If this doesn’t make you smile I will refund your money.
Until now, the idea that unsubsidised solar power could make enough financial sense to be competitive with conventional electricity has been largely confined to the realms of environmental campaigners and renewable energy advocates.
However, as solar panels become more efficient and vastly cheaper, and household power bills keep rising, analysts at some of the world’s largest financial institutions say such a prospect is indeed possible – and likely to cause profound disruption in the energy industry.
“We’re at a point now where demand starts to be driven by cold, hard economics rather than by subsidies and that is a game changer,” says Jason Channell of Citigroup.
If the faces of renewable energy critics are not red yet, they soon will be. For years, these critics — of solar photovoltaics in particular — have called renewable energy a boutique fantasy. A recent Wall Street Journal blog post continues the trend, asserting that solar subsidies take money from the poor to benefit the rich.
But solar-generated electricity is turning into a powerful environmental and economic success story. It’s also threatening the balance sheets of electric utility companies that continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
As their costs per kilowatt hour have fallen through the floor, solar arrays have hit the rooftops.
The average price of a solar panel has declined an estimated 60 percent since the beginning of 2011, and this year the total photovoltaic capacity in the United States is projected to reach 10 gigawatts, the energy equivalent of several nuclear power plants. (By one estimate, photovoltaic costs crossed over to become cheaper than electricity generated by new nuclear plants about four years ago.)
An analysis of remodeling and construction permit data from 77 municipalities around the United States reveals that solar installations — primarily photovoltaic rather than solar thermal — grew by a third last year alone. With a relatively short payback period, these home-improvement investments are now within the reach of many middle-class families.
Haha, that Rap News was fantastic. Love how they got in all the conspiracy theories there too. Seems like an intelligent lot.
Funny stuff. Is Moonseed channeling Ray D?
For a funny video, it’s remarkably accurate and well expressed. It succinctly sums up the present situation. Beats explaining tar sands EROI and resultant recession in dry, academic discussion. And yes, there is some channeling there. 🙂
Come on renewable energy critics. Let’s see your red …. Faces. 🙂
dumboldguy – Are you listening? This is the proper place for me to make on on topic post about the range and types of response to AGW. I briefly mentioned it in response to your comment about off topic from Moonbeam. I find relief in the comments from other blog sites that display the same sort of comment activity as here and mimic the characters in the comedy video. Some conservative bloggers are quite lucid and real. Its not the source, its the mind and the character.
JoeJoe
“Leftist? That’s a weird Rush Limbaugh type insinuation. I’m a veteran who likes shooting guns, G&Ts, nice tatas and listening to loud music.”
“Coal with FGD in China costs about 7 cents/kWh. Nuclear currrently costs about 6.5 cents/kWh judging from the regulated tariff rates they use to support nuclear there. I think wind and solar can beat these prices so we’re going to see a hell of a lot of growth over there. I think these things because I built a VBA model that calculates the LCOE of various energy resources”
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/dueling-charts-of-the-day-peaker-plants-vs.-green-power
Similar comments as here:
Bob_Wallace-
“Again, David, you were off topic and disrupting the discussion. You were asked twice to get on topic. You refused.
Now, your charts.
First, do you realize that you have accessed them from one of the least trustworthy sites on the web?”
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/u.s.-solar-market-grows-41-has-record-year-in-2013
Found the time to really check out the comment stream. Some real “cuties” over there. Larry, Bob, Jrt, and REAL LIBERTARIAN have got a real circus going.
And I love handles like REAL LIBERTARIAN. You see them often on the right wing-nut sites—-Warrior, Real American, True American Patriot, True American Patriot Warrior, etc. And anyone who disagrees with them is a commie liberal fascist pinko marxist progressive Nazi socialist who loves the dictator O’Bama.
PS You may have noticed the spelling of Obama? All those “real Americans” love to call the POTUS things like Obummer, ObumS**T, and the slightly more clever ObaMauMau, which at least had the Kenyan connection and is euphonic. I chastised many for this, and always spelled Obama O’Bama when I did. One finally said “You get on our case but you spell his name wrong too”, to which I replied “New information has come out that O’Bama is descended from one of a crew of Kenyan sailors who were shipwrecked on the Irish coast in 1363—he is one of those Black Irishmen people talk about, and that’s why I have ‘Irishized’ the spelling of his name”.
Guess what? Wait for it—-one of them came back and said “I can find no evidence of what you say. Can you provide a link?”—to which I replied “Look harder”. Had several of them going nuts for a while.
No sense of humor, either, I see. 🙂 Oh you just love frustrating inferior minds. Its hard not to when they advertise their stupidity.
It is kind of a relief to see the same drama played out on different websites. There are also egoistic self appointed experts who bloviate erroneous canards without reference. The bloggers that do their homework command respect. Why is it that comedy contains more concentrated truth? I almost dismissed this vid, but it is really pretty deep.
Excellent and humorous