Ram 2500

[jhenderson]

I have 51 solar panels on the mancave rated at 15.3KW. Electric bills were ~$450/ mo 7 mos a yr down to $180 worst month. It would not be paying for itself if not for the $33K in govt and power company incentives. And because I'm not in a COOP, I get paid only $.03 a KWH I sell back to power company. Decentralized power grid is big in TX with all the sunny days.

Cheers, Ron

You’ve just named 2 out of the 3 things I totally disagree with about “ Green energy “. Govt grants and power company funding. That means we are paying for your savings. The hardware itself doesn’t earn its own keep. Govt grant? My taxes paid for that. . Power co? Did they give you a grant out of their profits? Not hardly. Every ratepayer contributed to your personal project. I understand why you would go for it but it’s not for me. I won’t take from others what I haven’t earned. The 3rd leg of this socialist milk stool is the fact at least here the utility is forced to pay 3 times as much for wind or solar power as they do for coal. Does that cost them $$? No, it costs the rate payers. It’s all smoke and mirrors for the average voter who’s never paid any attention to what’s going on around them and thought things out for him/ herself.

 

[Wiredawg]

You’ve just named 2 out of the 3 things I totally disagree with about “ Green energy “. Govt grants and power company funding. That means we are paying for your savings. The hardware itself doesn’t earn its own keep. Govt grant? My taxes paid for that. . Power co? Did they give you a grant out of their profits? Not hardly. Every ratepayer contributed to your personal project. I understand why you would go for it but it’s not for me. I won’t take from others what I haven’t earned. The 3rd leg of this socialist milk stool is the fact at least here the utility is forced to pay 3 times as much for wind or solar power as they do for coal. Does that cost them $$? No, it costs the rate payers. It’s all smoke and mirrors for the average voter who’s never paid any attention to what’s going on around them and thought things out for him/ herself.

Hmmm, how do you really feel? Just to educate you a little, there is reason for creating a decentralized grid.... it can reduce/prevent brownout when demand is stressing the system and I'm producing power onto the grid the power grid can't keep up. There's a lot of areas where growth is outpacing power and water capacity.

So, I hope that helped better understand that the government and power companies aren't giving money away. Anyhoo, have a beer and chill.... it's the holidays.

Cheers, Ron

 

[jhenderson]

Giving away their money? No. They’re giving away my money, not theirs. Charging 3x the cost of traditionally produced power? And the power you produce doesn’t even cover your own use. Hardly self sufficient. Particularly when it’s at others cost. You’ve told me nothing I didn’t know. Did you know that hydro power is available just to the north of our New England border? Canada would love to sell their excess power here. And at a cost equal to coal produced power. No we’re paying through the nose for green power here and having our pockets picked in order to get good publicity from folks like you. Have a beer? Why? So I won’t notice I’m being fleeced?

 

[Wiredawg]

Friends,

Just want to apologize to the gallery for hijacking the thread and going down a rabbit hole with this solar subject.

Hope everyone has a SUNNY day.

Cheers, Ron

 

[Cummins12V98]

There is a section this could be discussed. I have to say I’m tired of being bent over without lube.

 

[JR]

Speaking of subsidies. You can also add nuclear MAINTENANCE to the list. Over the summer Gov Dewine signed HB6 effectively doling out ONE BILLION dollars to two nuke plants in Ohio at the expense of Ohio electric rate payers over the next 6 years. One of those plants, Perry, is roughly 30 miles from me and has been operational since the late 1980's. They've been operating in the black for the last few years (that I know of) and were on the verge of bankruptcy prior to the bailout.

 

[SnoKing]

Some of the posters here need to get a private off grid island and live there. Then what they do they pay off themselves.

 

[JR]

Some of the posters here need to get a private off grid island and live there. Then what they do they pay off themselves.

Mmm, that sounds like a great idea, except I can't afford it myself. Maybe I should start a GoFundMe account to make this happen, Will you donate to subsidize my cause Sno?

 

[SnoKing]

Mmm, that sounds like a great idea, except I can't afford it myself. Maybe I should start a GoFundMe account to make this happen, Will you donate to subsidize my cause Sno?

Nope, not for people that do not want to be part of our society.

 

[Wiredawg]

Since the thread seems to still be going dow this road, this should help keep the conversation going.

The system works pretty good. Too bad CPS only buys power at $.04/KWH.

Anyhoo, life IS good!

Cheers, Ron

 

[JR]

Nope, not for people that do not want to be part of our society.

Who said I don't want to be on this "road aka society"?

 

[Ozymandias]

Furthermore, which road are we actually on?

 

[JR]

That was probably one heck of a road (trip)

 

[Ozymandias]

That was probably one heck of a road (trip)

Still on my bucket list, maybe next year, who knows.

 

[HPSimpson]

Wiredawg thanks for your help need to keep couple people really unhappy because we have found the secret to let others pay for our installation, Thanks you all!

 

[Wiredawg]

Wiredawg thanks for your help need to keep couple people really unhappy because we have found the secret to let others pay for our installation, Thanks you all!

I know... I'm thinking of placing the names of honored contributors on each panel... as a recognition. Dang, we better not get into tax write offs on here... there could be an incident on the news.

Cheers, Ron

 

[jhenderson]

Since the thread seems to still be going dow this road, this should help keep the conversation going.

View attachment 117568

The system works pretty good. Too bad CPS only buys power at $.04/KWH.

Anyhoo, life IS good!

Cheers, Ron

That’s real good alright. They use ratepayers ( your neighbors ) money to give you a grant, sell the juice back to that same ratepayer and make more per kw on the power you generate than you do.
What’s wrong with this picture?

 

[HVAC2]

Friends,

Just want to apologize to the gallery for hijacking the thread and going down a rabbit hole with this solar subject.

This was derailed by me. OP was discussing repairs and expenses on his truck. I suggested in the future electric trucks will be more reliable as very few parts compared to a IC platform.
Things went downhill after that

 

[Wiredawg]

Absolutely right. I'm out.

Thanks for the reminder.

Cheers, And Merry Christmas

Ron

 

[NIsaacs]

is the fact at least here the utility is forced to pay 3 times as much for wind or solar power as they do for coal.

It sounds like it is different here. This was in the local paper today....it says in part:

"l. Currently, contracts for solar power from industrial scale power plants cost about 23 cents per kilowatt hour – about half the cost of natural gas and far less than the cost of coal – even if you don’t consider the health and environmental side effects. The cost advantage for solar will likely increase as breakthroughs in battery storage accelerate.

However, one reason solar power plants generate electricity more cheaply is that they employ far fewer people"

Navajo County is losing a lot of coal industry so they just approved a 168 tower wind farm in 42,000 acres, most of it will be in Coconino County.