And neither do the Chinese;

Shares of American Superconductor Corp (NasdaqGS:AMSC – News) plunged 41 percent in pre-market trade on Wednesday, a day after the maker of electrical systems for wind farms said it expected to post a loss for the fourth quarter as its largest customer refused to accept ready shipments.
Late on Tuesday, AMSC said Sinovel Wind (Shanghai:601558.SS – News), which accounts for about 75 percent of AMSC’s revenue, refused to accept March shipments, due to the slowdown in China’s wind power market.

h/t Dave

“Never in my wildest nightmares did I ever think that a micro solar facility would be an acceptable thing to be built in my neighbouring backyard,”

*

Oh, darn.

A plan by Saskatchewan and Montana to clean up the air by pumping carbon dioxide emissions underground has been buried.
Saskatchewan Innovation Minister Rob Norris admitted Thursday that talks on the proposed $270-million carbon capture and storage project quietly ended late last fall.
“That chapter has come to a close. Those talks have been discontinued,” Norris said at the provincial legislature in Regina.”
[…]
Saskatchewan was prepared to provide up to $50 million for the project and asked the Canadian government to pitch in $100 million. Montana wanted about $100 million from a U.S. federal stimulus package.
But federal money never came in either country.

“Why?” Is ramping up production and deliveries still a problem? Is demand weak? Are unscrupulous dealers to blame?

The Chevy Freeze;

The magazine has put about 2,500 miles on its Volt. It paid $48,700, including a $5,000 markup by a Chevy dealer.
Champion noted the Volt is about twice as expensive as a Prius.
He was said the five hour time to recharge the Volt was “annoying” and was also critical of the power of the Volt heating system.
“You have seat heaters, which keep your body warm, but your feet get cold and your hands get cold,” Champion said.

In related news…

* Those who have attempted a 300 mile trip in a ’65 Mustang at -30 know what I’m talking about.

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Huffington Post, Oct. 2010 – Solar Panels On White House: Obama To Install Solar Panels In 2011
Washington Post, Feb. 2011 – Dozens of [Washington, CD] residents who installed solar panels on their homes under a government grant program promoting renewable energy have been told they will not be reimbursed thousands of dollars as promised…
Flashback! – “Renege on solar power angers farmers, investors”

Now is the time at SDA when we told you so!
William Tucker, 2009;

Solar radiation is the result of an E = mc2 transformation as the sun transforms hydrogen to helium. Unfortunately, the reaction takes place 90 million miles away. Radiation dissipates with the square of the distance, so by the time solar energy reaches the earth it is diluted by almost the same factor, 10-15. Thus, the amount of solar radiation falling on a one square meter is 400 watts, enough to power four 100-watt light bulbs. “Thermal solar” – large arrays of mirrors heating a fluid – can convert 30 percent of this to electricity. Photovoltaic cells are slightly less efficient, converting only about 25 percent. As a result, the amount of electricity we can draw from the sun is enough to power one 100-watt light bulb per card table.

Daily Mail, 2011;

Eco-campaigners who built a classroom powered by the sun believed they were paving the way for the future.
Instead they have been taught a valuable lesson – there is not enough sun in North London to sufficiently heat their building. The much feted zero-carbon Living Ark classroom was opened three months ago to great fanfare. It boasts laudable green credentials and is made from sustainable wood, sheep’s wool and soil. The roof is made of mud and grass and it has its own ‘rain pod’ and solar panels.
But there is snag – its solar panels only provide enough energy to power a few lightbulbs.

h/t WUWT

But first, they’ll have to get by the Lambton-Middlesex Landowners Association;

Doug and Sheila Thompson own and operate Thompson’s Hardwood, a sawmill specializing in the milling and harvesting of hardwood lumber. The company employs between 25 and 30 people, most of whom are residents of the area.
Doug Thompson — who with his wife took the mill over a number of years ago from his father, Dean Thompson — said the MOE recently notified him that they would be entering the business on Feb. 22 to do an “air facility inspection.”
Thompson said this has become a problem for his industry, adding that the ministry had recently shut down eight sawmills in Eastern Ontario following similar inspections, an issue the Ontario Landowners Association (OLA) has taken up on behalf of private sawmill owners.
“They’re saying sawdust is a pollutant, but as far as I can see top soil is basically sawdust and rotted trees,” said Thompson, who added that he sees it as just an excuse to mandate a bunch of new equipment that the business doesn’t need and can ill afford.
[…]
When MOE officers Whiting and Hutt arrived, they were confronted by an enthusiastic but peaceful crowd that blocked their entry to the premises. Hutt spoke to the Thompsons and told them that under the Environmental Protection Act he had the right to enter the property and conduct an inspection of the facility.
[…]
After considerable discussion Hutt said: “I know I haven’t got a chance in Hell of getting into this building today.”

h/t Louise

Gaia is a cruel prankster.

A $200-million wind farm in northern New Brunswick is frozen solid, cutting off a potential supply of renewable energy for NB Power.
The 25-kilometre stretch of wind turbines, located 70 kilometres northwest of Bathurst, N.B. has been completely shutdown for several weeks due to heavy ice covering the blades.

h/t Dan T.

The risk seemed non-existent…

He had been given a conditional offer by the Ontario Power Authority under a plan proposed and backed by the Ontario government.
So Aukema borrowed $85,000 rather than cashing in part of his modest RRSP and paid for the project and the electrical work needed to hook [his solar panels] to the grid.
Then he waited.

Oops. “The growing nightmare of McGuinty’s green-energy dream”

[T]he Ontario Liberal Government used Friday’s wall-to-wall coverage of Egypt’s revolution to announce yet another climbdown from its vaunted green-energy schemes. About the only thing left of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s obsession with converting his province from carbon energy to wind, solar, hydro and biofuels is sharply higher consumer energy prices. Higher power rates will be with Ontarians for decades after Mr. McGuinty’s green dreams have faded from memory.

Now is the time at SDA when we tried to warn you!

Wind has less than 1/10th the energy density of wood, wood half the density of coal and coal half the density of octane. Altogether they differ by a factor of about 50. Nuclear has 2 million times the energy density of gasoline. It is hard to fathom this in light of our previous experience. Yet our energy future largely depends on grasping the significance of this differential.

Think where we might be today if energy policy were less Magic Wand Suzuki and more Small Dead Animals? Now, if only some sort of technology existed that could carry information from Ontario (or Australia) to our own provincial energy minister.
h/t Maz2

“Measured annual energy production from the turbines averages 48 percent of that predicted by the models using the manufacturer’s published power curves,” Kelly Winder wrote in the Small Wind Turbine Performance Investigation report, which was distributed only to study participants.

That’s when they work.

I take it all back. The wind does blow when it’s cold!

[F]rom the evidence of alternative energy development, it seems far more plausible that the key problem has been government failure not market failure. Indeed, the market failure assumption has been typically based on the following premise: there is demand for alternative energy technologies but the market does not provide them. That is, market participants devote few or no resources to alternatives and create innovations with only limited application. Therefore government has to step in to induce the technological development the market fails to create. But the historical record shows that government has spent literally billions of dollars and has achieved almost no obvious benefits as a result. If indeed the market spends little or nothing to create nothing, while the government spends large social resources for the same result, then it would seem government failure, not market failure is a greater concern.

The History of U.S. Alternative Energy Development Programs: A Study of Government Failure (pdf)
Via.

It just keeps growing

The EPA has followed up its ruling allowing E15 ethanol blends (15% ethanol, 85% gasoline) to be pumped to vehicles built for the 2007 model-year and later, now allowing the corn juice-enhanced gasoline to be distributed to any vehicle built after 2001.

Let’s hope we escape this nonsense in Canada.

In its obsessive desire to promote the virtues of electric cars, the BBC proudly showed us last week how its reporter Brian Milligan was able to drive an electric Mini from London to Edinburgh in a mere four days – with nine stops of up to 10 hours to recharge the batteries (with electricity from fossil fuels).
What the BBC omitted to tell us was that in the 1830s, a stagecoach was able to make the same journey in half the time…

Speaking of 10 hour recharges, have you ever had to wait in line at the pumps? Yup. Me too.
h/t Robert B.

Boston Herald;

The Patrick administration blasted Evergreen Solar Inc., which announced today it’s closing its Devens factory and laying off 800 workers, and a top official said the state will try to get back tens of millions in subsidies from the company.
Evergreen, a Marlboro-based solar panel maker once considered a clean-energy darling of Gov. Deval Patrick, has been steadily shifting jobs to its facility in lower-cost China, but until today had indicated its Massachusetts operations would continue.

Lower cost – and warmer climate.
h/t Maz2

Bowden, Alberta windfarm.

(Thanks, Darcey.)
Update, from the comments – “Not a big fan of wind farm due to consumer or government subsidies, but to be fair this one is still under construction and not hooked to the grid.”
LOL… Fair enough!

How many politicians does it take to screw you on light bulbs?
Daily Mail (UK);

The price of energy-saving light bulbs will treble as the final supplies of traditional bulbs dry up, industry experts have warned.

Well not for everyone, it won’t.

Remember – buy physical bulbs, not bulb manufacturer stock.
Via