20 megawatt solar power project in North Carolina
- added June 11, 2008
- 33 responses
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- Ogmin
- added this
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- related topics
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- Current Radio News (1272)
- Energy (713)
- Current Environmental News (281)
- Current News USA (269)
- Solar Power (206)
- North Carolina (73)
- Duke Energy (3)
850 sites include homes, schools, stores, and factories. All kinds of places that have large unused roofs. People who agree to have solar panels installed on their buildings will get rewards based on the size of the installation and the amount of clean electricity it produces.
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Great idea ! This should be mandatory for large buildings such as schools, malls, stores, and factories.
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hell yeah! I love it!
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I'll take as many panels as you can put on my roof!
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- shroomfairy
- 3 months ago
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This is what should be taking place across the globe and why is it just happing in North Carolina?
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times like this im glad to be a tarheel
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cool.
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- jaredsalzano
- 3 months ago
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Go Solar, Go!
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I LIVE HERE IN GEORGIA, AND I WISH THAT WE COULD BECOME MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FREINDY.
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Solar is a wonderful idea, but it has always fallen short of our hopes.
When Oil was selling at $25 a barrel there was no way solar could compete. Even at $75 a barrel Solar was not a choice out side of very hot sunny locations.
However at $140. oil no longer has a price per Megawatt advantage.
The promise of Solar is exciting. It is non polluting and best of all, all of our money does not leave the US and line the pockets of people in the Middle-east that hate us.
Larry Lubell
UrbanNewsBlog -
this is a perfect way to encourage people to live responsibly.
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- goodies4jessie
- 3 months ago
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No mater what oil prices are I want solar panels on my house. I want to live of the grid in the very near future.
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- shroomfairy
- 3 months ago
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Wouldnt it be great if a Presidental candidate came along that was for "change" and who was going to start implementing (today, not 2050) some of these new and great ideas for the whole country, and we didnt have to be dependant on foreign oil and we wouldnt be destroying our land and skies and, oh wait, we used to have one like that but people thought he was too boring, dang. Well, there goes that.....
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My question is, why are solar panels so expensive?? If I want good ones for my house, they have to be ordered from Europe, I'm told -- why is that??? Do they contain rare elements, or something??? How complicated could this technology be???
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shelchak, there's still a lot of technology and engineering that go into making them. if silicon were as cheap as we'd all need it to be for solar cells, the cpu in your pc would go for pennies on the dollar.
until volume goes up and manufacturing economies of scale grow, there's nothing magic about today's high pricing, and nobody's out to screw anyone... it's price-volume and something called the "cost learning curve."
as the CUMULATIVE quantity of stuff is made, generally the unit cost drops.
the first ones are expensive because the volume is low and the start-up costs have to be paid off by SOMEONE, and that's usually the "early adopters."
i was putting CFLs in my house in CA about 15 years ago, when a 40-w equivalent compact fluorescent was going for maybe $12. today, 60-w equivalent CFLs are maybe $2-3. [next problem: infrastructure to recycle them... :)]
i was playing with LEDs for lighting ten years ago. i converted my 20w house number lamp to LEDs and got the job done with about 0.05 watts! and i had to pay something like a buck apiece for the 20 or so LEDs and build the doggoned thing myself!
today, they're sold through catalog outlets and they're solar powered.
several european companies got into the solar cell business many years ago and so their manufacturing plants are bigger and more efficient than those of the newcomers. facts of economic life... sorry.
here in NC, Cree has forged ahead into the LED lighting business and is probably one of, if not THE world leaders in the technology.
and today you can replace a 5w night light with a .05w LED lamp for maybe $5-8. i've got about half a dozen in my house now.
i added LED lamps to the stairs off my deck this year. rather than run 40-60 watts of even CFLs, my dozen or so LEDs do a wonderful job at a total of 2.2 watts.
want to help? go buy the new stuff! it actually helps lower the price for everyone, including you, when you go back for more...
+af -
Shelchak, check out www.nanosolar.com. These panels are currently only available to utilities, but they promise to cut the cost of solar panels by roughly half. They use printing press technology to "print" the solar panels onto a thin metal film. There are huge savings in materials as well as manufacturing costs. I look forward to the time when nanosolar is able to supply to consumers. The near future is bright.
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If some kid in Africa can make one out of pop cans to heat his family's home because his little sister is sick and needs clean heat, then you would think we could get some for our homes that are affordable! If we had some politicians that were worth anything we already would!
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Going green is a good concept, but realistically...how many of use can actually afford?! Researchers, government and the like have had the technology and know-how for awhile, they just wait for the best time for them to capitalize on it before it gets out to the public. Perfect timing...
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@needu.... c'mon.... the kid finds the pop can and cobbles together a heater.
what would anyone in a developed country do?
find someone to install a solar thermal collector. pay the contractor to handle the permits, the labor, the insurance and all that. pay for some extra insurance on the home for having the collector; pay part of the installer and contractor's insurance against lawsuits you might bring if the unit fails [and you're paying for those warranties and guarantees, too...] and their social security payments for their workers and on and on and on and on....
you wouldn't/couldn't heat your house with the same system, and premitting, installation and layers of insurance costs make the cost to you a jillion times more expensive.
you tell ME how to reduced those costs, and you'll be telling everyone how to make solar "more affordable."
i wish _I_ could have solar electric and thermal and some nice cisterns in my back yard so that my grass can stay green.
i'd like a hookup to my house for reclaimed water, but my city thinks it's too expensive to even budget it for several years.
why don't ALL homes have hookups for reclaimed water for their toilets and gardens? gee... too expensive? have to raise taxes to pay for it? have to inconvenience people by tearing up the streets or sidewalks to install it? and who pays the electric bill for the pumps to get it to you?
"the government"? think again... it's ALL YOU, baby! -
@cmorecole... "That's not what is causing the oil price hike. While we are being led to believe that it is some exotic despots in the Middle East who are controlling our oil supply, there is an adequate supply available at home, being pumped offshore - with a media blackout so we won't know. "
hey, wait a minute... if there's a news blackout, HOW DID YOU FIND THIS OUT?!??!?!
please put URL links in your reply...
THANKS!!! :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) -
It's sad that it took an incentive like this to get people to finally start switching to solar power but I'm glad that it's finally happening.
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- USAMRIID92
- 3 months ago
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No one is offering solutions to high gas prices. All we get is excuses and the run around. Take time to visit this web site. if you want to see a solution to the gas situation visit http://www.wesaidnomore.com. This site offers a way where we citizens can take back some sort of control and exercise our power and rights as consumers and voters. It's a little radical but it will work. That's "We said no more"
Thanks
Gary
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