Update: Solyndra announces it plans to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is suspending operations and seeks a reorganization. Click here for the company's full statement. ---------------------- Solyndra, a major manufacturer of solar technology in Fremont, has shut its doors, according to employees at the campus. "I was told by a security guard to get my [stuff] and leave," one employee said. The company employs a little more than 1,000 employees worldwide, according to its website. More : http://www.hermancainforums.com/index.php/topic,694.0.html
Solar is not viable at this time for large scale cost effective energy. It costs over 10X that of coal and nuclear. We need to improve the technology before dumping in 1/2 BILLION tax payer dollars.
I strongly tend to disagree. http://www.solarroadways.com/intro.shtml and..... The Sahara Forest Project, (financed largely by Norway) .... and.... The Sahara Solar Breeder Project, (financed largely by Japan)!
If these solar projects were self-sufficient and cost effective, then they wouldn't need to be financed by the governments of Japan and Norway. They would be commercially viable and would generate profit. Most solar projects take 60 years to pay for themselves, yet have a functional life of 35 years, meaning they will never be cost effective. All solar manufacturing endeavors are tax subsidized through tax abatements, grants for research, guaranteed federal loans at little or no interest, subsidies for installation, subsidies to power companies to create infrastructure to connect solar to the grid, and subsidies to the owner of the solar panels for their use. If you removed those subsidies, there would be no more solar projects because each and every single company who deals with solar would be bankrupt. And even with all those subsidies, the manufacturing companies are still going bankrupt.
This is an obviously well informed comment on this topic..... but there are a number of other reasons why I tend to disagree. For one thing...... the Sahara Forest Project technology was originally developed in Israel, but then shared with Norway, because Norway is a reliable ally to the nation of Israel. Once the technology is in the hands of Norwegian educators, universities and business.... then..... it can be shared by them, with Islamic nations like Jordan and Qatar. A pretty powerful case can be presented that large scale desalination of ocean water may be the least expensive way to protect New Orleans, Bangladesh, The Netherlands and parts of Florida from the probable threat of rising ocean levels......... .so even if the present technology isn't yet at the level where it is profitable on its own....... we need to take a risk on it so that we can begin to put large amounts of fresh water into desert regions in order to decrease pressure on our oceans to overflow certain cities and large portions of entire nations that are at very low sea level. http://saharaforestproject.com The results of this poll are promising indeed...... http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...mbatting-climate-change-unite-right-left.html Do you believe turning deserts green is part of a full response to climate change?Voters 12. You have already voted on this poll Yes, plants are both a carbon and water sink! 5.............................................41.67% No, geo-engineering in any form is evil! 3......................................................25.00% No, all effort must be put into a carbon tax or cap and trade system. 2.........16.67% Yes, even religious people like the idea of producing food in deserts. 4........33.33% Multiple Choice Poll
Indeed they are! But large scale desalination of ocean water, even by less than one hundred percent profitable technology has another potential benefit..... It might just be one of the best ways to stop a general global warming trend that would be far safer than using Global Dimming as P. M. Stephen Harper and President George W. Bush may well have decided to do???!
Here is an article that gives us a better idea of how serious our situation really is..... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090205142132.htm Collapse Of Antarctic Ice Sheet Would Likely Put Washington, D.C. Largely Underwater
Did President G. W. Bush and P. M. Harper deliberately use Global Dimming to.. .... mask... to decrease..... to hide.......to postpone......... a general Global Warming trend? A second legitimate question is..... within fifty years is it at all possible that we may find out that they may perhaps have had a basically good idea in doing this? http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...m-harper-deliberately-use-global-dimming.html
In Saudi Arabia they have two towns off grid (completely solar) since 1982.. and a few years ago Farasan Island went complexly solar.
At KAUST they are also working on hy-solar.. Seems like I read that there is so much sunshine in KSA that its the same amount of energy as 30 million barrels of oil per day. For the record.. I don't think that increasing desalination with alter the changes in sea level or turn the Sahara green. When it was a Savannah (KSA was as well) it was because glaciers had crept south.
But....... please keep in mind I am talking about investing billions.......... and even frankly trillions into this!? I have read that one of the major reasons why such a high percentage of the people of Afghanistan wanted to take a job...... killing American and allied soldiers...... is that it was one of the only ways available to make a living in that country. Basically, an able bodied young man had several choices...... grow poppies...... grow pot........ or take a training course to kill Americans........ and a high percentage of the people of Afghanistan decided on option number 3. One very bright person put forward the theory that for about five dollars per Afghani soldier per day....(or was it per week)..... we might have been able to divert their attention away from killing American or allied soldiers......... into a more constructive behaviour pattern. People with pieces of paper on their office wall saying that they were economists........ experts in their field....... talked our leaders out of that though....... on the basis of the idea that we could not afford to do it??????! (I guess none of those experts had children in the military)?! (I had no idea what you mean by KAUST... so I googled it).... Intriguing! http://www.kaust.edu.sa
Got a link? Because that means they have no power at night. I'm going to have to call you. Solar is a great idea for non-baseload power if you are putting it on buildings, structures, roadways, etc.... The best way to do solar is to require that all new buildings have it on their roofs. It will be a good daytime source, but not a baseload or evening / bad weather source.
Saudi Arabia is a desert where it seldom rains. Most of the US is not optimal for solar panel output.
