Vatican To Build 100 Megawatt Solar Power Plant 447
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.'"
Just remember when you give money to the church... (Score:2, Insightful)
Sell juice (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just remember when you give money to the church (Score:1, Insightful)
i can has citation?
Re:A waste of good money for green (Score:5, Insightful)
Except that they can't recoup costs by giving away efficient appliances and bulbs, because they aren't a utility, nor are they a government with enough electricity users and a regulated utility to play those kinds of financial games.
So, unless there's untapped oil reserves sitting under Rome, this is just about the only way for them to get into the energy game, once they've replace all their own light bulbs.
Also, catching the tech wave is all about timing and positioning too. There's always going to be some folks who try too early, and others that think the ones catching the wave are too early. Somebody's got to try early, because the technology won't really be practical until there have been a few failures.
If I understand well... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Just remember when you give money to the church (Score:5, Insightful)
Proof?
There's an Oasis in Egypt that's drying up. (Siwa? Can't remember exactly) Once it's gone, all the people living there will either have to move or die.
There's plenty of proof out there. Global warming may not be globally bad, but it sure is shitty for quite a few countries. If you can't see that, you're a buffoon.
Re:Don't think jupiter would do much. (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
You don't live near the coast, do you?
Re:Just remember when you give money to the church (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
By that argument, the Vatican should operate a casino, sell storage silos for nuclear waste in the catacombs beneath Vatican City, open a brothel, and spend the profits on humanitarian projects around the world.
Re:Just remember when you give money to the church (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
This would only be a "significant financial win" if the money gained by selling electricity in a reasonable time frame (say, 15 years) not only covered the cost of the panels and their maintenance, but paid more than a safe investment.
If this were the case, there would be capitalists all over the world assembling massive solar arrays for electricity production.
Re:Just remember when you give money to the church (Score:3, Insightful)
Typically, solar panels pay for themselves in 10 years, but if you read the article, you'd find that they haven't decided how much to do with photovoltaic cells and how much to do with turbine-based systems. The latter is quite profitable, and there are many commercial power providers that operate in this space.
I'm assuming, therefore, that most of this money will be spent on solar turbines, in which case it would be a very good investment. The typical ROI on solar turbine systems is close to 100% in the first year, so if you reinvest in new solar turbine systems in other places every year, until you hit market saturation, you have the potential for nearly guaranteed exponential growth.
Even if they go with PV, though, I should note that I wasn't comparing solar to other investments, only to spending the money up front. And even with PV cells, going solar has some nice side effects---as someone else noted, in the long term, reducing our environmental impact reduces the amount of money needed to feed the hungry. It's hard to say whether PV cells would be a good idea or not. It isn't throwing money away by any stretch of the imagination, but solar turbine systems would be much, much smarter.
Re:Just remember when you give money to the church (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Ahem...
"And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head."
"And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her."
"And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her"
Re:Asia isn't a country. (Score:5, Insightful)
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 ;)
That's a common misconception. Only frames of reference that aren't accelerating are equivalent.
Re:Just remember when you give money to the church (Score:3, Insightful)
I've been to church 'once or twice'. Which is how I know that: Revenge (Capitol Punishment), War Mongering (Kill the Terrorists!), Intolerance (Kill the Fags!), Greed (Cut assistance to impoverished families!) and the other trappings of the modern American conservative movement are at odds with a man who disavowed wealth, taught humility and generosity.
If we were to really follow in Christ's steps we would be a bunch of hippy communists who give up everything we have to serve those most in need.
There's a terrible irony that the conservative movement has attached itself to the most inhumane and socially unconsciounable platforms while simultaneously claiming some sort of divine ordination.
Can you see Jesus waterboarding terrorists? Can you see Jesus cutting health insurance for children? Can you see Jesus denying a group of people the right to marry and interfering in state affairs? Can you see Jesus lobbying Pilot to pass laws to exclude a group of people from Roman Life? Can you see Jesus suggesting that we shouldn't talk to enemies? Can you see Jesus advocating toxic dumping and pollution because it's "not financially vaible to be stewards of the earth?". Can you see Jesus mocking the environmental movement for wanting to protect his creation? Can you see Jesus mocking doves and calling them "silly spineless liberals". Can you see Jesus wanting to have anything to do with Rush Limbaugh? Can you see Jesus wanting anything to do with Sean Hannity?
The conservatives have claimed God in the US. But if there is a Jesus and Lord then he's got to be pissed with what they're doing with his supposed endorsement.
Re:Just remember when you give money to the church (Score:3, Insightful)
How many people do you know who wouldn't be asking Jesus to turn water into wine within the first 5 minutes of meeting him ?
Re:HOT AIR (Score:3, Insightful)
I think this should include telling an HIV-infected african guy all the realistic ways he can reduce probability his "gun" will kill his wife and unborn (and, in the unfortunate reality, teenage) children.
Well, the Catholic Church does extensively advertise that the probability can be reduced to ~0% by not having sex, and that this is the only moral and good thing to do if you are HIV-infected.
Re:Just remember when you give money to the church (Score:3, Insightful)
Just because a practice or belief is held for religious reasons does not make it right, justified, or even harmless.
Tradition and doctrine do not cut it as tools to manage your civilization in the face a of rapidly changing environmental, sociological and technological landscape. Worse, they get used as a special pass to justify the continuance of practices that would otherwise be considered wasteful, foolish or even barbaric.
Re:Asia isn't a country. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:HOT AIR (Score:3, Insightful)
You mean the same tenets that lead to public burnings, torture, mutilation, crusades, brainwashing and censorship? Christianity and the Vatican IS evil. Any religion is. It's a plague humanity needs to eradicate if it is to survive..
You mean the same race that perpetrated public burnings, torture, mutilation, crusades, brainwashing and censorship? White People and Europeans ARE evil. Any white person is. They're a plague humanity needs to eradicate if it is to survive..
You mean the same tenets that lead to public burnings, torture, mutilation, crusades, brainwashing and censorship? Nation States and specifically France IS evil. Any Nation State is. They're a plague humanity needs to eradicate if it is to survive..
You mean the same tenets that lead to Nazi experiments and forced sterilization? Science and specifically Chemistry IS evil. Any science is. They're a plague humanity needs to eradicate if it is to survive..
(The world doesn't need your hate. Your atheism does not make you special or right. Theism and atheism are just semantic games.)