Solar - free energy from the sun, no moving parts, and no carbon emissions.
Sounds great except for the downsides as they are finding out in Germany
Eight Billion Euro a year in subsidies which are paid out for 20 years. Along with a system which generates only 3% of national demand and only works half of the time or in this case not at all during winter.
I like all the benefits of wind and solar energy but the big downside is this. A lot of the development is because super large subsidies. I hear the subsidies for solar water heating are massive and even then somebody only gets a small gain.
I hear people claiming that a wind farm will generate so many Kwatt of energy. Yer Right. Only when the wind is blowing - although we do have lots of hydro in NZ which means that we can store energy here.
In NZ we have the luxury of a small population and lots of land area to dam for electricity. If we had 40 million more people we would have a very different attitude about nuclear energy.
The thing I do not like about all the arguments from the Greenies is that often the ideas they put out will either
provide very little benefit, cost a lot, or is completly impracticable and ignores the reality. I like this quote from Speigal.
To avoid a ton of CO2 emissions, one can spend €5 on insulating the roof of an old building, invest €20 in a new gas-fired power plant or sink about €500 into a new solar energy system.
Sounds great except for the downsides as they are finding out in Germany
Eight Billion Euro a year in subsidies which are paid out for 20 years. Along with a system which generates only 3% of national demand and only works half of the time or in this case not at all during winter.
I like all the benefits of wind and solar energy but the big downside is this. A lot of the development is because super large subsidies. I hear the subsidies for solar water heating are massive and even then somebody only gets a small gain.
I hear people claiming that a wind farm will generate so many Kwatt of energy. Yer Right. Only when the wind is blowing - although we do have lots of hydro in NZ which means that we can store energy here.
In NZ we have the luxury of a small population and lots of land area to dam for electricity. If we had 40 million more people we would have a very different attitude about nuclear energy.
The thing I do not like about all the arguments from the Greenies is that often the ideas they put out will either
provide very little benefit, cost a lot, or is completly impracticable and ignores the reality. I like this quote from Speigal.
To avoid a ton of CO2 emissions, one can spend €5 on insulating the roof of an old building, invest €20 in a new gas-fired power plant or sink about €500 into a new solar energy system.
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