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Vatican To Build 100 Megawatt Solar Power Plant
Karim Y. writes "The Vatican is going solar in a big way. The tiny state recently announced that it intends to spend 660 million dollars to create what will effectively be Europe's largest solar power plant. This massive 100 megawatt photovoltaic installation will provide enough energy to make the Vatican the first solar powered nation state in the world! 'The 100 megawatts unleashed by the station will supply about 40,000 households. That will far outstrip demand by Pope Benedict XVI and the 900 inhabitants of the 0.2 square-mile country nestled across Rome's Tiber River. The plant will cover nine times the needs of Vatican Radio, whose transmission tower is strong enough to reach 35 countries including Asia.'"
As I recall (and Wikipedia backs it up, FWIW), Vatican Radio may not be such a good example of a successful, well-received project. It takes a lot of juice to pump a radio signal from Italy to Asia, and from what I've heard, the folks who live nearby aren't too happy about it. Take the debate over cell phone (non-ionizing) radiation, and multiply it by a few megawatts.
OTOH, maybe it's a final solution to the problem: buy out everyone living near the tower, and replace the whole swath of land with solar concentrators. It's, um, brilliant!
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
I'm doubtful about the numbers in the summary and title. 100 Megawatts would require over a square mile of collecting area at noon on a cloudless day, yet the entire country is only one fifth that size. Perhaps the power plant is in a neighboring country and the power gets pumped in from across the border?
The Catholic church is widely regarded to be the most wealthy organization in the world, by a long shot.
Personally, I'm happy to see them put it to work a bit, especially after seeing the Cuzco Church of Santo Domingo literally COVERED in gold and silver and the royal grandeur that is Saint Peter's Square. Add together the rest of the real estate, hard assets, art, donations, low cost of labor, etc, etc and you have a truly mighty organization that can do a lot more than it is. I swear, I saw both Cuzco and the Vatican years ago, and the wealth still boggles my mind.
Personally, I'm happy to see that money actually doing something other than contributing to opulence. I think they should be doing much more of this investment.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Just remember, Lucifer means "light-bringer".
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Quote: "Solar PV is one of the least efficient ways to take money and make the world greener." I would like to see some reference to that claim, because it's totally wrong. PV solar is getting VERY close to the tipping point of being economically viable (2015 projected date), when compared with fossile based technologies. It's the ONLY green technology (besides, conservation) to be that close.
For some reason I think I've read that were Jupiter a star at its present size, if such a thing were even possible, at the distance to the earth it wouldn't be too horrible. The closest approach between Jupiter and Earth places is nearly twice as far as the Sun is from Mars. It might jack up the temperature by a degree and melt all the icecaps on earth, but other than that, it wouldn't be too big of a deal...
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Considering there is no mention of contraception in the bible, I would like to hear why you think it prohibits contraception.
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You and the GP are both looking at it wrong. It costs $660 million dollars now, but it cuts the Vatican's power bill to zero, and the spare power can be sold to Italy at the market rate, resulting in a significant financial win for the Vatican. The money saved is money that can then be spent on humanitarian projects around the world. Over the expected life of the panels, the money the Church could spend should be far greater and can do far more good than spending the $660 on humanitarian causes up front.
It's like the people who suggested that the Church should sell all its properties (which some have estimated at on the order of $1-2 trillion dollars) and spend the money on the poor. The problem is that there are an estimated 963 million people in the world who are hungry, so even if you could feed them all for a net cost of only a dollar a day, the assets would last only about 3-6 years. Given the scale involved, a more realistic cost estimate would put that closer to 6 months. And, of course, when the money runs out, those hungry people would still be dirt poor, but there wouldn't be any more money coming in without congregants putting money in the collection basket every week. Thus, beyond a very short term view, that would be a foolish thing to do.
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I know there are batteries but what size of batteries or what storage setup would be employed in banking the power captured during the day for use during night time?
It's something I often wonder about, actually: what's their excuse for anything beyond utilitarian buildings and equipment?
I'm sure it's fun having huge chunks of gold around the place, but when their religious text contains categorical denunciation of wealth it strikes me as odd.
it down that big cesspool we call Congress here in the states. At least the Vatican isn't building war machines with it. They are one of the largest charities in the world taking care of more people regardless of politics. Can't say that about any government. How much is poured into the UN and for what good? Yeah they have had their bad times but what organization throughout the history of man hasn't? At least they move forward.
They run nearly 6000 hospitals, 9000 orphanages, and tens of thousands of facilities for the elderly and sick that get passed over by governments. How is that really a bad thing? Is the view of contempt simply because they are a religious organization?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Uhhh walmart made 405Billion dollars last year. Unless you just assume all the stuff the catholic church owns are priceless you are way off. They have the most wealth that is not producing maybe. But that is like seeing a guy smoking weed out of a 100$ bill and assuming he's richer than the guy with a 500$ car from 1988.
Not that I don't appreciate all the art, I frigging loved my trip to Rome and taking a tour of the vatican you definately get the feeling that they have more culture and art than most countries. I saw more art and culture in 3hours inside the vatican than I most people see over 5 maybe 10 years in North America.
He here argues that the purpose of semen is only to be emitted for reproduction
Honest question. Does he then argue that men shouldn't have sex with their wives when they are pregnant? Wasted seeds...
It does, actually. One of the fantastic perks of relativity is that you can pick any single point as the origin, and the math still works. So the notion that the Sun goes around the Earth is as correct as that of the Earth going around the Sun, or that of considering me as the center of the Universe ;)
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
It's something I often wonder about, actually: what's their excuse for anything beyond utilitarian buildings and equipment?
I can't say for Catholics, but Russian (and, so far as I know, other) Orthodox churches are even more lavishly decorated, and there the explanation is that it is to better highlight the glory of God, particularly to laity. So priests don't go around in gold-trimmed clothing all the time, but only when they perform priestly services. All the wealth is seen as belonging to God, ultimately, not to his servants.
Of course, this doesn't stop the Russian Patriarch from riding around on the best car money can buy...
Trouble is, the peak power from a solar cell is in the summer - just the time when everybody's lightbulbs and central heating systems spend most of the time off,
And when the demand for AC is greatest.
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