Solar now accounts for over 50% of new electricity capacity added to the U.S. grid

Discussion in 'Environment & Conservation' started by Media_Truth, Mar 7, 2024.

  1. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    And now we know that you didn't read your the link that you posted.
     
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  2. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    Here's an example why solar ROI is low.
    Swiss Alpine Photovoltaic System Begins To Crumble After Just 2 Years
    By P Gosselin on 22. September 2024

    Photovoltaic projects crumble in harsh alpine environments…Swiss solar panels on dam project fails after just 2 years.
    Who cares if it works or not?

    It’s often how the green racket works: Conjure up some green energy producing pie-in-the-sky project, no matter how unfeasible it may be, propose it to technically illiterate bureaucrats – who permit and fund it with little hesitation – build it, and, after realizing it won’t ever work, abandon it and let the next generation deal with the mess. In the meantime, you will have earned a tidy sum of money.

    The latest likely example of such a project is “Axpo in Glarus Süd”, described at Blackout News here: “Solar panels at Muttsee dam fail after two years – solar plant not suitable for mountain use.”

    [​IMG]

    PV system installed on a dam in Switzerland. AI-generated image, Source: Blackout News.

    The Swiss Axpo Glarus Süd solar project consisted of installing solar panels on a dam with ideal orientation.

    Extremely harsh environment

    It was heralded as a pioneering project and designed to last 20 years while providing green power (at least in the summertime) to nearly 3000 people. But, as Blackout News reports: “After just two years, considerable problems are already apparent. Of the 5,000 or so solar panels installed, around 270 are damaged, reports the newspaper Südostschweiz.”

    A solar system in the harsh environment of the Swiss Alps? What could possibly go wrong?

    Surely the builders and those approving the project had to have been familiar with extremely harsh winter conditions and massive snowfalls of the Swiss Alps, and that the system would never have a chance. Obviously no one cares much about reality anymore. The important thing, it seems, is to grab all that green cash and make a stash.

    Panels damaged after just 2 years

    Already, just 2 years in operation, 270 panels (5%) of the Muttsee project need to be replaced, and that at an exorbitant cost. Just check out the Axpo promotion video and take a look at the equipment needed to build the project. The helicopters, cranes, rigging and this caliber of personnel aren’t cheap.


    Axpo promotion video: “Construction start of Switzerland’s largest solar facility.”

    So far I haven’t found data on the project’s return on investment time.

    Another embarrassing fact: “The full extent of the damage only became clear when the snow at 2500 meters above sea level had completely melted,” reports Blackout News.

    No one became aware of the damage until spring had arrived?
     
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  3. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Nothingburger!
     
  4. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Again your faith based denialism is showing.
     
  5. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Solar continues do dominate United States electric capacity additions in 2024.

    https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=62864

    AUGUST 19, 2024
    U.S. power grid added 20.2 GW of generating capacity in the first half of 2024

    Operational capacity additions: As in 2023, solar accounted for the largest share of newly operating generating capacity in the United States during the first half of 2024. Solar additions totaled 12 GW, 59% of all additions. Texas and Florida made up 38% of U.S. solar additions. The 690-megawatt (MW) solar and storage Gemini facility in Nevada and the 653-MW Lumina Solar Project in Texas were the largest solar projects that came online in the first six months of 2024.
    https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/images/2024.08.19/main.svg
     
  6. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The Chinese Communist Party is ecstatic.
     
  7. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Not much to worry about there. Their country is heavy in debt. American workers Engineered the system, prepped the sites, supplied all the infrastructure hardware, installed the panels, and will monitor output and efficiency!
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2024
  8. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The Chinese Communist Party is ecstatic to sell equipment to the US which will weaken our economy because of the increase the cost of electricity in the US and destabilize our grids.
     
  9. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    Advocacy of "NetZero" is stupidly delusional.
    Why There Will Never Be A Zero Emissions Electricity System Powered Mainly By Wind And Sun
    September 21, 2024/ Francis Menton
    [​IMG]

    • “Net Zero” — That’s the two-word slogan that has been adopted as the official goal of every virtuous state or country for decarbonizing its energy system. The “net” part is backhanded recognition that some parts of the energy system (like maybe air travel or steelmaking) may never be fully de-carbonized. Thus some kind of offsets or indulgences may need to be accepted to claim achievement of the goal.

    • But the “net” thing is not for the easy parts of decarbonization. And by the easy parts, I mean the generation of electricity, and the powering of anything that can be run on electricity or batteries. In electrifiable parts of the energy system, there is to be no tolerance for “net”; only “zero emissions” will do. The official line is that zero emissions electricity is easy and cheap because it can be provided by the wind and sun.

    • The official line is wrong. As the build-out of these wind and solar generation systems continues to progress, it has become increasingly obvious that there will never be a zero-emissions electricity system powered mainly by wind and sun.
    Read More
     
  10. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    No need to worry about 100% wind and solar. We are a long way from there. If we can cut fossil fuels to about 10% of.current levels, that would be sufficient to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels.
     
  11. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    ". . . So without saying so in as many words, they are telling us that as part of a predominantly wind/sun system we will need to build DEFRs of capacity equal to or greater than our entire current average electricity usage. But if the electricity system is powered mainly by wind and sun, then by definition the DEFRs are only going to operate a minority of the time. We will have now built an entire fleet of new nuclear power plants capable of fulfilling our entire peak electricity demand. Or maybe it’s an entire fleet of new hydrogen power plants of same capacity, or an entire fleet of grid-scale batteries of same capacity, only to keep them idle most of the time.

    These are extremely capital-intensive facilities, which can only hope to be economical if they are operated to as much of their capacity as possible. Instead the proposal is that will be intentionally kept idle most of the time.

    Who is going to make the investment in these DEFRs that will be kept mostly idle. Certainly, no private investors will do it without enormous government subsidies.

    And if we were to build an entire system of these DEFRs capable of supplying all of our electricity needs to back up worst-case wind/sun lulls, wouldn’t it make far more sense just to leave out the wind and solar generation and go with the DEFRs all the time? Of course it would.

    At some point this is going to become too obvious to ignore."
     
  12. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    No, that article talked about 100% wind and solar. It’s obvious we aren’t anywhere near that. It’s important that sources aren’t hyping anti-renewable sentiment just for the sake of a sound bite.
     
  13. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    The quote is from the cited/linked article.
     
  14. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  15. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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  16. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    Solar and wind are meeting increasing popular resistance in the US.
    Tally of U.S. Wind & Solar Rejections Hits 735
    Robert Bryce

    ". . . You won’t read much about this in major media outlets, but nearly every week, local communities across the US are rejecting or restricting solar and wind projects. The latest rejection occurred a few days ago in Center, Nebraska, when the Knox County Board of Supervisors voted 6 to 1 to deny a conditional-use permit for a proposed solar project. According to an article by Mark Mahoney of the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan, the board’s decision “drew applause from most of a nearly full courtroom at the county courthouse.”

    The denial of the project in Knox County marks the 58th rejection or restriction of solar energy in the US this year. In addition, as can be seen in the Renewable Rejection Database, which I have just updated, there have also been 35 rejections of wind energy. Thus, since 2015, there have been 735 rejections or restrictions of wind and solar energy in the US.

    To be clear, outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, and National Public Radio have published a handful of articles in recent years about land-use conflicts over alt-energy in rural America. And to its credit, the Times has covered some of the conflicts in upstate New York. But that coverage routinely ignores the scale and frequency of the rejections and the conflicts. These rejections don’t fit the narrative that’s promoted by climate activists, academics at elite universities, and their myriad allies in the media about “clean,” “green,” and “renewable” energy. The Times has not written a single article about the longest-running legal battle over wind energy in American history: the Osage Nation’s 13-year legal fight with Enel. Last December, a federal court judge in Tulsa determined that the Italian company violated the tribe’s sovereignty when it built a 150-megawatt wind project in Osage County without getting permission to mine the tribe’s mineral estate. For more on that case, see my December 23, 2023, article.

    [​IMG]


    Although big media outlets seldom cover these conflicts, the facts — and the numbers — are undeniable. Rural landowners and homeowners from Maine to Hawaii are fighting to protect the integrity of their neighborhoods. They don’t want their landscapes and viewsheds destroyed by oceans of solar panels and forests of 600-foot-high wind turbines. They are also rightly concerned about the diminution of their property values and the noise pollution that comes with these projects. . . . "
     
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  17. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Considering that solar is 70% of the new 2024 capacity, I would say that your “increasing popular resistance” article is nothing but your usual Low-Fact propaganda.
     
  18. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Again you confuse capacity and utilization.
     
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  19. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    Apples & oranges. Not a conflation an engineer should (would) make.
     
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  20. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Sorry but being critical of me does nothing to validate your submittal.
     
  21. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    You were not mentioned.
     
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  22. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    What does “popular resistance” have to do with utilization?
     
  23. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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    You’re replying to your own post.
     
  24. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Donor

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  25. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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