Synthaholic
Diamond Member
- Jul 21, 2010
- 76,204
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- Thread starter
- #241
Ok. I don't have anything other than what the city has my house hooked up to. Regular electrical utility.
Our Solar/Alt Energy Future
- Thread starter Synthaholic
- Start date
themirrorthief
Diamond Member
how many beautiful birds and whales have to die for the liberals destructive windmills
Anecdotal is all fine and well, but walk a mile in any sparks shoes, and it all becomes mission impossible........~S~
Synthaholic
Diamond Member
- Jul 21, 2010
- 76,204
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- Thread starter
- #244
Funny how Greg Abbott or Ted Cruz never brags about this.
While Texas has done a grand job of updating their electrical infrastructure, their generation sources haven't quite kept up>
Fuel Mix
Last Updated: Sep 25, 2023 06:04 CT
CURRENT GENERATION
SUMMER CAPACITY
MAXIMUM CAPACITY
Solar
0 MW(0.0%)
12,636 MW
22,138 MW
Wind
6,451 MW(12.6%)
10,427 MW
39,411 MW
Hydro
4 MW(0.0%)
478 MW
600 MW
Power Storage
108 MW(0.2%)
447 MW
4,835 MW
Other
50 MW(0.1%)
163 MW
113 MW
Natural Gas
29,366 MW(57.2%)
53,446 MW
69,890 MW
Coal and Lignite
10,344 MW(20.2%)
13,568 MW
14,321 MW
Nuclear
4,976 MW(9.7%)
4,973 MW
5,448 MW
Grid and Market Conditions
www.ercot.com
~S~
more math>>>>
Between 2008 and 2021, according to C Three Group, the U.S. high-voltage transmission system grew by about 1,700 miles per year,” energy scholar Robert Bryce wrote Feb. 9 on Substack. At 1,700 miles of new high-voltage power-line construction per year, increasing today’s 240,000 miles of HV lines by 60%, or 144,000 miles, would take 84 years, or until 2107.
Was Emperor Biden’s Electric Vehicle Decree Concocted by Leprechauns? (dailysignal.com)
and we're still on 'transmission'.......where is the generation?>>
for the nuke proponents>>>>
www.energyjustice.net
~S~
Between 2008 and 2021, according to C Three Group, the U.S. high-voltage transmission system grew by about 1,700 miles per year,” energy scholar Robert Bryce wrote Feb. 9 on Substack. At 1,700 miles of new high-voltage power-line construction per year, increasing today’s 240,000 miles of HV lines by 60%, or 144,000 miles, would take 84 years, or until 2107.
Was Emperor Biden’s Electric Vehicle Decree Concocted by Leprechauns? (dailysignal.com)
and we're still on 'transmission'.......where is the generation?>>
for the nuke proponents>>>>
EJmap Communities Map
Dirty power plants and the courageous activists who fight them.
~S~
Synthaholic
Diamond Member
- Jul 21, 2010
- 76,204
- 73,636
- 3,605
- Thread starter
- #247
Stryder50
Platinum Member
FWIW ~ FYI
SELECT EXCERPTS:
This year, during the heat of summer, when temperatures in New York surpassed 90°F, the 22 solar panels on the roof of my house were doing absolutely nothing.
This is not something I learned until September, four months after my husband and I bought this house with a purportedly functional leased solar system in upstate New York, months after logging into a website that inaccurately told us that the panels were working, months after we forked over $6,000 to prepay the remainder of the 20-year lease to the company supposed to be maintaining the solar panels, Spruce Power, which happens to be the largest privately held owner and operator of residential solar in America.
A third-party technician dispatched to our house by Spruce in September blamed squirrels that chewed on some important wires. Spruce blamed the previous owners, who they said fell behind on lease payments; in September, Spruce told us it had disconnected the system previously but that did not explain why they’d taken our money to prepay the lease on the panels in June. The panels are still not working to full capacity. (Made aware that this article was in the works, Spruce said in September that it will repay us for the months the panels were not working.)
We are not alone. Obscured by the recent rush to sign up households for rooftop solar and speed up the electrification of America are those who already have solar panels on their roof that do not work. Many were early adopters who did the “right” thing for the planet, installing solar before the expanded financial incentives that came out of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Because solar was more expensive in the 2010s, many entered into leases with solar companies to defray upfront costs, and many were left in the lurch when those companies went out of business. Often, their solar leases were packaged and sold, alongside thousands of others, to private equity companies and other investors who were not incentivized to ensure, years into the leases, that service was good or that panels even worked.
“Bad operators have left many people with broken systems and a bitter taste in their mouth,” says Daniel Liu, head of asset commercial performance at Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm. “It costs a lot to actually service these panels, and a lot of people have fallen through the cracks.”
There were 5,331 complaints containing the words “solar panels” submitted on reportfraud.ftc.gov between Jan. 1 and Sept. 19 of 2023, up 31% from the entire year of 2022 and up 746% since 2018, the first year for which the Federal Trade Commission has data, according to the FTC’s response to a Freedom of Information Act filed by TIME.
...
These cases are important to consider amidst the growing interest in rooftop solar, prompted by big incentives in the IRA and volatile energy prices that are leading people to want to have more control over the cost of their own power. Around 4 million U.S. homes now have rooftop solar, up from 300,000 a decade ago, according to Eric O’Shaughnessy, a clean energy consultant.
But in terms of regulation of the companies providing those solar panels, not much has changed since ours were installed in 2014. The thousands of households signing up for solar today hoping for energy independence could also find themselves dependent on opaque companies who are slow to respond to problems or who are no longer in business. For all the promise of solar—that it can help wean us off fossil fuels and cut our energy bills—the focus on speeding adoption has come at a cost: it allows unreliable players to flourish in a booming industry.
“The issue is regulation—there’s none of it, and customers like us are just sitting ducks,” says Steve Drapeau, who lives in Walnut Creek, Calif., and says his solar system has not worked since August 2022. He’s an active member of a Facebook group for customers of Spruce Power whose systems do not work as promised, and says he tries to get the company to pay attention to his case almost every single day.
...
The solar system on my rooftop is leased; the house’s previous owners signed a 20-year contract in 2014 with a now-defunct Minnesota company called Kilowatt Systems. It is not rare for a solar company to go out of business and for its leases to be acquired by another firm; around 8,700 different companies installed at least one residential solar system between 2000 and 2016, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Many of these installers were contractors who only dabbled in solar, but still, only 2,900 of those companies were still active by 2016.
We did not think the panels were a very good deal when we bought the house, but couldn’t find anyone who could confirm this; our real estate agent had never sold a house with leased panels before and our lawyer said she didn’t review solar contracts. Under the lease the previous owners had signed, which we were expected to take over, payments had started out at $67.92 a month but rose each year, reaching $116.93 in 2034; meanwhile, the amount of energy guaranteed each year lessened as the panels aged.
...
time.com
Rooftop Solar Power Has a Dark Side
...SELECT EXCERPTS:
This year, during the heat of summer, when temperatures in New York surpassed 90°F, the 22 solar panels on the roof of my house were doing absolutely nothing.
This is not something I learned until September, four months after my husband and I bought this house with a purportedly functional leased solar system in upstate New York, months after logging into a website that inaccurately told us that the panels were working, months after we forked over $6,000 to prepay the remainder of the 20-year lease to the company supposed to be maintaining the solar panels, Spruce Power, which happens to be the largest privately held owner and operator of residential solar in America.
A third-party technician dispatched to our house by Spruce in September blamed squirrels that chewed on some important wires. Spruce blamed the previous owners, who they said fell behind on lease payments; in September, Spruce told us it had disconnected the system previously but that did not explain why they’d taken our money to prepay the lease on the panels in June. The panels are still not working to full capacity. (Made aware that this article was in the works, Spruce said in September that it will repay us for the months the panels were not working.)
We are not alone. Obscured by the recent rush to sign up households for rooftop solar and speed up the electrification of America are those who already have solar panels on their roof that do not work. Many were early adopters who did the “right” thing for the planet, installing solar before the expanded financial incentives that came out of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Because solar was more expensive in the 2010s, many entered into leases with solar companies to defray upfront costs, and many were left in the lurch when those companies went out of business. Often, their solar leases were packaged and sold, alongside thousands of others, to private equity companies and other investors who were not incentivized to ensure, years into the leases, that service was good or that panels even worked.
“Bad operators have left many people with broken systems and a bitter taste in their mouth,” says Daniel Liu, head of asset commercial performance at Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm. “It costs a lot to actually service these panels, and a lot of people have fallen through the cracks.”
There were 5,331 complaints containing the words “solar panels” submitted on reportfraud.ftc.gov between Jan. 1 and Sept. 19 of 2023, up 31% from the entire year of 2022 and up 746% since 2018, the first year for which the Federal Trade Commission has data, according to the FTC’s response to a Freedom of Information Act filed by TIME.
...
These cases are important to consider amidst the growing interest in rooftop solar, prompted by big incentives in the IRA and volatile energy prices that are leading people to want to have more control over the cost of their own power. Around 4 million U.S. homes now have rooftop solar, up from 300,000 a decade ago, according to Eric O’Shaughnessy, a clean energy consultant.
But in terms of regulation of the companies providing those solar panels, not much has changed since ours were installed in 2014. The thousands of households signing up for solar today hoping for energy independence could also find themselves dependent on opaque companies who are slow to respond to problems or who are no longer in business. For all the promise of solar—that it can help wean us off fossil fuels and cut our energy bills—the focus on speeding adoption has come at a cost: it allows unreliable players to flourish in a booming industry.
“The issue is regulation—there’s none of it, and customers like us are just sitting ducks,” says Steve Drapeau, who lives in Walnut Creek, Calif., and says his solar system has not worked since August 2022. He’s an active member of a Facebook group for customers of Spruce Power whose systems do not work as promised, and says he tries to get the company to pay attention to his case almost every single day.
...
The solar system on my rooftop is leased; the house’s previous owners signed a 20-year contract in 2014 with a now-defunct Minnesota company called Kilowatt Systems. It is not rare for a solar company to go out of business and for its leases to be acquired by another firm; around 8,700 different companies installed at least one residential solar system between 2000 and 2016, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Many of these installers were contractors who only dabbled in solar, but still, only 2,900 of those companies were still active by 2016.
We did not think the panels were a very good deal when we bought the house, but couldn’t find anyone who could confirm this; our real estate agent had never sold a house with leased panels before and our lawyer said she didn’t review solar contracts. Under the lease the previous owners had signed, which we were expected to take over, payments had started out at $67.92 a month but rose each year, reaching $116.93 in 2034; meanwhile, the amount of energy guaranteed each year lessened as the panels aged.
...
Rooftop Solar Power Has a Dark Side
The companies that own many leased solar systems on Americans' rooftops are going out of business, leaving homeowners in a lurch.
Synthaholic
Diamond Member
- Jul 21, 2010
- 76,204
- 73,636
- 3,605
- Thread starter
- #249
As usual, this is a failure of Congress not keeping up with progress, and not writing laws that companies must follow.FWIW ~ FYI
Rooftop Solar Power Has a Dark Side
...
SELECT EXCERPTS:
This year, during the heat of summer, when temperatures in New York surpassed 90°F, the 22 solar panels on the roof of my house were doing absolutely nothing.
This is not something I learned until September, four months after my husband and I bought this house with a purportedly functional leased solar system in upstate New York, months after logging into a website that inaccurately told us that the panels were working, months after we forked over $6,000 to prepay the remainder of the 20-year lease to the company supposed to be maintaining the solar panels, Spruce Power, which happens to be the largest privately held owner and operator of residential solar in America.
A third-party technician dispatched to our house by Spruce in September blamed squirrels that chewed on some important wires. Spruce blamed the previous owners, who they said fell behind on lease payments; in September, Spruce told us it had disconnected the system previously but that did not explain why they’d taken our money to prepay the lease on the panels in June. The panels are still not working to full capacity. (Made aware that this article was in the works, Spruce said in September that it will repay us for the months the panels were not working.)
We are not alone. Obscured by the recent rush to sign up households for rooftop solar and speed up the electrification of America are those who already have solar panels on their roof that do not work. Many were early adopters who did the “right” thing for the planet, installing solar before the expanded financial incentives that came out of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Because solar was more expensive in the 2010s, many entered into leases with solar companies to defray upfront costs, and many were left in the lurch when those companies went out of business. Often, their solar leases were packaged and sold, alongside thousands of others, to private equity companies and other investors who were not incentivized to ensure, years into the leases, that service was good or that panels even worked.
“Bad operators have left many people with broken systems and a bitter taste in their mouth,” says Daniel Liu, head of asset commercial performance at Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm. “It costs a lot to actually service these panels, and a lot of people have fallen through the cracks.”
There were 5,331 complaints containing the words “solar panels” submitted on reportfraud.ftc.gov between Jan. 1 and Sept. 19 of 2023, up 31% from the entire year of 2022 and up 746% since 2018, the first year for which the Federal Trade Commission has data, according to the FTC’s response to a Freedom of Information Act filed by TIME.
...
These cases are important to consider amidst the growing interest in rooftop solar, prompted by big incentives in the IRA and volatile energy prices that are leading people to want to have more control over the cost of their own power. Around 4 million U.S. homes now have rooftop solar, up from 300,000 a decade ago, according to Eric O’Shaughnessy, a clean energy consultant.
But in terms of regulation of the companies providing those solar panels, not much has changed since ours were installed in 2014. The thousands of households signing up for solar today hoping for energy independence could also find themselves dependent on opaque companies who are slow to respond to problems or who are no longer in business. For all the promise of solar—that it can help wean us off fossil fuels and cut our energy bills—the focus on speeding adoption has come at a cost: it allows unreliable players to flourish in a booming industry.
“The issue is regulation—there’s none of it, and customers like us are just sitting ducks,” says Steve Drapeau, who lives in Walnut Creek, Calif., and says his solar system has not worked since August 2022. He’s an active member of a Facebook group for customers of Spruce Power whose systems do not work as promised, and says he tries to get the company to pay attention to his case almost every single day.
...
The solar system on my rooftop is leased; the house’s previous owners signed a 20-year contract in 2014 with a now-defunct Minnesota company called Kilowatt Systems. It is not rare for a solar company to go out of business and for its leases to be acquired by another firm; around 8,700 different companies installed at least one residential solar system between 2000 and 2016, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Many of these installers were contractors who only dabbled in solar, but still, only 2,900 of those companies were still active by 2016.
We did not think the panels were a very good deal when we bought the house, but couldn’t find anyone who could confirm this; our real estate agent had never sold a house with leased panels before and our lawyer said she didn’t review solar contracts. Under the lease the previous owners had signed, which we were expected to take over, payments had started out at $67.92 a month but rose each year, reaching $116.93 in 2034; meanwhile, the amount of energy guaranteed each year lessened as the panels aged.
...
Rooftop Solar Power Has a Dark Side
The companies that own many leased solar systems on Americans' rooftops are going out of business, leaving homeowners in a lurch.
Stryder50
Platinum Member
It's more than that, as can be learned when reading the full article linked.
Example (one of many);
...
But it’s much easier to sell solar systems than it is to install them on thousands of homes and maintain them, and cash flow became a problem for many companies who were trying to gain market share as quickly as possible. As early businesses ran out of money and went kaput, solar lease portfolios were sold from one company to the next, sometimes acquired in bankruptcy proceedings for pennies on the dollar. “These companies went out of business, bankers bought the portfolio and are still collecting fees, but they’re not set up to provide support,” says Vikram Aggarwal, the CEO of EnergySage, a solar services marketplace. He estimates that over half of all solar installations have been orphaned, meaning that the company that originally installed the panels or pledged to maintain them has gone out of business.
It’s not surprising that companies struggled to keep up with necessary maintenance and repair for solar panels on peoples’ homes; it costs much more, on a per watt basis, to maintain rooftop solar than utility-scale solar, says Liu, the Wood Mackenzie analyst. Utility-scale solar provides such relatively large amounts of power that they have the cost of regular inspections and maintenance built in, while residential rooftop solar is often installed and then largely forgotten. Even so, one recent study found that utility-scale solar projects degraded at a higher rate than analysts had predicted, meaning they produced less solar than anticipated.
The same is likely happening on rooftops, especially since homeowners can’t see what’s happening on their roof or if there are squirrels gnawing on their wires. What’s more, it’s expensive to send a truck to repair rooftop solar panels because electricians have been in high demand and because a company’s clients may be spread out across a metropolitan area, requiring technicians to spend a lot of time in transit.
....
As always; "Buyer Beware".
Grumblenuts
Gold Member
- Oct 16, 2017
- 15,445
- 5,236
- 210
To some extent, of course. States and municipalities have also been fielding intense resistance from existing utilities. Mostly though, the people discussed were just bitchy and stupid. The previous owners signed a reasonable contract. Not their fault the company went kaput and some crap firm took over, leaving them hanging. Buyer beware indeed. They weren't. Got a lemon. Shocking, I know
not at all...
or....off their roofs.....
which would be the perpetrator subsidizing the fraud.....
hacks, i've seen 'em come/go .....all hit/run....
and you don't get the $ per KW feeding back, vs the poco $ per KW , because you're using their infrastructure to do so
~S~
Grumblenuts
Gold Member
- Oct 16, 2017
- 15,445
- 5,236
- 210
But the price of electricity does rise as well and you get some portion of that back. Are you paying less overall than you would without the panels? That's the only question that should matter from the homeowner's POV. Maintenance? They should need none given they're installed professionally. Mine have never needed a thing and I'm saving plenty.
marvin martian
Diamond Member
They talk about it all the time.
The blue shithole states need to try to catch up to us.
elektra
Diamond Member
There is a reason the government is spending trillions in subsidies.
There is a reason most solar, wind, and green energy companies go bankrupt.
There is a reason previous laws protecting the consumer has been ignored
Welcome to the world's largest mist destructive scam
There is a reason most solar, wind, and green energy companies go bankrupt.
There is a reason previous laws protecting the consumer has been ignored
Welcome to the world's largest mist destructive scam
Synthaholic
Diamond Member
- Jul 21, 2010
- 76,204
- 73,636
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- Thread starter
- #256
Lol!
Jarlaxle
Gold Member
At a guess: either you live in a relatively new building...or you lied.
It is a matter of religious faith for him.
Synthaholic
Diamond Member
- Jul 21, 2010
- 76,204
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- Thread starter
- #258
I believe my house was built in 1983. And I've been posting about this at least since 2017.
Maybe you don't know what you're talking about.
Jarlaxle
Gold Member
Yes, that IS a relatively new building! My house was built in 1855. My mother's was built in the 1920s. My uncle's was built in the mid-50s. 100-year-old houses in this area are nothing remarkable.
Synthaholic
Diamond Member
- Jul 21, 2010
- 76,204
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- Thread starter
- #260
This is the only way we're going to be able to get wingnuts on board with solar: name it something stupid that reaches their lizard brains.
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