52 Replies to “We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Mirrors”

  1. Almost everything Saskpower does upsets me. I had hoped Sask government people had more sense. Solar in Sask in summer is ok to run AC for a few days, and that’s it.

    1. But hey, keep listening to the “save our crowns” union thugs of the NDP.

      Government run power is SUCH a good idea. My power is only out 50% of the year.

    2. A study by Ferroni & Hopkirk 2016 shows that after 25 years, solar panel farms in Germany & Switzerland produced only 82% of the energy required to manufacture, install, & maintain them. It also demonstrated that at this point in time (at current solar panel efficiency), latitude 35N is the solar energy break even line. Latitude 35N corresponds approximately with the southern border of the state of Tennessee.

      After 25 years of operation, solar farms north of this line produce LESS energy than it takes to manufacture, install, & maintain them, while solar farms south of this line produce more.

    1. Actually the additional dollars are not a cost. It is the warm afterglow of virtue signalling. Think of it as once the orgasm is over you are dealing with the consequences of having been #&%*ed.

  3. Once the carbon tax gets going $900/mth will be cheap.

    $115000?!? How many watts does that produce?

    That isn’t for a single family home.

  4. I hope you like clearing snow. Solar in Arizona is uneconomical. In Saskatchewan it is stupid. There are remote applications that make sense. 30 years ago, I knew someone who was quoted $35,000 for a power hookup. Instead he spent $10 or $15 thousand on a solar setup. He often still had to fire up the generator to charge his batteries in winter with its 7 hours of insignificant solar energy.

  6. He’s not considering how fast they degrade either…by the end of his 25 years….he’s going to be getting a whole lot less power out of them

  8. This is what happens when we let people with literature degrees run the country, for example Gerry Butts. They don’t understand basic arithmetic. Buttsian economics would tell us that 400 – 930 = a saving of 530 a month!
    Sarc off

  9. Exhibit A. another example of the rank stupidity of mankind. It’s rampant, it’s going to take us down I tell Ya!!!

  10. Aged Grump said “Solar in Sask in summer is ok to run AC for a few days, and that’s it.” Yes. Google Earth the greater Phoenix area and see how few PVs are on roofs in middle class districts. PVs are fashion statements and tend to be on roofs in more upscale areas where there are large houses with swimming pools.

    Near Brooks, Alberta a 15-MW solar facility, Brooks Solar, started feeding into the grid in Dec 2017. Thankfully AESO publishes every watt produced by BS. I have gather data for every month in 2018.
    December (744 total hours in December)
    385 mWh of 11,160 mWh possible (31 days X 24 hours X15 mWh)
    December output was 3.40% of nameplate capacity
    474 Hours with zero power or 64% with zero power
    661 hours at less than 10% output or 89% at less than 10% output
    Solar output in the four winter months is around 5% of nameplate capacity..I’d have to check the numbers.
    Key in winter is the number of hours when there is some output, but the levels are close to zero and have no practical benefits in the grid, especially when demands in winter are high.

    2018 summary TO BE VERIFIED
    22,407 mWh total output of 131,400 mWh possible (8,760 hours in 2018)
    2018 output was 17.05% of nameplate capacity .. let us not forget BS is not a test facility…it is a full-scale PV solar generator.
    4,116 Hours with zero power OR 47% of all hours with zero output**
    5,763 Hours with less than 10% output OR 66% of all hours with less than 10% output
    7,407 Hours with less than 50% output OR 85% of all hours with less than 50% output

    CAS

    1. Brooks Solar is BS! 🙂

      I’m looking forward to the day when Edmonton is totally solar and wind powered. But don’t worry Edmontonians, with all of Turdeau’s immigration you’ll be having 20 people per household so body heat will heat your home.

    2. You might want to revisit your numbers – there’s a big difference between milliWatts and Megawatts. Also, capacity in Watts and energy in MWHours. However, apart from that tip, I agree with you. For a start, the BEST POSSIBLE output is only 50% of rated capacity. It may be 15MW, but even on the equator, it could only produce that for a maximum of 50% of the time, even with expensive solar tracking. So, if your 15MW solar unit is on the equator, it might be able to get close to generating 150MWHours of electricity – during the day –

    3. I see the sun from both sides now.

      Solar project near Suffield to power 7,400 homes

      The federal government announced a plan to fund the construction of new solar farm in southeastern Alberta on Thursday that it says has the potential to power about 7,400 homes per year.

      The project, to be located near Suffield, Alta., will create 23 megawatts of generating capacity “using a novel approach designed to capture energy from both sides of the solar panel while it tracks the sun’s daily trajectory,” said a release.

      . . . .

      Funding for the project is being provided through Natural Resources Canada’s Emerging Renewable Power Program.

      The program has committed $15.3 million over two years for the $49-million solar project.

  12. Thanks to the rise and dominance of the institutional left, it is an article of unquestionable, yet blind faith that we are only a matter of a few years from when fossil fuels will be gone and wind and solar will allow sublime eco-friendly bliss. Besides, math and science are too hard and there’s the human bovine or ovine vote to be hysteria-pimped.

  13. Solar panels after a few years start producing a bit less electricity, and it deteriorates a little bit more every year… by the time you are finished paying for them ( usually 20 – 25 years) they are producing maybe 60% of what they were producing when new

    Google makes finding such information a bit difficult but it was out there, those are the facts, solar panels like pretty much everything lose effciency over time

    If they sold for a very low price maybe they would make sense, but as long as they are expensive they are a very bad idea

  14. Here’s how solar “pencils out” … in a nutshell …

    https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/24/pge-claims-rates-could-skyrocket-five-fold-if-ordered-to-clear-trees-inspect-electricity-system/

    Yes, when your current energy rates QUINTUPLE … then solar “pencils out”. And when The State’s (Jerry Brown) anti-logging, hands-off, the forest eco-psycho Gov. CAUSES mass conflagrations of DEATH … then FEED the ratepayers to the LAWYERS swarming to the deep pockets of a Government-Monopoly Utility partnership … solar will “pencil out”.

    The Late Great State of CA was maimed by 4-terms of Jerry Brown … and now Gov. Gavin Newsom will deliver the KILL shot.

  16. Why is the Sask. Party government promoting raising the cost of electricity?

    As a virtue signalling project, it is about as sensible as Justin Trudeau’s war on C02 ?

    1. When Doug Ford canned green energy programs in Ontario last year there was a great ruckus among the rent seekers who cried they would have to move to Saskatchewan or Alberta to make a living (…off the government…). Haha.

  17. “historical weather patterns” Uh-huh.
    There’s an empty pylon on the edge of our small town which used to have a 60Kw rated wind turbine mounted on it. This was intended to power the pumps connected to buried pipes and provide geo-thermal heating to the owners rather large building. At the time it was installed heating/cooling costs were approximately $1000/month over the entire year.

    The turbine failed within a year, and when the owner tried to get warranty repairs, found out the manufacturer had also failed. When it did work the unit delivered only half the rated output at 30Kw, and the U of S sent out techs that installed a wind rose to measure the actual wind. The data showed the wind only blew half as much as the historical numbers for the area over time.

    So the unit produced only a quarter of the power needed. The owner went back to the grid.

    1. Dana
      Wind power is proportional to the cube of the wind speed, so if the wind speed halves, the power will drop to 1/8. Basically wind turbines are designed for a specific velocity, below that they are almost useless. On the other side, if the wind blows too hard, the turbine and it’s generator will quickly be overloaded. This effect is mitigated by varying the blade pitch, but that only works over a fairly narrow range.
      Have you noticed wind turbines not turning in high winds? The blades are feathered to prevent damage to the turbine because there is too much power.

      So for the case you quote, the average wind speed would not have to be too far below the expected value to generate only half the expected output.

  18. About 5 years ago I looked at how to save money on my propane bills ($6,000/yr) and hydro (also $6,000/yr). To install a Geo-thermal system was about $35,000 including the 2 water boreholes and would reduce my propane use by 90% (down to cooking a BBQing). To install solar was $90,000 with an estimate of 30-50% savings in hydro.

    6 years before return on investment for Geo-thermal (the heat exchangers last 15 yrs) with net savings of $50,000 over the life of the unit.

    30 years before return on investment for solar for a system that lasts 18-22 years (never pays back).

    We are in our 5th year of Geo-thermal and the units are very reliable. Even the guy quoting on the solar system didn’t think we would ever break even. I bought a small amount of propane last summer (I use about $1,000 every three years now). In the summer the price is supposed to be cheap but I found it very expensive (Superior). I’ve likely broken even on Geo-thermal already.

    If you have good wall exposure to a south-facing direction, consider buying larger windows. In late January – April they will add 2-3 degrees of inside warmth.

    Also, if you live in Ontario, Hydro One is moving to a fixed cost delivery fee for electricity. In 2-3 years you will be charged a fixed amount if you are connected to the grid, even if you don’t use electricity. Right now you are charged about 35% of your electricity usage.

    1. Passive solar, done right … is a brilliant way to design. Thermal mass really helps however. Concrete/tile floor … and/or concrete interior wall that catches the sun. I can only imagine how low the sun angle is at Canadian latitudes during winter!! Deep penetration into interior spaces.

      1. Agreed. I have seen some really well-designed houses up here in the frozen North. What you need however is really good insulation as well. I took a long hard look at straw-bale houses some years ago and the good ones are kept nice and warm all year for an astonishingly low heating cost. They also work well for summer cooling – the large thermal mass smooths the temperature out very well.

        As for the sun angle, Canadian latitudes are not as low as many people think. Here in southern Ontario we are on the same latitude as the Mediterranean and the most southerly point in Ontario is further south than northern California.

  19. Charlatans rely on people with no math or planning skills to pass this sort of scheme off.

    A country where daylight in the winter is eight hours or less needs solar panels for industrial or domestic purposes like it needs plagues of locusts.

  21. Southern Alberta and parts of Southern Saskatchewan form the sun belt of Canada….a great sales pitch to buy solar panels. Government keeps itself in power through subsidies, i.e. buying us with our own money. Lovely.

    One home builder In Calgary just announced that all their new constructions will feature solar panels. This no longer is an option with them. To foist this on the public could be their downfall. We will just have to wait and see. People aren’t lining up to buy houses here anymore. Where’s the business, Business-manski Politicians?

    1. And then the builder plants trees around the house.

      If I put solar panels on my roof the shade from the trees would keep sun off the panels.

      1. Near Milton, Ontario the hydro company was out cutting old trees away from the power lines while another crew was busy planting new trees … wait for it … underneath the power lines.

  22. You should also include municipal taxes on the value of your property improvement. I understand geothermal systems and solar systems are viewed as a taxable property improvement, similar to certain decks, sheds, etc.

  23. Solar just barely makes sense along the southern tier of states in the US. Last time I looked, Canada has somewhat less exposure to the sun. did anyone do any research on this?

    1. Hey if you are a Lieberal or a Sask Party environmental nut job, truth and facts just get in the way of selling a scam.

  24. If Sask. realy feels it needs CO2 free power, we should just run a line west from Manitoba. Thanks to the dumb NDP, we already have more capacity than we can currently use or sell, and they also ran Bipole 3 along a dumb Western route. Branch off that, maybe make some lemonade out of it.

  25. This is definitely one area where the Sask Party is scamming the people. I suspect that wind generators no doubt is another area. I don’t doubt the words of the Facebook comment writer in the thread header.

    It could be worse, if we had Kommissar Meili we would be paying a carbon tax as well as for other Gore/Suzuki fraud items.

  26. That reply says they purchased their solar system (heh) for *155,000*, uh, . . . Canadians. That’s 87,000 USD. For a home-sized installation here it costs 10-25k USD (13 – 27 Canadian dollars) with the upper limit for systems that can provide complete grid independence (battery backup and sized for running air conditioning) for a large home. With no downpayment and crappy interest rates it shouldn’t cost more than 1.5*installation cost.

    Not saying solar is a good idea outside the desert but that person really got boned on that loan and system/installation costs.

  27. Not wanting to drag the party down any further…..

    Has anyone mentioned rare earth minerals mined in China? Used in solar panels. And the environmental impact of that? If we all had solar panels the 30 million Chinese men without a spouse will invade Canada for our water

  30. All of that solar astroturfing about solar pales when it comes to the nightmare at the end of life cycle for panels. Go do your homework and weep over your foolishness. Lovely story really.

  31. I wrote to both Wall when he was premier and also to Moe as Premier (plus the various Environment ministers) strongly suggesting that SK needs to be the leader in using nuclear energy. It is clean and god knows we have a lot of uranium. As for safety – we have mined the stuff for decades, transported it all around the world (both safely). While I’m not a mining expert or a nuclear expert, I think common sense would suggest that once the fuel is used, we bring back what’s left and put it back in the mines that we took it from – gee it was there for eons to begin with, I don’t think it would be that difficult.. Their response was lackluster to say the least.

    But no, we are going with this silly solar/wind stuff that costs huge amounts of money for very little value.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation