Chernobyl Disaster. 21 years ago today (4/26)

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by Capper

I just don't understand why we don't use more solar, especially here in Vegas......you see nothing except pool heaters.

I think a solar powered flashlight would come in real handy. Here in Germany they have a ton of Windmill farms all over the country. Land owners lease a small part of their land to the Government, and allow them access to the windmills for maintenance.

The problem with solar is its not consistent enough in a lot of places. Yes it might work just fine Vegas, but wouldn’t make much sense in Seattle. Even if you covered thousands of square miles in the desert with solar panels, you wouldn’t be able to power all of Vegas with solar alone. It’s not like you can store power, so what would you do at night?

[Capper]

Originally Posted by Hitman

I think a solar powered flashlight would come in real handy. Here in Germany they have a ton of Windmill farms all over the country. Land owners lease a small part of their land to the Government, and allow them access to the windmills for maintenance.

The problem with solar is its not consistent enough in a lot of places. Yes it might work just fine Vegas, but wouldn’t make much sense in Seattle. Even if you covered thousands of square miles in the desert with solar panels, you wouldn’t be able to power all of Vegas with solar alone. It’s not like you can store power, so what would you do at night?

well, you are wrong on a few levels....being from Seattle, there is a lot of solar there, and it would work fine....it doesn't have to be cloudless for you to use solar power.

Also, the power you don't use....the utilities buy it back from you, this is a big selling point, especially in CA where my family is, they are strongly encouraging people to go to solar, and any unused power that PG&E takes gets credited toward your power bill.

[Jokerswild]

A lot of solar powers problems is with the cost of the collectors. I saw a show on the science channel recently that says there is a new material in development right now that will cut the cost quite a bit and make solar power more reasonable. FYI if we could harness the power the sun puts out in 1 second we would have enough energy to power us for 1 million years.

[onebxr]

You also get a hell of a tax break for using solar in CA. I think in 5 years the govt pays you back for going solar. This is info from my bro in law.
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[Capper]

yeah, with the rebates you get its almost free. The system my Grandmother is considering is almost $6000, with $3000 in rebates, plus selling the power back to PG&E, plus the tax breaks....its a pretty good deal.

[onebxr]

In the panhandle of Texas, where my family owns about 100 acres. We have leased that land, for wind generators, and it makes about as much money for us as the corn. And we get to still grow corn around them. The only downside of this is my uncle says its hard to plow around them. But if this ethanol craze hits then "say hello to daddy warbucks!"
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[Zambini]

We watched a bunch of crappy DVDs (but they had John Cleese so they were cool) on Solar power in physics class and we had some "presenter" who's cousin lives in Santa Monica and it cost him like $10,000, but every month he gets a check from the electric company for about $300 and a butt load of tax rebates

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by Capper

well, you are wrong on a few levels....

OK? but of course no one knows as much about everything as you do.

[onebxr]

"cant we all just get along"- Rodney King

[Zambini]

Long story short:

Solar Power is very important. No matter what anyone believes

^^