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The world's largest solar power project, the 1,000-megawatt Blythe Solar Power Project in...
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Wednesday, April 4, 2012, 10:58 AM ETThe world's largest solar power project, the 1,000-megawatt Blythe Solar Power Project in southern California, could be in jeopardy after Solar Trust of America filed for bankruptcy protection. Solar Trust holds the development rights for the project, which has a $2.1B government loan guarantee.
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This news story has 16 comments:
There. Fixed it for you.
hope and change for the future - right chu?
From the article:
"filed for bankruptcy protection after its majority owner began insolvency proceedings in Germany"
Exactly what Obama has to do with a German company going bankrupt I have no idea.
Further, "conditional commitment for a $2.1 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy."
as in, the money has not been disbursed yet in its entirety if at all.
On a governmental level it facilitates GDP growth by focusing energy costs inside the domestic economy and increasing effective productivity. I.e. there are lots of reasons solar makes sense if you understand the model.
If you are investing in solar stocks just as improved process technology and low global labor costs have come together to make a mess of solar company balance sheets... well that's another story.
However, from governmental and business level perspectives the ROI makes a tremendous amount of sense. I was merely pointing this out since your comment suggested there was no value to the renewable proposition anywhere.
"Apparently solar isn't a practical investment even in Germany...or anywhere."
Which I pointed out is wrong. Perhaps you could point out what parts of my comments you don't understand so I can clarify?
As for your feeble attempt to politicize this discussion by raising the 'environmentalist' flag, I'll point out I am businessman who is benefiting from cap ex on renewables, and who is tired of the rants claiming there is no value in the renewable space by folks who simply don't understand the business proposition.
On a property I own a gas conversion (oil to gas on existing equipment) in my area costs about $30k. This includes a new service from the utility, piping and some conversion hardware. If I did a complete overhaul of my equipment (i.e. new boilers etc) on the same property costs shoots to over 50k as high as 70k.
A solar hot water system costs comes in at about the same contracted out except that I don't need the utility and can actually do a lot of the work on site with my own people. However solar hot water systems are often paired with upgraded equipment (high efficiency condensing boilers) to push the total system cost over that of a conversion, which in my experience isn't necessary but an installer will try and sell it to you.
Both systems would cut my expenses by about 40% in this market.
The difference? There is no concern of solar energy suddenly increasing in price due to a shortage, a geopolitical event, or something else and, in fact there is significantly less maintenance on a solar hot water system.
So even if gas and solar cost the same, to install, and lead to precisely the same short term cost reduction benefit, you win long term.
http://nyti.ms/HUPn6V
until people realize there is no politically correct solution, we won't get rational thought and rational execution when it comes to our energy policy. Or lack of.