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Walmart Goes Solar In California
tekgoblin writes "Walmart today has announced that it plans to install solar panels on more than 75 percent of its stores in the state. From the article: 'When completed, Walmart’s solar commitment in California is expected to generate up to 70 million kilowatt hours of clean, renewable energy per year, which is equal to powering more than 5,400 homes. It will also avoid producing more than 21,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, which is equal to 4,100 cars off the road and provide 20 to 30 percent of each facility’s total electric needs.'"
Ok, I'm not going to come with the cliched "citation needed", but dude... do you have any evidence to back up any of this?
and provide 20 to 30 percent of each facility’s total electric needs.
The remainder of the store, as usual is powered by crushing up the hopes and dreams of it's employees and competitors.
Dude, it was vetted by a friend of his.. a FRIEND.What more do you need~
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I live in California, and installed solar on my house back in March.
There's federal and state subsidies, but they're much lower now than they were in the past. I just filled out my state rebate form today - it amounts to about 5% of the cost of installation. I can't recall what the federal rate is off the top of my head, but it's certainly a lot lower than the 50% subsidy rate solar used to get.
The reason for solar's success here in California is only minorly due to the subsidies (they are being phased out). The real reason is that California's power generation system is 40 years out of date, and electricity prices have skyrocketed, with top-tier power costing 55c per kilowatt-hour, the last time I checked. It's not too difficult to get into the top pricing tier, either. If you set your thermostat below 78 in the summer, you'll end up paying over a thousand dollars for power in a month. (YMMV, depending on the size of your house, the efficiency level of your AC, and the thermal properties of your walls and windows.)
If you have solar, you apply your generation credits to your most expensive kilowatt-hours first, meaning you're generating at 55c/kWh. Small scale PV Solar systems have a 10-year levelized cost (after subsidies) of around 25c/kWh, which is why the optimal solution is to buy solar capacity up to a level that it will drop you into the cheap tiers of power. That's why I switched to solar (the environmental benefits are a nice bonus), and is certainly why Walmart is switching to solar in the state.
In states that don't have such backwater environmental laws, power is often flat rate and around 5 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. Solar doesn't make sense in these states.
>>Walmart probably already got a quote from this and already knows that if they generate excess power they will get a fair price for the extra electricity. So this may pay for itself and more in the long term.
In general, you target solar to reduce your electricity needs down to the baseline (cheap) tier of power, which is subsidized by the higher tier prices, which run up to 55c/kWh in the state.
PG&E used to not have to pay "net surplus customer-generators" for any extra power they produced, but one of Arnie's last acts as governor was to make PG&E pay the same rate for generation as customers would pay for consumption, with AB 920 (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_0901-0950/ab_920_bill_20091011_chaptered.html).
What this means in practice is that for any realistic small-scale installations, PG&E will pay you to generate power at the baseline rate, which is not especially profitable, and certainly not worth the cost of installation.
The reason California has the highest electricity costs in the western world is because they privatized the whole system but without any protection to protect the consumer from price fixing or profit maximization. Corporations like to gouge you, it's what they were designed for- to maximize profit. If the electric company anticipates demand and maintains the infrastructure you get safe reliable cheap power. If they don't you get costly unreliable dangerous power. The first costs more and brings in less (low profit), the second costs less and brings in more(high profit)- clearly the intelligent CEO will opt for the second plan.
You know, if they just put in some windows (hey light tubes too!), they could save a whole lot more money on lighting too.
It always amazes me walking into these huge stores in the middle of the day, and they have hundreds of lights on to make it as bright inside as it already is outside. How hard is this to figure out?
:T:R:A:N:S:
Sure must suck having a job that:
-pays above minimum wage
-has benefits
-helps keep the cost of goods from rising insanely
-is damned efficient at what it does
Mind you - I'm not going to disagree that there are some socio-economic issues with how walmart does business - but they aren't the only ones playing that game and they're not 100% evil. If you're a business owner - you're pretty much guaranteed to do very well if you can get in the same shopping center as a walmart as long as you're not in the business of selling the same goods walmart does for the same demographics. I've seen cities blossom around such shopping centers and a large portion of the stores nearby have been there for years as a result.
Sure must suck having a job that:
-pays above minimum wage
-has benefits
-helps keep the cost of goods from rising insanely
-is damned efficient at what it does
Mind you - I'm not going to disagree that there are some socio-economic issues with how walmart does business - but they aren't the only ones playing that game and they're not 100% evil. If you're a business owner - you're pretty much guaranteed to do very well if you can get in the same shopping center as a walmart as long as you're not in the business of selling the same goods walmart does for the same demographics. I've seen cities blossom around such shopping centers and a large portion of the stores nearby have been there for years as a result.
I like that the benefits are based on qualifying for foodstamps and medicaid, but at least they're semi-provided by Walmart because they train employees to sign up for and use those services. See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473107/
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Well, more realistically, what is happening is that China is producing solar panels well in excess of demand (and doing a number on their environment in the process, but that's another story), and it's forced prices for panels down so much that all the other panel producers are dropping like flies. Has nothing whatsoever to do with U.S. regulations (unless you want U.S. creeks to run black with industrial chemicals too), or conspiracy theories about siphoning government money or anything like that.
Even worse, panel prices are now low enough to compete against large industrial-scale mirror/tower systems. So THOSE companies are also getting crushed as contracts get canceled and buyers go with panels. Think about that for a moment. It isn't that panels are less expensive than mirrors, it's that panels are now less expensive than mirrors + tower system + workforce required to keep it maintained.
-Matt
that's walmart bs your spreading there. they pay minimum wage unless your 3rd shift and that's only due to 3rd shift laws. there so called benefits cost more then most people make,32 hrs a week is full time.for a walmart employee its also like that to prevent certen rights a real full-time employee would have like vacation time.walmart prices are higher then most other stores these days look for yourself. and there is nothing efficient bought walmart its ran by as i said under-payed unhappy people by overpaid managers who couldn't run a gas station. a managers day at walmart is what can i yell at you about today they care less how good or bad a job is done they just need to bitch i think that's part of there contract. trust me anyone that has ever worked there will tell you the same thing.
China shut down a solar panel factory on Monday after hundreds of angry residents staged days of violent protests over pollution, the second such incident in as many months.
One of the problems I see is that Walmart purposely keeps most of their employees at 40 hours/week so they can't get benefits. Further, they promote all of those employees getting on all the government assistance they can. Yeah, nice favor, but how about sharing your load and letting those who want to work 40 hours work that and obtain the benefits they should be provided and off of government assistance. Walmart's low prices are the result of than government-funding which we cannot afford, which not only drains the taxes coming, but increases the national debt and causes inflation to rise.
We all pay for Walmart. The problem is that people won't say no. Not the lawmakers and not the masses who shop there.
No, they are people who know a lot about Walmart and know that if you're poor, you can find ways to shop that don't shoot you directly in the foot (coupons, buying things on-sale, buying from farmer's markets, buying in bulk, buying cheaper raw foods, etc.)... you know, all the things that responsible people were doing long before there was a Walmart (which is now something that is apparently essential for survival somehow)... and back before everyone moved out of town to live in cheap shit housing developments and started clamoring for Walmarts because there's nowhere to shop.
Walmart fucks EVERYONE, even people who don't shop there. Go watch any of the documentaries on Walmart -- you can look up what's in the movies if you don't take their word for it.