The Salt River Project District is the main power utility for Phoenix, AZ. The board is elected via a weighted vote based on land ownership. It is non-political.
They’re not just bringing the outrageous rates they pay for roof-top power supply down to wholesale levels, they’re going to start charging those suppliers with infrastructural usage as well. (read: the power lines) Naturally, the enviro-whackos and the solar industry are aghast.
Expect more of these type of stories in the coming months/years as more and more jurisdictions realize that they can’t afford to pay $0.80/kWh supply.
If solar can’t make a go of it in Arizona, yeah, it’s totally feasible in Saskatchewan, right Suzuki?
Here is a rare insight into just how useless solar power is in a country like Canada. It is a web portal into one of the school roof solar systems being promoted by the anti-engineering money-wasting politicians we have infested Queens Park with.
http://smps.solarvu.net/green/solarVuLive.php?ac=southmarchps&dr=osp
It was installed in November 2011 and has produced a total of 35 kWh since then. You can see it hasn’t produced any in the last 7 days because it is probably buried in snow (and they haven’t figure out how to get that snow shoveling dog up on the roof). The owner of the system (which isn’t the school) has been paid $27,882 for supplying $1400 worth of electricity. And as I understand it we the Hydro customer paid for all the grid connectivity.
The envirowackos are just like socialists everywhere. The want everyone else to pay for their crap. I use 8 cent power while someone who uses 80 cent power wants me to pay for it. What is wrong with saving the world on their own dime? Sounds pretty democratic to vote with your pocketbook.
Arizona is one of the last communities composed mostly of real adults left in the USA. I visit every year to refresh my memory of what an actual adult looks like. Around here I see mostly spoiled children with old bodies.
By the way, it is 100% true that solar power does not pay in Arizona. The reasons are:
A) It only generates power in the daytime, so you have to have generators ANYWAY.
B) Solar photovoltaic panels are inefficient and fantastically expensive.
C) You have to wash the dust off every week, or the things become completely opaque and make no power. Washing the dust off ten acres of solar panels every week is fantastically expensive, maintenance costs rapidly eclipse the already fantastic cost of the panels themselves and the fram that holds them up. The dust also etches the glass, rendering the solar panels useless in far less than their normal life span.
Also:
-critters eat the insulation off the wiring,
-ants destroy any wooden buildings or fences on the site,
-the 120F++ heat destroys absolutely everything made of plastic or rubber in two or three years,
-paint lasts five years maximum,
-weeds grow up and obscure the panels (Yes, weeds do grow up in Arizona, they’re tough), and must be cut,
-cretins steal stuff,
and so forth. It is the very definition of a harsh environment.
They knew all this before they put them up. They put them up anyway, to get the politically motivated state and federal grant money. The original owners have all long since fled, the poor schlubs who own these things now are losing their shirts.
Pity you can’t reach out and nail the actual culprits with the costs to dismantle the projects. That would be justice.
On the bright side, there will soon be lots of dandy solar panels available suuuuuper cheap on the surplus market, just the thing for running a remote system out in the boondocks. Like your RV in the sand dunes.
Solar is fine for micro-scaled applications, as is wind.
It is useless for feeding a grid, as is wind.
On a related topic…a thousand or two miles away…this morning I caught the tail-end of a radio interview with Christine Elliot, front -runner in the Ontario PC leadership campaign. One of the things in her 4-point program was the acknowledgement that Hydro rates are crippling Ontarians and driving away industry. She promised a thorough “reconfiguration” of the entire power system, with a view to reducing the exorbitant rates.
The program host (realizing that she had just spent a lot of time to say nothing) asked her how she intended to reduce the rates…was she going to tear up the wind and solar contracts?
No, said Christine, she didn’t believe that was necessary. She wanted to have a group hug-in with all parties and see if maybe the producers would voluntarily reduce the dollar per kilowatt rate on their contracts.
This, ladies and gentlemen, will be the next leader of Ontario’s Opposition.
A guy I used to work with has a house in the mountains with no access to the power grid. He was real proud of his new wind turbine until a little, old 70 mph wind trashed it. Anything that delicate has no future in Montana.
Of course they won’t agree to any such thing. They’ll wave their contracts in the air. Just introduce a law to invalidate them on the basis of provincial emergency, a temporary measure until all contracts have been investigated. Take their time. The wait alone should make most go away.
At least the future of solar will be prettier than the future of windmills. Mother nature will just reclaim solar.
http://notrickszone.com/2011/07/04/weed-covered-solar-park-20-acres-11-million-only-one-and-half-years-old/
Solar owners should have to compete with all other sources for sale of their energy. Why should they be guarantied a buyer which violates all principles of civil discourse in financial transactions. It is called corruption… Period.
Queue Harry Reed & Nancy Pelosi
there really is no cure for stupid. that is not just a throwaway line.
Hey Mike W,
My kids went to that school 2 years ago. It’s very close by. I remember reading about the subsidies WE would be paying to install those panels, and then the subsidy WE would be paying for the electricity. Win/Win all the way……
/sarc off
If I think of it, I’ll have to go take a pic of the roof, it’s 5 minutes away. Right now it’s generating a whopping 5 WATTS!!!, total of 65W/hr for the day, and it’s sunny out….revenue today $0.05 WooooHoooo.