The Competition is Fierce!

Solar, and Thanks For All the Fish!

I am writing this primarily with the view of having liberal heads 'splode, so hopefully the rest of you will bear with me: I'm going solar.

That's right! Another conservative who doesn't care a fig about the environment, according to liberals (who are wrong about most other things, too), is going to help save the planet by going green! Hm. It's already starting to sound a little bit like thunder! Anyway, To borrow another one of their memes, I am taking money out of their pockets to pay for it, because I am receiving a (drum roll, please!) government subsidy!

At this point, a few liberals, smug in the warmth and comfort of their tiny little minds, might bleat that I am being "hypocritical" for accepting a "government handout". But the action I am taking is precisely that which this subsidy was designed to produce, i.e. producing more 'green' energy. Will they argue against that which helps save the planet? Argue against those subsidies they concocted and then pushed through the legislature?? Berate me for merely doing what they asked of me??? Besides, most of the "subsidies of corporations" and "tax cuts for the rich" of which they complain, are simply deductions that, allow a person or business to keep a little more of what they themselves make, if they do the things that government proscribes. Remember too, that most of the "loopholes" that demagoguing politicians rail against are those very deductions that they wrote into the law for themselves and their rich friends. We will pause here a moment to consider the dilemma of liberals trying in vain to balance this train of thought, nicely illustrated here:


Greenness, however, you may have guessed, was not the primary motivating purpose of the endeavor. Nor the fact that I am helping out a beleaguered utility company, forced to accept foolish, ever higher quotas for solar energy production by our notoriously wacky California legislature. With the invisible hand gloved in a subsidy, the proposal penciled out pretty well. My monthly payments will be approximately what I have paid for a combined bill of gas and electricity, averaged over the last 24 months. Yet, the solar array will produce a little over twice my annual consumption, or, in layman's terms, 1.21 jiggawatts.


Therefore, it will be visible from outer space.

Producing twice the energy I require (you are welcome, California!) should both offset my gas bill and generate a small profit from the remainder of the buyback. In addition, it is a hedge against the cost of inevitable energy increases for the foreseeable future. Also, I believe it will also add value to my home when it is eventually sold, though again, not in the foreseeable future.

The solar company also provides you with a gizmo where you can monitor the output of the array, so I can sit like Scrooge McDuck on the bags of money in my vault, and actually watch the solar dollars roll in! Plus, it enables me to act upon my dislike of my utility company, (even though I am helping them out), and stop sending them a check every month.

It's good to own your own power company. I'll keep you posted if that should ever change.
Cross posted at LCR

What Do Electric Cars and Bricks Have in Common?

Bricks maneuver better without a battery!

In driving, there's a maxim about driving at night: You should never overdrive your headlights. That means you shouldn't drive faster than you can see to stop. The supposedly well intentioned advocates of electric car technology are overdriving their headlights.

Tesla Motors' lineup of all-electric vehicles — its existing Roadster, almost certainly its impending Model S, and possibly its future Model X — apparently suffer from a severe limitation that can largely destroy the value of the vehicle. If the battery is ever totally discharged, the owner is left with what Tesla describes as a "brick": a completely immobile vehicle that cannot be started or even pushed down the street. The only known remedy is for the owner to pay Tesla approximately $40,000 to replace the entire battery. Unlike practically every other modern car problem, neither Tesla's warranty nor typical car insurance policies provide any protection from this major financial loss.

Teslas start at about $49,000. Granted, it is a vehicle more likely to be purchased by the well-to-do. But, imagine the joy of anyone coming back from a vacation or business trip, and discovering that they had forgotten to plug the car in, or someone accidentally unplugged the cord, or a breaker tripped and their $50 to $100K sports car now needs a $40,000 battery and a tow truck or it will never move again. (Unless, maybe up on cinderblocks, in an upscale version of Rio Linda?) And good luck finding one in stock at the local Sears or Pep Boys! Figure on it being in the shop for a while.

This is technology not yet ready for prime time. Some electric cars are little more than street legal golf carts. Others, like the Teslas, are poised to become lawn sculptures. When the technology is ready, people will buy more and more of them, and that will make them cheaper to mass produce. (Think big screen TVs.) But, in the meantime, are government subsidies of overpriced electric cars the wisest use of our limited resources? I sincerely doubt it.

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Job Scorecard: Barry 14, Barry's economy -1,100

It's time for another installment of "Let's do the math"! I'll wait a couple minutes for all you "social science" majors to clear out. Everybody else? Good.

The Obama administration "invested" in America to get America working again. How's that working out for us? Obama seems convinced that "green energy" is the wave of the future and the path to prosperity, creating thousands of jobs. Let's take a look at two of the administration's efforts

$20 Million for an insulation project in Seattle to conserve energy: Net 14 jobs.
$500 Million dollars for a solar cell manufacturer in California: Net -1,100 jobs.

Let's recap, shall we? $520 Million dollars spent, brought the US a net of one thousand and eighty six jobs lost.

Like the brother-in-law who's totaled every car you've ever loaned him, why do I have the feeling that Obama is going to ask us for the keys again Thursday night, and telling us, "This time it will be different"?

Obama Proves the Only True Wind Power is From Politicians

You've heard of "performance art"? This is Non-performance art!

Why am I bringing this up again, you ask? It's in the news, baby! Barack Obama is using windbag power to inflate expectations of what wind power will do for the country. Photo op aside, the efficiency and drawbacks of wind power make it unrealistic to save our economy or our ecology. It takes energy to manufacture all those windmills sitting idle, like oil derricks on the crest of the hills. As an old friend of mine was fond of saying:

There's nothing free in Waikiki!

President-elect Barack Obama will call for action to stimulate the economy at an Ohio company that manufactures very large bolts for wind turbine towers, according to announcements by the President-elect's team and information received by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). The company, Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Co., Inc., is based in Bedford Heights, Ohio, and the visit will take place Friday, January 16, as the President-elect travels from Illinois to Washington, D.C., for his Inauguration.

"We are very excited by the selection," said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. "On that factory floor in Ohio, President-elect Obama will see first-hand how renewable energy creates American manufacturing jobs and helps revitalize our economy.

Bedford Heights is very close to where I lived for the last three years. And windmills are what I have been driving by for the last three or four days...windmills that are not turning at all!
When you listen to what Obama says about "stimulating the economy", I want you to remember those hundreds and thousands of windmills sitting in the Altamont Pass producing zero electricity at the moment. There is a place for wind energy as part of the nation's total energy package, but it's by no means the largest part and it's by no means cheap!

Cross Posted at Say Anything