A Solar-Powered Pissing Contest – Who Wins?
All I can say is, finally! But I must admit, it’s feels like some global pissing contest as to who can roll out the biggest one first.
Made in China
China’s pollution problems have affected everything from the 2008 Olympics to Batman. The Dark Knight survived, but there is still much concern about China, environmentally speaking. And while I don’t think they are quite out of hot water just yet, their massive 166 Megawatt solar power plant in Yunnan gives me hope. The project is expected to cost $1.3 billion and scheduled to start operation in 2010.
The Golden State
If you watch things like 90210 (the original or version 2.0), you’d believe California is nothing but sun, beaches and palm trees. But those of us north of Santa Barbara know better! Okay, it is kinda sunny. And that same sun that gives us our tasty wines is also helping farmers go green. Woo hoo!
Nobody Walks in LA
As a defector from Los Angeles county, I was pleased when I heard that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had plans to gather enough solar power to meet 10-percent of LA’s energy needs by 2020. Yah, LA is trying to give us San Francisco hippies a run for our money!
Good. John McCain Good!
Arizona’s Global Solar Energy features a ground-mounted solar array consisting of 6,600 thin-film solar cells. The facility will generate more than 1.1 million Kilowatt-hours, providing about 25% of the facility’s electricity needs, offsetting 30,000 tons of CO2 over its expected 25-year lifetime. And it’s 100-percent Palin free!
Prison Break
The Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, NY is constructing a solar module factory with the help of $55 Million from Spire Corp. I guess license plates are passé. I want to say “cool” but I can’t help but flashback to scenes from Oz that ended in death, or ever worse – sodomy.
So, who wins? Well, I think we all do. As long as countries, states and communities continue to push forward, how can we not?
Further reading: Israel’s Largest Solar Farm Now Online and Florida Breaks Ground on World’s First Hybrid Solar Plant
Photo: © Sai.chan | Dreamstime.comandau_tiger0 on Flickr under Creative Commons
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December 10th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Heh. And soon Big Solar and Big Wind will be stalking the halls of congress…I say bring it on!
December 10th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
re: Susan
Me too, Susan!
December 11th, 2008 at 3:03 am
here here!!
i have some pissing contests to attend to.
December 11th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
This is a promising trend.
As more and more communities of all sizes strive to one-up the next, the “cool” factor associated with solar will only grow, similar to the way that seemingly every U.S. city jumped on the “creative class” bandwagon. But this is better – while not every city can be “the” creative capital of its dreams (there will be winners and losers), the more communities that commit to solar, the faster we reach a critical mass of adoption that results in a win for everyone.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
The other field which seems like this is electric cars. Now it’s almost more news when a company says they have no plans to bring out an electric car.
December 21st, 2008 at 6:32 am
Solar is half baked. To produce solar panels requires more energy than the panels will be worth across their lifetime.
I should say really solar by Photovoltaic Cells is half baked. Cause solar energy can be used to drive a heat engine (also known as a Stirling Engine) which can be used to drive a generator. The energy required to manufacture a heat engine is quite a bit more reasonable.
With PVCs costing what they do in energy to produce, they actually drain energy from the system. We need highly efficient energy sources in the transition as we’re heading into energy starvation due World Oil Production Decline aka Peak Oil.
To waste energy producing supposed energy sources that are in reality energy drains is very much so counterproductive.