What Do Wall Street's Woes Mean for Renewable Energy?

Reactions to overstated benefits and understated risks of wind energy

Telegraph.co.uk

14 September 2008

'Wind farms fail to deliver value for money, report claims'

"The industry admits that for up to 30 per cent of the time, turbines are idle because wind speeds are either too low to turn the blades, or too high, risking damage to the machines.

Without any suitable method of storing the excess power produced when winds are blowing but electricity use is low, many turbines also have to be turned off for fear of overloading the grid.

The report says that wind farms are unprofitable and rely on hefty subsidies that ultimately come from consumers in the form of rising energy prices. This cost comes on top of increases in gas and electricity prices caused by the high price of oil. They risk leaving the poorest members of society struggling to heat their homes..."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2910739/Wind-farms-fail-to-deliver-value-for-money-report-claims.html

"Saturday Oct 4th, in Paris, 2000 to 3000 people coming from France and various European countries demonstrated peacefully against windfarms. Antoine Waechter was among them. Green candidate in the 1988 French presidential election, Mr Waechter subsequently split from the Greens to found the Independent Ecological Movement. He is shown on the picture reading my placard. To the right of the picture, the mayor of a village in France whose inhabitants ALL decided to sell their houses when a windfarm project was announced in the vicinity. If you wish to know more about the Village for Sale, please advise.

We received over one hundred messages of support coming from all over the world, including Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, South Africa, Japan and Slovenia. See : http://collectif.4.octobre.free.fr/

The demonstration and conference was backed by 176 associations and federations : http://collectif.4.octobre.free.fr/

An international platform against windfarms was founded the same day.

http://collectif.4.octobre.free.fr/video.php#video

renewable/sustainable energy...

It is about time more Americans realized the value of installing renewable and sustainable energy sources; sources like solar power for homes and businesses, wind turbines for cities, towns and businesses. We must not be afraid of change for the better and therefore make these investments in not only our future but that of our children as well.

Ignorance is no excuse, but education without action is but stupidity and complacency. We have the technology, by God let's use it! Other countries put us to shame because they do make those changes necessary to advance their society away from the addiction to oil and gas while we American just sit in a rut, suck on our thumbs and complain our life away. And whatever we do, let's not wait on our politicians or we'll never get anything done. And while we're at it; we'd better pray for our leaders; other than the Grace of Almighty God, our democracy and each other are all we have.

Solar Energy vs. Solar Water Heating

Back in the seventies the solar water heating technology was new. Even if it was properly installed, it often broke down within a few years. But now the technology has improved considerably, and if you choose your installer wisely, you should have few problems with such a system.

Solar power systems are much simpler than solar water heating systems, and, though quite expensive, require no maintenance. Depending upon your location, they can pay for themselves in ten years or even less. In February, installation was completed on a 2.4 kW system on our home, and in just eight months it has already reduced our electric bill by $400. Of course, it cost us about $17,200, with our electric utility paying $7,200 of that. It will, however, provide us with a $1000 state income tax credit, along with about $5,170 in federal tax credits (thanks to the rescue bill recently passed by Congress). This brings the net cost down to about $3,830. Even at just $600 per year in savings, this system will pay for itself in less than seven years. Right now, the big problem for those wanting to use solar energy is the initial cost and the difficulty in obtaining a loan to pay for it. Hopefully, the "rescue" bill will make such loans available again.

Let's not diss the whole solar industry over bad news jerks 30 years ago

Sure there were snake oil salesmen back during the referenced time period (late 70s to early 80s)

The industry took an incredible beating due to this. Don't make the sweeping generalization that all solar business people are like this.

#1: Solar thermal heating works and is cost effective. Anybody who says otherwise does not know what they are talking aboutr.

#2: Do your homework and due diligence... don't become a victim of the hucksters that are sure to appear again and are present in most every new industry.

One fact of a new industry is there are an incredible number of people who try to enter, a later phase of the business cycle weeds them out.

Last time around, oil prices tanked and credits disappeared, so the entire industry tanked, not just the hucksters.

This tax credit is good for America. If you can cut your home's energy costs (hot water and space heating) by 25 to 30$ and realize a payback of 5 - 7 years, this is an excellent thing. You become an energy PRODUCER and this amount of production spread across the country has real potential to make a huge, clean, safe, economic difference!

Solar BS

Watch out for the Residential Solar energy hucksters that will come calling to install one on your roof. Packerland Packing of Greenbay Wisconsin had one installed and it didn't do anything except garner a tax goodie for the business. I wonder if it is still operating. The company that sold it to them went out of business. Snake oil salesmen.

It is the naked short drove the market down

It is not about tax credit. It is all about the institutional naked shorts and their controlled propoganda media that drove the entire economy and renewable energy sector down.