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Show people how we get away from fossil fuels, how we can do so now, how we can save money (and lives) by switching and people are much more likely to get with the program.

But I think it inspiration, beauty, empowerment, evidence, and the “cool” factor that will really drive change — landed on CleanTechnica almost accidentally (wait, it was accidentally, on my part), but happy at where it’s taken me.

There are plenty sites which tell us why we need to change, but not many that tell us what we can do right now to create change.

The vast majority of Americans want change and if they know what is possible then they can lean on their elected officials to drive policy to support solutions.

http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/20110714_real_time_spp

Look down to about 3PM (1500) and see what Texas folks are paying for wholesale power. Power from peaking plants bites.

(You can pick days by modifying the link date “20110714”.)

> That pulls down the wholesale cost of power and ruins the future of coal.

Music to the eyeballs!

Yup. Subsidies (better described as *investments*) have been incredibly successful wherever implemented – even if there are the occasional hiccups (e.g. Solyndra).

Well, successful for everyone other than the Kochs, Exxon, Peabody, etc.

Cheers.

probably not healthy, but i enjoy what i do (for the most part :D)

http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/20111014_real_time_spp

Now Texas needs some of that great $0.10/kWh to $0.15/kWh solar on its grid to bring down their daytime peak prices.

Texas. USA. American taxpayer money has brought the cost of electricity down to next to nothing. Especially in the heat waves of summer when they have to shut down thermal power plants because they can’t provide enough cooling water.

Subsidies for solar and wind have been incredibly successful investments in our energy future.

Germany just exceeded 20% from renewables.

> The notion that Europe is virtuously avoiding the use of fossil fuels is a myth.

No, it’s a strawman that you just set up in order to knock back down. However, more renewables were deployed in Europe (and the US) in 2010 than fossils + nukes combined. That pattern is not changing.

This “blow toy fad” is driving down electricity costs – largely due to something called ‘merit order effect’.

* Why wind is cutting energy costs. “So how does “expensive” wind deliver cheaper energy prices? By a mechanism known as the merit order effect…” http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/why-wind-cutting-energy-costs

* “…price-dampening effect that large amounts of lower cost renewable energy sources (such as wind power) can have on spot market prices. This is attributed in large part to what is called the merit order effect.[29][30] This has led to electricity price reductions in Spain,[31] Denmark,[24] and Germany.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed-in_tariff#Effects_on_electricity_rates

China are not investing billions of $$$s in wind (+ solar) because they’re a bunch of bong-smoking hippies. Think about it – or get a better anti-renewable talking point.

it drives the price of electricity DOWN.

the 1603 and PTC does TONS & TONS more for us than the billions in dollars the fossil fuel industry gets in subsidies, and is one of the best investments the government makes.

truthfully, after looking at this comments again, i can only assume that you work for the fossil fuel industry or have drunk some seriously out-of-date Kool Aid from the clean energy disinformation machine.

There’s a reason why after years of booming wind energy growth the boom is projected to keep going at the same strength for years.

There’s a reason more and more governments and investors are putting their money into wind rather than other energy sources. Think about it, dude — people spending millions or billions of dollars on these things know how to do math. And no one can convince them anymore that it doesn’t work,.. because wind is up all over the place and they can look at the results.

The celebrated $6000 for Maine residents to buy heat storage units is also exaggerated. The wind developer that offered this to a town of about 25 households has withdrawn its application for the project. The Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife deemed the project site inappropriate for large-scale wind development due to its likely negative impacts to many species of special interest wildlife.

The developer is still threatening to press forward with the project anyway. Oh, and the people in that town showed virtually no interest in the $6000 heating unit grants. The fanfare of that “innovative” program dissolved pretty rapidly. It was much ado about nothing. This of course is not mentioned in this article.