources. As of October 2009, 32 projects, with a total nameplate capacity of 21 gigawatts (GW) are actively seeking permission to build on federally-owned BLM land in Arizona.
Solar power in Arizona - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What people don't seem to understand about Solar is as time passes so to does the advancements in the technology, especially Solar Power generation. While I have always been one to advocate for an ALL in solution which is every available energy source there is, what needs to be taken into consdieration is, that as a technology advances and iot becomes more available the price of it tends to come down one only need to look at the cell phonoe to understand that. While your recent trip to Scottsdale tends to point out something worth pointing out and that is construction standards here that do not include Solar and lend themselves to traditional power generation thus your not seeing many solar panels on roofs. If for example in the many many new home construction projects here , especailly in palaces like Scottsdale included Solar roof panels or tiles , then you would have less and less need for construction of large sourced generation plants like Palo Verde because the power creation would be more distributed. The one thing that tends to stop this is money and agenda's and until such time as the agenda is the long term health of this nation as a whole and less so, the health of every company or person that may have a stake in the energy game then and only then will you see more of those Solar Panels.

 

[AZrailwhale]

You were on the wrong side of town. Come west to Sun City and Sun City West and you will see over ninety percent of the retiree’s homes have solar panels.