THE SOLAR SWINDLE

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2013/12/the_solar_swindle.html

and this article is written regarding natural gas fired plants in the US southwest, they still call it a scam.

What are we thinking here with clean green waterpower,  lots of it....

Nelson is the Last place for Solar power

                 NELSON IS THE LAST PLACE TO WASTE MONEY ON SOLAR

A lot of my blog is repetitive,  I erased this one, I would refer you to my latest blog entries.



My position has always been I am an unwilling participant.  

I thought I was going to help them understand this project was nothing but a waste of money.

That was naive,  its never been about a business case,  its so the mayor can say Nelson is
a green city.

In fact she wants it to be the "greenest" city in BC  no matter what the cost?

Solar in BC and particularly in Nelson with its own hydro dam is a FANTASY.

The reality will be known, its difficult to overcome the solar industry propaganda and the
political feel good but misguided extraction of public dollars for this fantasy.

                                     

                      

Tesla's new PowerWall Battery from Elon Musk

Tesla  Powerwall Battery, 

see link

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/05/21/what-do-you-really-get-for-7000-tesla-powerwall-home-battery/

In a conversation with a city councilor who is all for the community solar project said  “how about Tesla’s new battery” as if this was the solar answer.

Let me say these do have applications, but not here in Nelson these batteries fall under the category of  “toys for rich boys”

Here is an excerpt from an article

That's some pricey power, given how infrequently the lights go out. The average US home loses power for just under 2 hours a year. Over the course of a nine-year lease that average homeowner would pay $277 for each hour the battery is running.

To some, that peace of mind may be worth it, though many who wanted that peace of mind bought a home backup generator long ago.

The price to go completely off the grid is even higher because that would require a rooftop solar system bigger than what is now usually installed, and at least two Powerwall batteries. That kind of system would cost $96,000 without subsidies, about 74 years of electric bills for an average US home.

Batteries are toxic require a lot of non renewable energy and are inefficient.  They also only last for a certain number of cycles.  Will Nelson use solar to charge batteries?   I won't bother trying to help anyone understand this, either you know this is nuts or you believe.

Need I say more?   This comment came from the same councilor that told me the solar garden is free its paid for by Nelson hydro!

Tesla will likely sell millions, rich boys toys.

The BEST NEWS YET

This quote from councillor Anna Purcell in the Star from the councils latest visit to Nakusp.

One of my favourite sessions was the tour of Nakusp’s new micro-hydro facility. At $150,000 for installation and generating more than $100 of power a day, it was a good investment for the village, and a smart use of water already running downhill. Slocan is slated to begin their own micro-hydro project, and Rossland has been paying close attention to

the in-pipe hydro system Portland is installing in its water pipes.

During the election I said that I need to come from a city that takes sustainability seriously. I find the idea of producing electricity from the water that runs beneath our streets compelling.

I can only hope the council will now discover the business case for the Nelson community solar garden is a fantasy of waste.    $400,000 for  possibly power for 3 average homes for 20 years.

Nakusp microhydro $150,000 for 30-40 homes for a century.

If I was Alex Love manager of Nelson hydro, I would be embarassed to bring forward his solar garden project to the city council now.

Solar Panels increase GHG emissions

  Nelson community solar garden GHG emissions and the life                                cycle of a Solar Panel.

http://notrickszone.com/2014/03/25/analysis-shows-solar-modules-cause-more-greenhouse-gas-emissions-than-modern-coal-power-plants/#sthash.fbCnnkGx.nBypcfNo.dpbs

Mr. Love manager of  Nelson hydro states the solar garden will decrease Green House Gas.
In our northern latitudes where solar works 10% of the time, all the non renewables required to make and transport these panels exceeds what they return in their life time.   Google engineers gave up.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/11/22/shocker-top-google-engineers-say-renewable-energy-simply-wont-work/

Solar panels last for maybe 25 years, and as they age they make less and less power. Then they become toxic waste, they are made with NF3  and SF6  dangerous heat trapping gases,  Nitrogen trifluoride 16,100 x more potent than CO2 and sulfur hexafluoride  23,900 x more potent as well as heavy metals and other toxic items that go to our  landfill in 20 years.

All solar panels are now made in China, Germany’s huge failure
  https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=german%20solar%20failure has bankrupted all manufacturers worldwide, China is now making solar panels that are experiencing early failures in huge quantities, 34% in a recent major California installation,  the Sarnia Sun Mine the largest canadian solar installation replaced 30% recently, who paid, they called it "utility costs"?
 Ontario pays huge feed in tariffs to attract individuals to install solar, something like 8 times more than power is worth and everyone else pays for this boondoggle.   

To mine solar cell quality selenium for solar cells requires diesel mining equipments,  heating raw materials to over 3000 degrees to make solar cells and metal frames with coal that was probably shipped from Fernie, mined with diesel equipment, sent by diesel powered trains to Roberts Bank, shipped in diesel powered ships to China where Fernie coal heated all the raw materials to make solar panels, whew!.

Then shipped on diesel spewing transports, to another ship using diesel, to reach North American shores and be shipped again by diesel trucks, to Nelson where the real sunhours for solar is little better than 10% annually, and virtually none of this power is earned in winter when we need it most, results in a negative contribution to global warming. Studies show solar panels can increase GHG emissions instead of reducing them as everyone expects.

Studies also show solar panels even where the sun does shine take years to return the energy required to make and transport etc, as above!  

Pretty slick solar industry propaganda, political correctness and greenwashing at its best, but the truth is beginning to come out. 

The entire premise of solar power is to reduce global warming by reducing GHG emissions, its not working but the propaganda persists.

Good News and BAD NEWS

Good News and Bad News  

The GOOD NEWS comes from  Nakusp with a 50kw microhydro plant on the city water  intake system.  See that article here

http://www.nakusp.com/files/%7B72967C9C-1D50-435B-BB73-C88337E4CA65%7Dmedia%20release%20microhydro%20plant.pdf

This will power over 30 or more average homes for a century or possibly two.

From the Nakusp Operations Manager: “The plant is rated at 50 kw but can exceed that slightly. The plant is basically maintenance free.” 

Slocan City is now pursuing a microhydro power plant to replace their lost tax base from the sawmill shutdown, they certainly can't afford solar power now.  
see the article here:
http://www.nelsonstar.com/news/299247071.html

The BAD NEWS comes from Nelson, our Hydro Manager wants to put in a 50kw solar garden.  This has a life expectancy of 20-25 years and might power 3  or 4 homes.  Works little better than 10% of the time and very little power in the weak winter sun when we consume the most power and buy the most from Fortis.

The project will be $400,000 or $25,000/yr for 20 years and we can buy the power it makes from Fortis for $1400/yr. our own dam makes power for 2c/kWh that would only cost about $700 a year.

Preliminary info suggests one can opt in for 1 kw of solar panels for $4000, this will only raise $192,000.   The mayor tells me those who opt in will pay for this, I want to ensure that is true for the entire life of this boondoggle.

Will you opt in?  It will require at least $6000 not $4000 to ensure those who opt in pay, borrowed that is $400/yr for 20 years,  they will see a return of $60/yr and less and less as solar panels age until they end up in the landfill as toxic waste in 20-25 years.

Since Mr. Love came to Nelson he has almost doubled our power bills since 2010.

In 2010 I paid $10 basic and 6c/kwh, he now has it approaching $15 basic and closing in on 10c/kwh.  It took decades before to go up that much.

I await the business case from Mr. Love.  He stated they have identified 5 potential microhydro sites for Nelson at the budget meeting, why is he wasting a nickel on solar?!

Nakusp installed microhydro on their city water intake for $150,000 it will power 30 to 40  homes night and day for a century, on cold long dark winter nights when its needed the most, and last forever almost.

  Nelson's solar garden will when new power the equivalent of  maybe 4 homes, only makes power when the sun shines and most of it in summer, weak winter sun has no power and very little daylight hours anyway.

Add up all the dribs and drabs of solar power because it doesn't work unless the sun is out the $400,000 solar garden will only power 3-4 average homes for a year and only last  20-25 years for $100,000 per home, just to feel "green".   These types of decisions will double my power again very soon.
Thank you Mr. Love of Nelson hydro, our highest paid person in the city.

Google “german solar failure”  or “Ontario solar failure” please get informed.

The reasons why solar power doesn't work in BC in winter when we need it most.

Solar panels lose power every year as they age, they don't last forever, so all that solar propaganda that they will make power forever.....complete BS!

A few points

1. When you purchase a solar panel it may say it’s a 250w panel it will never make that power.       Typically a 250 watt solar panel might make 200w.  A 20% loss right off the bat.

2. Solar panels age and make less power every year, after 20 years consider it a bonus if you are still making power, manufacturers claim losses are from .5% to maybe 1%/ year, see fig. below.

                                                                                Figure 1

Fig 1 shows an ongoing Japanese study, notice in 5 years some panels have lost 50%, pretty risky, could you have panels that will do this?     There was a recent major installation in Los Angeles, 34% of the solar panels were defective.

The largest solar plant at the time in Sarnia Ontario suffered major solar panel failures,  they put down the cost to "utility dollars",   will we be seeing that here in Nelson?  

Below is an actual Nelson solar site  showing daily solar power, the darker the block the less power is made.

Extrapolating this smaller system to the proposed 50 kW Nelson Solar garden, the solar garden power for January would be virtually Zero, the panels are in the snow.

Notice the dark squares, they are when no solar power is made,  the one highlighted shows .12kWh for the day,  to power a 100 watt light bulb for one hour  would require 833 days like that.                                              

         

This is a picture of the solar system providing the data shown.  Even though the solar panels are only covered near the bottom, they make virtually no power.

You have to understand that solar panels only make the power that the worst solarcell in the string can make, if the bottom cells are snow covered the panel is next to useless.   This picture is from November.  These were still covered as of the last day in January shown in the data .  

Would Nelson send out the electric crew to clear their solar garden for maybe $10 worth of power for the month?