Lee Matthews, via email;
Workers are installing nearly 100 solar panels this week on the roof of a Snohomish County administration building in Everett….
At an installed cost of merely $4500.
Per solar panel.
In an area where hydroelectric power costs around 6 cents per kWh.
And the cloudiest place on Earth: the infamous Puget Sound Convergence Zone.
I wonder if the Snomish County Sheriffs Department are running electric cruisers?
Things could get interesting next winter if they are.
Syncro
I hope the solar panels don’t get destroyed in a hail storm a month after they’re installed. Now that is being reaaaaally negative–ain’t it??
Washington State, thanks to the watermelons, doesn’t consider hydro electricity as a “renewable” source of energy and therefore is required to rape the rate payers to subsidize all the so-called green energy sources that are required to meet their mandated quotas while exporting the cheap hydro legacy power. Not hard to tell that Washington is an Obamugabe State. Maybe they use Ontario Hydro as consultants!
I think Prince Rupert, BC is actually the cloudiest place…
Their brains appear to be somewhat cloudy also. There are suckers born everyday.
It’s called greenwashing, and we’re going to see a lot more of it.
Like the AGW/Climate Change Thingie, the foolish are always looking for a new bandwagon to jump onto.
The inmates are running the asylum.
I think it is actually $450 per panel, but I do agree.
One extra point… they are installing the panels to charge their electric cars. But most government owned cars are used during the day, while they are in the garage at night (when there is no solar power). Sounds like another grand idea from the political Left; people who aren’t aware that he sun is up during the day!
Sounds like they need to use the Spanish solar power plants, you know, the ones that produce at nighttime?
Prince Rupert fancied itself the “City of Rainbows”, but I’ve never seen one there. The sun has shown itself a couple of times when I’ve been there but it’s usually raining (not just overcast).
“The $450,000 solar panel project is funded by federal stimulus money”
A similar condition of feel good spending exists in Ontario where McChimpy is spending millions on wind generation that will cost 19 cents a KWhr in an area where hydro costs 9Cents /KWhr.
Costly symbolism – wasting tax money on myths.
And since it requires more energy to make the semi conductor material that is in each 3’x5′ 200W solar panel, than it will generate over it’s expected life time, the idiots are basically running a chinese coal plant now to make panels that will create less electricity even over a 20 year life span. And that is even under ideal desert almost always sunny conditions.
These type of projects will be hanging on every lefty greens neck in 5 years. We will be able to mock and embarrass them for not listening to common sense and basic economics. Patience
It was to be expected, Washington is Oregon-lite.
I’ve spent many a rainy day in Seattle, and a few sunny minutes there.
I just had a solar installation installed for $8/watt, which is at the high end, due to the complexity of the installation. Assuming they used 200 watt panels, the price is an insane $22/watt. Even if they used 280 watt panels, like I did, their price is still an obscene $16/watt. While even my system is too expensive to be considered a practical solution for the average user, at least it is installed in a sunny area.
Shawn, check your math.
Borrow the money from China, buy solar panels from China, pay the installers with borrowed money.
The economic logic of the eco-grifters.
These type of projects will be hanging on every lefty greens neck in 5 years.
Lefty? I take exception to that 🙂 Besides, I’m very happy with my solar PV system. Cost me 7$ per watt, including batteries, inverter, etc. Hydro costs in Ontario go up 20% next month (12% hike + 8% harmonized tax). Lots of grumbling around. Am I ever glad I’m off the grid.
Agreed the project mentioned makes no sense, but people respond to incentives, no matter how perverse they are.
Illusion of eco-greenie becomes reality, facts and data be damned.
The claim that hydro-electricity isn’t a renewable resource is a laugh.
I have a solar panel on my sailboat to keep my battery charged only because my extension cord isn’t long enough.
Everything connected to this prototype project is funded with government subsidy money courtesy of the taxpayers so wasting a large portion of it is part of the process. Unmentioned in the story but noted here by a poster is the fact that the solar installation power output doesn’t mesh with supposed recharging demand time-wise. This leads to the inference that options involve:
the need for up to twice the number of vehicles and parking spaces normally needed to permit direct recharging of the standby vehicles or
also using a very expensive inverter and battery installation to store generated daytime power for later quiet hours recharging use for the exact number of cars needed or
using daytime solar power via inverters to help run the building and recharging the cars with cheap commercial power during quiet hours (which seems like cheating).
GreenNeck,
How does your $7/watt compare to actual Ontario Hydro costs $/watt?
Over what time period is that $7/watt calculated at?
Does that include cost of maintenance/repairs over that lifespan?
How about degradation in efficiency over time? Find it hard to believe that output on day one is going to match output year 5.
Jay,
The cost is just what I paid for the system (18,000$) divided by nominal power (2.5 kW). When I was on the grid my hydro bill was about 1,800$ a year, mostly because of electric heat. Now I use wood only, so my electric bill would be less if I were still on the grid.
I also have a 1.5 kW ‘stinking fan’, as Kate calls them, to supplement the system.
In theory my system pays itself in 10-12 years, but you are correct about degradation, it is mostly in the batteries. After 5 years they still work ok but I estimate in another 4-5 years I’ll need new ones, at a cost of about 2,500.
My goal was not to save money, it was independence. I don’t sell anything back to the grid – completely disconnected. I paid for the whole system with no subsidies. I am a dyed-in-the-wool libertarian and want NOTHING to do with government! I also grow/raise/catch/forage for nearly all my food, make my own firewood and recently produce my own biofuel.
I suspect that 12% hike here in Ontario is to finance the $.60-80/kw paid for wind/solar power….an attempt to control Ontario’s deficit.
Most of these solar panels currently available are salvaged from that state-of-the-art solar farm in California/Arizona that fell on it’s a$$.
South-Western Ontario is the lightning/thunder/Tornado capital of Canada. The bird grinders are taking a beating from lightning…a tornado whacking a row of them is overdue.
GreenNeck,
Admirable to look for independence.
Thanks for the info. Nice to see you throw some caveats in there also. With the green kool-aid drinkers usually it is all sweetness and light with no downside.
I heat primarily with a wood stove but there is a fairly new (10 years) forced air oil furnace.
If I am abroad for a few days my meter reflects no savings…..the burner and fan eat a lot of juice….with thermostat set at 50F……
Yeah..independance is empowering…..
John Chittick is right. The eco-Nazis do not count falling water electricity generation as a renewable resource. You can’t get much more renewable than rain falling and then evaporating back up into the atmosphere to fall again.
Just remember this kiddies. This kind of goofball decisions and waste is exactly what we will get with government health care.
Where is Everett and does the $450Gs ‘solar panel project’ cover only solar panels?
Does the $450,000 ‘solar panel project’ cover only solar panels?