Solar Panels For Every Home? 735
Hugh Pickens writes "David Crane and Robert F.Kennedy Jr. write in the NY Times that with residents of New Jersey and New York living through three major storms in the past 16 months and suffering sustained blackouts, we need to ask whether it is really sensible to power the 21st century by using an antiquated and vulnerable system of copper wires and wooden poles. Some have taken matters into their own hands, purchasing portable gas-powered generators to give themselves varying degrees of grid independence. But these dirty, noisy and expensive devices have no value outside of a power failure and there is a better way to secure grid independence for our homes and businesses: electricity-producing photovoltaic panels installed on houses, warehouses and over parking lots, wired so that they deliver power when the grid fails. 'Solar panels have dropped in price by 80 percent in the past five years and can provide electricity at a cost that is at or below the current retail cost of grid power in 20 states, including many of the Northeast states,' write Crane and Kennedy. 'So why isn't there more of a push for this clean, affordable, safe and inexhaustible source of electricity?' First, the investor-owned utilities that depend on the existing system for their profits have little economic interest in promoting a technology that empowers customers to generate their own power. Second, state regulatory agencies and local governments impose burdensome permitting and siting requirements that unnecessarily raise installation costs. While it can take as little as eight days to license and install a solar system on a house in Germany, in the United States, depending on your state, the average ranges from 120 to 180 days."
Bureaucracy (Score:4, Funny)
The real secret government. It destroys all.
Re:Bureaucracy (Score:5, Funny)
but without the bureaucracy, how would those government workers in the Solar Panel Installation Licensing Department feed their families? You don't expect them to find meaningful, productive work, do you? The SPILD provides jobs where none others would exist otherwise!
Re:Don't forget housing and condo boards (Score:5, Funny)
Must be you
The old power hungry geezers on my co-op board are the most understanding people I know
Re:A practical hyrbird approach (Score:2, Funny)
You sir are reasonable and logical. That will not be tolerated in our society.
Re:Don't forget housing and condo boards (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Extremely expensive (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Gas stations are electric powered. (Score:5, Funny)
But if we use the generator to power the pumps, we can have infinite fuel! And then if we plug the surge strips back into themselves, there will be infinite power too!
Re:Gas stations are electric powered. (Score:3, Funny)
And will last for a few hours until your supply of fuel runs out. Remember please that the gas station pumps are electric powered so if the power goes out you cannot get more gas than you have on hand.
Sheesh, kids these days. That's what your neighbor's gas tank and 5' of plastic hose are for ...