Tag: alternative energy

Due to another government boondoggle Ranger Rick is going to have to tell Yogi his pic-a-nic basket will be empty for decades to come. And we owe it all to the geniuses who run Yosemite National Park.

The problem? Solar energy, something many people and the government think is free or is going to quickly pay for itself.

Yosemite just spent $4.5 million on a solar installation to save them $50,000 per year. They also claim $700,000 in rebates. $4.5 million minus $700,000 leaves $3.8 million net cost, which divided by $50,000 per year means 76 years to break even, or about a lifetime.

That’s bad enough, but since solar panels only last about 25 years it means they’ll have to replace them about 2 more times over that 76 years, costing another $9+ million. Add that to the original $3.8 million and that’s $12.8 million total costs, which divided over 76 years equals $168,421 per year to save $50,000 per year. That’s a net loss of $118,421 x 76 years, a total loss of about $9 million of your tax dollars so a few people can be touchy-feely. (And we won’t even bother getting into the the accounting farce of one government agency counting a rebate from another government agency.)

With savings like that we can all now see why the United States is broke. As one can plainly see whomever approved this is not smarter than the average bear.

– Written by CO2Insanity

Source: Mother Nature Network

It’s a painful experience, both emotionally and financially, when you lose your job. However, given the chest pounding done by Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA) and President Obama about the jobs “green energy” would create, we feel compelled to point out – because the MSM won’t – that the business world ain’t no country for old Marxist men.

The Boston Herald has the story:

Evergreen Solar Inc., the Marlboro clean-energy company that received millions in state subsidies to build an ill-fated Bay State factory, has filed for bankruptcy.

Evergreen, which closed its taxpayer-supported Devens factory in March and cut 800 jobs, has been trying to rework its debt for months.

The company also said it will lay off another 65 jobs in the United States and Europe, mostly through the shutdown of its Midland, Mich., manufacturing facility. That would leave Evergreen with about 68 workers according to a headcount listed in the bankruptcy filing.

Evergreen secured a $58 million financial aid package from the Patrick administration to help build the $450 million Devens factory. The state has been trying to recoup about $4 million in cash from the company, the once-promising poster child of the governor’s clean-energy economic agenda.

Evergreen makes solar panels – so do lots of Chinese companies that pay their workers lower wages and sell their panels at lower prices. In any commodity business, the low-cost producer always wins.

Evil, stupid private capital understands this, smart public-sector technocrats either don’t or just don’t care. Their attitude about taxpayer money is “there’s plenty more where that came from.”

There is no penalty for failure which explains why government “investments” usually do.

– Written by Bonfire of the Absurdities

Source: Boston Herald

Just one quick question before we get to the meat of this story: Are you aware of an eco-project – any eco-project anywhere in the world – that actually works and doesn’t require massive government subsidies? This one certainly doesn’t qualify.

The Daily Mail UK reports the chilling details:

Eco-campaigners who built a classroom powered by the sun believed they were paving the way for the future.
Instead they have been taught a valuable lesson – there is not enough sun in North London to sufficiently heat their building.
The much feted zero-carbon Living Ark classroom was opened three months ago to great fanfare.

It boasts laudable green credentials and is made from sustainable wood, sheep’s wool and soil. The roof is made of mud and grass and it has its own ‘rain pod’ and solar panels.
But there is snag – its solar panels only provide enough energy to power a few lightbulbs.
As a result the classroom is bitterly cold and uninhabitable for lessons.

Parents have branded it ‘useless’, an ‘expensive piece of wood’ and a ‘great idea for the Caribbean’.

The Living Ark was built at Muswell Hill Primary School, North London, at the cost of £25,000.

If we could merely harness the hot air expelled by Al Gore and his band of global warming acolytes, the classroom would be so damn hot that the little British tykes would have to strip down to their skivvies. Which would, of course, present a whole different set of problems.

Source: Daily Mail UK

Ahhh, the sheer genius of green technology. In the grand tradition of British windmills that won’t work when the weather is cold and power is needed most, it’s now been discovered that green volcano monitoring devices won’t work when their solar panels are covered with volcanic ash.

The Jakarta Post has the erupting story:

The South Lampung Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) lacked vital information in deciding to evacuate tens of thousands in danger zones near Mount Anak Krakatau, says this article in the Jakarta Post.

“We have taken anticipatory measures because ash continues to flow, while the seismograph used to monitor Mount Anak Krakatau could not provide data on its activities,” said South Lampung BPBD head Abdul Shomad on Monday.

“The observation posts in Hargopancuran, Rajabasa, South Lampung, and Pasauran, Banten, have not yet been able to monitor volcanic activities because equipment installed around the volcano is still out of order.”

“Observation from the naked eye shows volcanic ash and smoke, spewing from Mount Anak Krakatau at around 600 meters high,” said Hargopancuran observation station head Andi Suhardi. “(However), we cannot monitor seismic activities because the seismometers are not working after their solar panels were covered with volcanic ash.”

“Suhardi said his office had learned about the faulty monitoring devices installed on the slopes of Mt. Anak Krakatau on Dec. 27, thus failing to monitor volcanic activities from 6:30 p.m. until noon on Dec. 28, despite the fact that the volcano, located in the middle of the sea, was actively emitting volcanic materials. 



Translation: “We don’t quite have all the wrinkles worked out of this green technology yet.”

H/T: IceAgeNow.com

Have you ever noticed that the rude intrusion of reality into the sustainable energy debate always hits eco-wackos hardest?

The Daily Mail UK reports on the unexpected consequences of the colder than normal British winter:

The failure of Britain’s wind farms to produce electricity in the extreme cold will cost billions of pounds, create an economic crisis and lead to blackouts, leading industrialists have warned.

To cover up the ineffectiveness of wind farms the Government will be forced to build emergency back-up power plants, the cost of which will be paid by industry and consumers.

… Industry regulator Ofgem has already calculated that the cost of achieving sustainable energy targets – set by Brussels but backed by the British Government – will amount to £200 billion, which will mean that annual household fuel bills will double to about £2,400 on average within the next ten years.

In the last quarter ending December 23, wind turbines produced on average 8.6 per cent of our electricity, but the moment the latest bad weather arrived with snow and freezing temperatures, this figure fell to as low as 1.8 per cent.

The slack was immediately taken up by efficient, but dirty, coal-fired power stations and oil-fired plants.

And we’ll bet a couple pounds that the British eco-wackos had their furnaces turned up just as high as anyone else.

Source: Daily Mail UK