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- inactive, on 04/17/2009, -4/+36hardly a day goes by that i don't see more "change i can believe in"
just this one transaction gives us cleaner air and water,helps protect our countries energy security and creates jobs. - freedomjoe, on 04/17/2009, -0/+27Great news!
- digg4peace, on 04/17/2009, -0/+18The Sun! it gives and gives and never asks anything in return, there is no toxic waste and could never be a shortage...
- biotch, on 04/17/2009, -0/+12This is great to see. Hopefully they continue on this path which should of been started years ago.
- GrammerPants, on 04/17/2009, -1/+10Are you American? The government should be helping these start ups so they actually get started instead of buried by larger business (clean coal, big oil and so on). Not only that alternative energy projects are now an issue of national security and that is a job that falls to the government. Free market doesn't always work, that should be painfully obvious by now.
- Vaasman, on 04/17/2009, -0/+9After that article a week or so ago about them tripling efficiency on solar panels, it's good to see they might capitalize on the breakthrough.
- johnwiz, on 04/17/2009, -1/+8i couldn't be happier with the green energy initiatives our country is now implementing. I know i should be concerned about what it costs me as a tax payer but i don't really care, its a cool technology and I hope it thrives
- GrammerPants, on 04/17/2009, -0/+7Ever since the dawn of time man has yearned to destroy the sun...oh wait.
- UselessTrivia, on 04/17/2009, -0/+7Every day at noon I stand in my back yard and poke at the sun with a pointy stick for hours on end until it finally falls. Every day it gets back up again.
- eramos, on 04/17/2009, -0/+6You can absolutely store the energy, what are you talking about?
The majority of energy usage coincides with daylight except for an hour or two in the evening. Total potential energy capacity from the Sun outweighs every other source (geothermal, wind, hydrodynamic, etc.) COMBINED by orders of magnitude.
You can use solar everywhere, unlike geothermal/wind (yes, even in northern latitudes, especially as PVs become more efficient). It can be utilized in different ways, e.g. solar hot water heaters, unlike wind power which needs to be converted into energy using a turbine.
Solar is THE future of alternative energy. In 50 years most of the world will be powered by solar energy. - vermontr, on 04/17/2009, -0/+6It's not the governments job. But it is a way to utilize the taxpayers' money in a way that helps the taxpayers...
The government decides things every day, why should a solar power loan be different? They decide which contractors get work, which aspiring IRS agents, border security, FBI agents (and so on) get hired. This isn't irregular or new. - serif69, on 04/17/2009, -0/+6This isn't the first time the Department of Energy has funded solar power on a large scale, it's the first loan guaranteed by the Department of Energy for solar power. Normally, they just fund it with no expectation of being repaid. It also has nothing to do with Obama. The program has been in place since 2007.
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/past_opportuniti ... - Spend, on 04/17/2009, -1/+6I am happy to see that solar power is getting more attention, but lol at that propaganda.
- localzuk, on 04/17/2009, -0/+5There are loads of methods for storing the energy. For example water movement is usable. Batteries are just one, quickly improving, option.
- localzuk, on 04/17/2009, -0/+5GammerPants - yes, we can do that already. One method, as I mention briefly earlier, is where water is pumped up a hill during the day time, into a reservoir. Then at night, it is released, and energy reclaimed via hydro-electric power. Yes it isn't as efficient as using the energy directly, but it is a method.
Coal is *not* necessary for our future. It is a stopgap measure until people wake-up and realise that something needs to change. - Rhendal, on 04/17/2009, -0/+5http://lmgtfy.com/?q=storing+solar+power
I mean really. - warriorscot, on 04/17/2009, -0/+4Technically the sun already powers everything. Everything we currently use as fuel required most of its initial energy from the sun.
- hiPpymIck, on 04/17/2009, -0/+4solar thermal (concentrating mirrors) does storage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy# ...
FTA
"electricity can be generated in periods of inclement weather or even at night using the stored thermal energy in the hot salt tank. Normally tanks are well insulated and can store energy for up to a week." - nullcodes, on 04/17/2009, -0/+4I know you probably don't have a PhD in accounting, so you don't know how loans work. The loan is paid for by the person taking the loan. In this case, Solyndra.
- drmangrum, on 04/17/2009, -0/+4You don't really have to. Solar energy is just another source. Nobody is saying it has to be the sole source.
1) wind, geothermal, and conventional power plants aren't going away.
2) Solarthermal can store quite a bit of energy
For those crying about batteries, no. The amount of batteries needed to run anything on a commercial power grid would be insane. - athinnes, on 10/01/2009, -0/+4I am all for paying taxes IF it goes toward something productive.
War is not productive. - GrammerPants, on 04/17/2009, -0/+3I'd rather see my tax money go to this then Iraq or bank bailouts. At least this is an investment in the future. I wish my country was doing similar things with my tax dollars.
- localzuk, on 04/17/2009, -0/+3GrammerPants - It will likely be used, yes, but my point is why? Why do we insist on maintaining legacy, out of date, damaging technologies?
- ExodusD, on 04/17/2009, -1/+4Solar power is NOT sustainable (yet), the panels still have to be replaced every 25 years or so. It also creates toxic waste to produce the panels in the first place.
- kd1s, on 04/17/2009, -0/+3I know, for all the anti-Obama sentiment out there change is happening. We're on the cusp of transitioning from a Kardashev type 0 to type 1 civilization.
Not to mention social rights. It's a bit scary to be alive right now but it's also very exciting. - nullcodes, on 04/17/2009, -0/+3You are completely and utterly misinformed and wrong.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_land_area. ...
http://www.ez2c.de/ml/solar_land_area/
Solar power systems covering the areas defined by the dark disks could provide more than the WORLD's total primary energy demand (assuming a conversion efficiency of 8% ..that is EIGHT PERCENT). That is, all energy currently consumed, including heat, electricity, fossil fuels, etc., would be produced in the form of electricity by solar cells. The colors in the map show the local solar irradiance averaged over three years from 1991 to 1993 (24 hours a day) taking into account the cloud coverage available from weather satellites. - SpinningHead, on 04/17/2009, -0/+2@ranman0
Interesting then that our period of greatest prosperity was the 1950s when corporation carried 50% rather than less than 10% of the tax burden and union membership was at an all-time high and the government was pouring money into research and education to compete with the Soviets.
@aletoledo
And yet the EU is ahead of us in standard of living, health, renewable energy implementation. While our GDP is higher, we have also seen the biggest consolidation of wealth and erosion of the middle class since the time before the union movement in this country. - SpinningHead, on 04/17/2009, -0/+2I love this talk about letting the market decide. The market cant decide when there are huge subsidies and tax breaks and land giveaways to oil and coal companies. Further, we shouldn't wait on "the market" when we are dealing with huge problems like childhood asthma and streams and rivers that we cant even take our kids fishing in because of pollution.
- c010rb1indusa, on 04/17/2009, -1/+3Bollocks!
Batteries can store the energy just fine, they're just really expensive. But like all things, the more demand and the more batteries we make, the cheaper they'll be...just like DVD players $1000 bucks ten years ago, $19.95 now. We can't wait any longer, global warming is upon us. It is time. - byronm, on 04/17/2009, -1/+3Can you show me where free market swork better than the government ever has? Please? I beg of you.
- aletoledo, on 04/17/2009, -0/+2@ranman0
Are you really afraid of some goat farmer in the middle of Pakistan? How is spending trillions in Afghanistan making you safer exactly?
Grow a pair of balls and buy yourself a gun. You don't need the government you wipe your nose for you, so try defending yourself against these rampant goat herders. - PhotoJustin, on 04/17/2009, -0/+2Cap and Trade does two things: 1) It forces the actual costs of polluting onto those that pollute (and yes, on to those who consume the products made while polluting). 2) It allows those that can -cheaply- abate pollution to do so in exchange for payments from those that can -not- cheaply abate their pollution.
Complaining about C&T passing costs along to consumers is like complaining that someone wants to dump garbage in your backyard, but doesn't want to PAY for it. We won't realize the true costs of polluting until we see it in our budgets, THEN we can start to see real progress towards solutions. - athinnes, on 10/01/2009, -0/+2Invading Iraq has NOT made us safer.
- MeatMountain, on 04/17/2009, -4/+6Hey all you idiots asking WHERES THE CHANGE? Shut up and read stories like this every day for the next 8 years.
- dbz253, on 04/17/2009, -0/+2the solution is simple. use the huge steam turbines that we have now, but instead of coal, use parabolic mirrors to focus the sun and heat them up. you could even still have the coal generators as backup.
- SpinningHead, on 04/17/2009, -0/+2Yeah, things were great during that free-market heyday of the late 19th century.
/s - SpinningHead, on 04/17/2009, -0/+1And its a lot cheaper than wars to protect oil regions and actually has a return on investment.
- SpinningHead, on 04/17/2009, -0/+1We spent more on oil subsidies during the Bush administration than we have spent on our country's only renewable energy lab over the past 30yrs.
- SpinningHead, on 04/18/2009, -0/+1How is it blind if they're referring to a specific policy?
- Ferretman, on 04/18/2009, -0/+1Yeah...I gotta wonder why "Mr. Global Warming" Gore didn't get this done.....
- Ferretman, on 04/18/2009, -0/+1Expressing facts is NOT naysaying....you probably should just be quiet and let real engineers handle this one.....
- warriorscot, on 04/17/2009, -0/+1Batteries are as cheap as they are going to get. The manufacturing is already at a scale that making it bigger won't reduce costs and R&D costs are now phenomenal as the science needed to make better batteries is at the limits of our current understanding.
- aletoledo, on 04/17/2009, -0/+1What are you talking about? They have been government grants and subsidies for decades. You just have to know the right people to get one.
- inactive, on 04/17/2009, -2/+3Wooo... socialism.... erghhh
- Shiftgood, on 04/17/2009, -1/+2naysayers. You can stand on the sidelines.
- aletoledo, on 04/17/2009, -0/+1good old lead batteries....what do you have a problem with lead?
- aletoledo, on 04/17/2009, -0/+1Did giving my taxpayer money to GM serve any purpose other than to line the pockets of the executives that drove the company into the ground?
It's a shame that so many people want to believe that government is the answer to all our problems and yet they ignore the repeated failures. - aletoledo, on 04/17/2009, -0/+1Not to mention that lead acid batteries are used to store the energy. Somehow they forgot that all that lead was bad for us.
- aletoledo, on 04/17/2009, -0/+1I remember the first one I saw about a year ago that talked about making the chips for pennies on the dollar, then there was the one that was going to make the outside pane of glass on windows a collector and of course there was the flexible one we could mold around odd shapes. I wonder what ever happened to these companies?
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