Slashdot Mirror

Luckily for them, alternative energy sources and low CO2 energy sources like natural gas are much cheaper now than they were previously. Solar is replacing almost all the retiring coal in Texas and this is for primarily economic rather than environmental reasons http://breakingenergy.com/2016/06/06/solar-will-replace-nearly-all-retiring-coal-in-texas/. Moreover, the people who are unhappy about paying more at the pump and on their monthly electric bill don't realize that they are really paying a lot more for coal and oil in terms of pollution caused and other issues that aren't directly in the price. Getting them to understand that last bit though seems hard.

The good news is that the economy IS creating that many jobs in solar. 2014 saw 31,000 jobs added in one year, and this initiative is to train 75,000 over 5 years.

The demand is there, as long as the growth continues, which this poll from 2013 and this Zogby poll from last week that shows even 2 out of 3 Republicans agree that the Federal Investment Tax Credit for solar should be renewed.

I have no idea why Slashdot, allegedly a bastion of personal freedom and libertarianism, can't get with expanding personal rooftop solar. Is it the whole solution? Absolutely not. But it's definitely helping far more than it's hurting.

The graph seems to have it close to right. http://breakingenergy.com/2015... Very little new coal power in 2014.

Coal added very little new generation. http://breakingenergy.com/2015... The 23% appears to be wind, not coal as claimed in TFA. Look at the figure.

The text claims wind power was only 3% of new generation in 2014 but the figure give 23% with coal apparently not providing any new capacity. I suspect the figure is correct on this. http://breakingenergy.com/2015...

You do realize that charging a car overnight on solar power is entirely doable...today right? linky

I think that setup cost about $500K. For a one-off installation. Do this over significant numbers and it gets affordable very very quickly. And this particular setup won't work for a decent percent of people...but it's entirely possible today.

Ayeup another resident of cloud cukcoo land .. dream on sunny

You do realize that charging a car overnight on solar power is entirely doable...today right? linky I think that setup cost about $500K. For a one-off installation. Do this over significant numbers and it gets affordable very very quickly. And this particular setup won't work for a decent percent of people...but it's entirely possible today.

Solar...yeah, right

Ivanpah is solar-thermal, which is a dumb, dead end technology. It should have never been built.

TFA is about solar-PV.

Solar...yeah, right

But they should be building refineries in North Dakota,

Ha ha, build a refinery? In the US? With the EPA and every environmental group in the world standing in the way?

One is being built in North Dakota right now. It should be in operation by the end of the year.

In other news, you and the person you responded to should take ten seconds to do a Google search before making fools of yourselves in public.