20 acre solar farm 'rotting'

[mop]

this is disturbing. particularly in light of the fact that according to this report, a 600 Billion dollar solar farm is being considered for the desert.

20 acre solar farm in disrepair after less than 2 years

 

[JohnnyM]

[unshun]

In reply to:

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[dheiman]

I don't understand, those look like beautiful flower pots to me.

 

[mop]

don't understand your joke johnny, but surely even you find this depressing. i suspect it is still working just fine, but for how long at this level of maintenance?

 

[Seamus McBundy]

Maybe some of the illegals here would be interested in maintaing those fields?

 

[Crockett]

In this case we should follow the money. It's useful for wise parents who think children don't know the value of money to realize it's just that children don't realize the value of "parents' money" which is often spent foolishly. Once it become the children's money, they very well realize the value of it. In this case, I'm guessing whatever organization had different goals and incentives than the ones that are to use and maintain them. For the right incentive, somebody will cut the weeds.

 

[A. BETTIK]

It does seem immoral to put solar panels in areas where plants could be foliafacturing oxygen.

 

[RomaVicta]

If this is the solar version of Chernobyl or Love Canal, I'll take it.

 

[BigWill]

or fukushima

 

[BigWill]

or ************* Yellowstone River.

 

[Ag with kids]

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[freyguy]

now that's some green energy

 

[Bluepies]

Or the BP oil spill. Or the Exxon Valdez.

 

[mcbrett]

mop messed up again- he showed that when you have gross mismanagement at a solar farm- you simply reduce electricity generation by x% and need to call in the maintenance crew. Inadvertently he just made a wild, backwards endorsement for clean energy vs. fossil fuels. Now- back to your crazy blogs..

 

[THEU]

mcbrett,
you do realise that mop is a proponent of clean sources of energy right? His beef, I believe is with the gross mismanagement of such, and not that he doesn't want solar energy around.

 

[TexasGolf]

"investments"

 

[mcbrett]

thanks THEU for sticking up for him. I wouldn't know why any reasonable person would be against economic, sustainable clean energy. I just tend to ignore opinions from people educated on partisan blogs or, without any of their own qualifications, have such a strong distrust of scientists who disturb their politics, but not the apolitical science.

if it's really a beef of mismanagement of one particular solar farm- this thread is completely sad and pathetic- as it means as much as a mismanagement of a restaurant or a factory or whatever- and only speaks about one particular manager or management team and nothing else.

 

[general35]

i think its nice they decided to give the panels a little shade from the hot sun.

 

[Oilfield]

I don't know if it is gross mismanagement or if the government subsidies just ran out. No money, no mowing.

 

[Mesohorny]

Just to clarify for those who didn't hit mop's link:

The solar farm is in Germany (or as the article says "in former communist (and now “green”) East Germany").

The 600 billion dollar solar farm is being considered by "Europe" in the Sahara desert. No Yankee dollars (hopefully), no Yankee electricty.


Maybe the US can sell them some weed eaters and dust blowers....if any are still made here.

 

[mop]

mcbrett, i do indeed LOVE clean energy. i think we should switch our entire electrical grid to nuclear. i am not a huge fan of wind energy anymore. just doesn't seem worth the horrible scar on the landscape. i used to think it was kind of cool, but as i have seen them explode in West Texas and seen more and more on my trips between Texas and California and then read a bit about how inefficient they are compared to nuclear, i would rather see some gigantic nuclear plants placed in earthquake free zones. how many windmills would it take to equal one nuclear plant in terms of production?

but theu nailed it. i love green energy, but think some of it has been overstated. i am eager to see a major breakthrough in solar energy. it seems like we should be WAY further than we are at this point in history.

so, what about you? why are you completely silent on the carbon trading collapse we are watching happen around the world? i have thrown several threads out there with you in mind since you told us that carbon trading was in no danger and was a great thing...

 

[gecko]

So the people hired to pick the weeds will be working in sustainable green jobs? Obama must be jizzing over this.

 

[SomeMildLanguage]

Maybe they could turn the alternating rows into a winery.

 

[hornpharmd]

This solar farm is in East Germany. WTF am I supposed to care that they can't maintain their utilities?

 

[mop]

well, it does tangentially raise the question of the value of Solar energy. is it worth it at the current levels of efficiency? obviously, in time we will be able to far more efficiently utilize solar power, but are we there yet?

some problems with solar power

 

[mop]

i found an interesting read on why Nuclear is superior to Wind in terms of generation and land necessary. i would personally take 3 nuclear plants on the outskirts of Austin when compared with 21,000 wind turbines (if this guy's math is to be trusted!).


Nuclear versus Wind power

I am curious what you think about Nuclear power McBrett?