Posted by Snow in 
Maybe the U. S. Power grid is the biggest clunker of all.
Reading the National Geographic’s piece this month on Solar Power is a science and economics lesson boiled into one. Who knew wind power was so cheap? Who knew farms in Bavaria and Andalusian plains could afford solar energy more than we can?
And if Spain is the world’s second most popular tourist destination (behind France), and a peso-powered solar powerhouse (literally) at that, does that make it a more attractive green vacation than anywhere in the United States? America needs to start recycling its brand as the world’s tourist destination.
How can it be that Solar power is still a Utopian fuel? Who knew Italy and Hawaii had high electric rates in common? Cap-and-trade could be the kryptonite that keeps the grid dependent on coal as the flavor of the month. Steam conversion of solar PV saves carbon emissions but utilizes the same smoke and mirrors a gas-fired plant would.
Those geothermal water heating pipes and conduits in the architectural schemes of late? With the price tag of solar photovoltaic energy conversion in mind, a few pipes in the ground seems pretty cheap. And wind turbines seem like the next shopping item on the Stimulus rebate assembly line.
The geographic article asks a question that lurks behind the minds of many. Why doesn’t the sun power everything now? Evidently the photovoltaic conversion process (and the equipment) are costly. German mirrors and Spanish owned Nevada power companies sound like the old country is making a buck off alternative energy.
The problem with solar PV energy isn’t its rarity or difficulty to produce. It’s bringing the solar PV piggy to market that sucks eggs. Nobody wants to have power lines running through their green country or service miles of cable on the hoof. A parabolic trough doesn’t exactly fit in the back yard.
Unless the maintenance vehicles are electric powered, fossil fuels will grease the maintenance trucks keeping those solar PV volts and wires husbanded safely across hill and dale. That is a labor intensive cost for the delivery to market of solar green-yellow energy.
The good news is a company called Stirling makes an engine superheated by Suncatchers, training mirrors heating oil to produce steam. They will be building some 60,000 mirror array solar PV grabbing facilities between Los Angeles and San Diego.
In triple digit temperatures lowered energy costs in Southern California could save lives. Power prices rise when needs rise, earning power customers a killer catch-22. Seniors and adults living alone cut down on power and suffer due to the heat instead of calling f0r help. Rolling blackouts kill acres of AC just when it is needed most.
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