Air Force, Nevada go all crazy with the solar energy
The largest solar photovoltaic plant in North America is coming soon to an Air Force base near you -- if you live in Nevada. Nellis Air Force Base will install 140 acres of solar panels, powering 30 percent of its electricity needs and reducing electric bills by some $1 million a year. "It allows the Air Force to show its leadership in applying renewable energy and new technology to reduce our needs to use traditional forms of electric power," says Maj. Don Ohlemacher. And Nevada's got more up its solar sleeve: a 300-acre solar thermal power plant, the third-largest of its kind in the world, is going up 25 miles south of Las Vegas. (Solar photovoltaic produces electricity, while solar thermal produces heat, which can then be used to create electricity. Geek out!) Once both plants are built, says Sonya Headen of Nevada Power Co., "Nevada will be the No. 1 state in the nation on solar watts per capita and solar as a percentage of retail sales." Is that a barely suppressed "booyah" we hear?
source: USA Today, William M. Welch, 18 Apr 2007
source: In Business Las Vegas, Phoebe Sweet, 06 Apr 2007
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Comments
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TomH Posted 4:24 am
19 Apr 2007
What the US needs now is real photovoltaic plants: plants that make photovoltaic cells and panels. This is called "manufacturing," just to reimnd all those among us who have forgotten what that is. I wonder where the real manufacturing plants for those installed panels are--Japan? Germany?
If a PV plant (not installation) costs $20 million (which could be a high estimate), and the war in Iraq has cost--well, let's say $200 billion--then (do the math!) we could have built 10,000 PV manufacturing plants in this country. That's 200 per state. Or, if we spent half on the plants and half on the associated jobs, that's 100 plants per state and $100B for jobs, which is--a billion dollars per state.
PV is not only too cheap to meter--it makes the meters run backward. It's very clean (using little in doping materials), and doesn't pollute in its use (though it currently does, some, in its manufacture). Actually making it makes jobs. All the same as wind, which it complements (when it's cloudy, it's usually windy). Win, win, win, win, win.
What will it take for this country to reverse its energy path? Let's first not confuse installations with manufacturing--please.
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JoeyDiana Posted 6:31 am
19 Apr 2007
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