Tag: solar energy

‘Clean Energy’ Candidates Reportedly Seek ‘Takeover’ of Arizona Energy Board, Want State Electricity to Reflect ‘Justice, Equity and Inclusion’

Tom Pappert
Salt River Project

A slate of self-described “clean energy” candidates who are reportedly engineering a “takeover” of the Salt River Project (SRP) Board say they want to increase Arizona’s reliance on renewable energy with a focus on “justice, equity and inclusion.”

The SRP Clean Energy Team of candidates for the SRP Board and Council elections, for which voting has commenced will conclude April 2, admits online that its “vision for SRP” involves “a diverse board” that intends to “address voting rights to give all customers a vote” and govern to “ensure justice, equity and inclusion, while prioritizing climate issues and sustainable clean energy” in Arizona’s energy generation.

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Commentary: Alternatives to Wind and Solar Energy

Admin
Power plant

If the delusional but dead serious demands coming out of the international climate crisis community are to be believed, and as documented in the earlier two segments of this report, achieving universal energy security in the world will require wind energy capacity to increase by a factor of 60, while solar capacity increases by a factor of 100. The mix between wind and solar can vary, of course, but the required overall increase is indisputable. As noted in Part One of this report, that would be a very best-case scenario, where extraordinary improvements in energy efficiency meant that total energy production worldwide would only have to increase to 1,000 exajoules per year, from an estimated 600 exajoules in 2022.

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Solar Panel Manufacturer Invests $2.5 Billion in Georgia Factories

Eric Burk

Governor Brian Kemp announced that solar panel manufacturer Qcells will invest $2.5 billion to build two new factories in Georgia, a significant expansion after the company opened the largest solar panel factory in the western hemisphere in Dalton in 2019.

“I am honored to announce the growth of Qcells in Georgia for a second time in less than a year,” Kemp said in a press release.

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Commentary: Solar’s Lofty Ambitions Are Consuming Ever-Larger Expanses of Land Down Below

RealClearWire

Wedged in the southern flank of Virginia, Charlotte County is home to some 11,500 people who live amidst rolling hills and family farms, pastures and sawmills, a historic Civil War battlefield, and four townlets tinier than many suburban subdivisions.  

But this pastoral tableau will be swept up in the green revolution when construction begins here on the nation’s largest solar power facility east of the Mississippi River. The planned 800-megawatt Randolph Solar Project in Charlotte County will replace a commercial lumber farm of loblolly pines with 1.6 million photovoltaic panels covering an area equivalent to seven square miles. 

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Climate Activists Oppose Major Solar Projects over Deforestation Concerns

Admin

A group of environmentalists voiced opposition to potential Massachusetts solar projects that could generate at least 250 kilowatts of electricity.

The majority of those who attended a public hearing hosted by the Amherst, Massachusetts, Community Resources Committee said they supported a moratorium on such projects that would expire in May 2023, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported. The proposed moratorium would prohibit surrounding municipalities from green lighting any solar project that exceeds the 250-kilowatt-capacity threshold.

The moratorium was proposed by three town councilors after an 11-megawatt solar farm was proposed in the area, the Gazette reported. A solar field that produces 250 kilowatts of electricity would power 71 households while one that produces 11 megawatts would power more than 3,000 homes, according to a federal estimate.

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Experts Slam Biden’s Plan to Build Government-Funded Wind Farms

Admin
Dan Kish

Energy experts criticized President Joe Biden’s plan to prioritize wind farms, arguing wind power is costly, inefficient and indirectly produces greenhouse gas emissions.

Wind energy, like solar, is often unreliable since it is intermittent, or highly dependent on nature and out of the control of suppliers, according to the experts. Higher reliance on wind to produce even a fraction of a nation’s energy supply, therefore, cou ld lead to higher prices depending on the weather.

“Both wind and solar have Achilles heels in that they’re intermittent,” Dan Kish, a senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.

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Commentary: America’s True Cost to ‘Go Solar’

Admin

by Edward Ring   Proponents of renewable energy claim that wind and solar energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels. According to USA Today, “Renewables close in on fossil fuels, challenging on price.” A Forbes headline agrees: “Renewable Energy Will Be Consistently Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels.” The “expert” websites agree: “Renewable Electricity Levelized Cost Of Energy Already Cheaper,” asserts “energyinnovation.org.” They’re all wrong. Renewable energy is getting cheaper every year, but it is a long way from competing with natural gas, coal, or even nuclear power, if nuclear power weren’t drowning in lawsuits and regulatory obstructions. With both wind and solar energy, the cost not only of the solar panels and wind turbines has to be accounted for, but also of inverters, grid upgrades, and storage assets necessary to balance out the intermittent power. Taking all variables into account, what might it cost for the entire U.S. to get 100 percent of its energy from solar energy? Speaking the Language of Energy and Electricity According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States in 2017 consumed 97.7 quadrillion BTUs of energy. BTUs, or British Thermal Units, are often used by economists to measure energy. One BTU is the energy…

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New Senate Leadership Fund Ad Exposes Phil Bredesen’s Self-Dealing Solar Investments as Governor

Jason M. Reynolds

Senate Leadership Fund on Tuesday launched a new advertising campaign slamming Phil Bredesen for his conflicts of interest as governor, costing Tennessee taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars while Bredesen made a fortune, the group says. The $1.6 million buy will run statewide on a combination of broadcast and cable television, radio and digital. The ad is available here. Bredesen is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Senator Bob Corker (R-TN). U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) is his opponent. Senate Leadership Fund Spokesman Chris Pack said, “Call it what you want, but look at what Phil Bredesen made Tennessee do: pour hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into solar investments that went belly-up while he made a fortune. We knew he was trouble, but Phil Bredesen’s cashing in on the very subsidies he got passed goes beyond our wildest dreams.” Solar power companies, including Bredesen’s Silicon Ranch, wouldn’t make much of a mark without officials giving them taxpayer money, government incentives and other generous benefits, Nick Loris of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, told The Tennessee Star in August. That’s because less than 2 percent of America’s electricity comes from solar power, Loris said.…

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