Fred Pittenger’s Recent Comments

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  Subsidies and Efficiency

  You would think that none of the traditional electric provders had received any incentives based on this article when such is far from the truth. The people of the US paid for virtually all the hydroelectric dams that are currently producing power at $.04 per watt.  The cost of the new XCEL coal gasification plants is being subsidized by the public as a separate item on every utility bill.  Cost of natural gas is continually subsidized in the same way.  It is a delusion to believe that these providers are not also receiving incentives for production.
  As for the efficiency  of solar, the base reality is that that once the system is in place, THE ENERGY IS ABUNDANTLY FREE.  You can not say that about any of the competing systems, not from XCEL or any of the other electricity providers.  The shear abundance of the sun's free energy available over periods of time that dwarf our civilization make this arguement totally about installation, not efficiency.  While it takes less space to put on a more efficient system,  once the collectors are on the roof, they are producing free energy, no matter how inefficient they may be. Look around your belongings and find one other item you have recently invested in that you can claim the same and at the same tiem without any carbon footprint.
  The harder we drive this industry with incentives, the more rapidly the enormous investments will flow in and the potential to install those cheep 40-50% efficient  modules that will produce electricity at lower than market cost.

  Fred Pittenger Simplicity Solar Grand Junction, Colorado Fred@simplicitysolar.com

  On Efficiency is the key posted 2 years, 12 months ago 31 Responses