Overcoming the Hurtles of Solar Power

From the sunny olive groves of Spain comes a encouraging story of the advancements in solar power. At the beginning of 2008, the government of Spain enacted the law Real Decreto 661/2007, effective for one year offering cash to installers so that they could sell solar power at competitive rates. It also offered subsidies to utilities if they would buy at premium rates. This made solar power more completion with other sources. Because one of the biggest hurtles of going solar is the expensive start up costs of renting and installing the equipment, with this entry barrier tempered the playing field was leveled a bit. The result is this quote from Yahoo News.

“An enormous explosion in installed solar capacity, over 3 gigawatts in one year, enough to displace up to five coal-fired power plants. This number was far higher than analysts had predicted, but it comes at a significant cost, and not just to people's electricity bills.”


Unintended consequences now that the subsidy is being rolled back, is that the artificially inflated market is now unsteady, with deadlines being fudged, cases of fraud turning up, and installers finding less and less work.

Some solutions to this problem could be to follow Germany’s lead and making the subsidies effective for ten years, by that time the initial investment would be paid off and the foundation more solid. Also because the installation costs are such a hurtle using increased incentives, discounts and tax breaks for implementation of solar and other clean energy technology may also improve the situation.
by Alex Borsody

These picture my friends sent me from Spain







solar panels in an orange field in Spain.





solar panels in olive fields in Barcelona






the bottom image is a giant solar panel in a Barcelona park

Coca-Cola Hybrid Delivery Fleet to Become Biggest in North America

First the Military now Coke? it seems like every unlikely candidate for caring about just about anything or anybody has taken the initiative to be green, at least in transportation. Corporate responsibility is stepping up now that they see 4 years of Obama maybe? who knows, but they do plan to adding 185 hybrid booklet electric trucks.

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/01/16/coca-cola-enterprises-hybrid-fleet

2009 The Year of the Electric Car

The U.S Army recently announced the acquisition of 4,000 neighborhood electric vehicles, coming in both sedan and light truck models and can charge their batteries at any household three pronged. Six Neighborhood Electric Cars (NEVs) were unveiled by the U.S. Army on Jan. 12 at Fort Myer, Va. (U.S. Army), The first six cars were made by Global Electric Motorcars, a Chrysler subsidiary, to be followed by 800 more this year. The 30-mph, lead-acid battery-powered cars are projected to save 11.5 million gallons of fuel over the next six years.

Leaders were already thinking of expanding the program.

"These are the first of the 4,000 we plan to lease over the next three years, but we have 28,000 sedans that we operate in the Army," said Army Secretary Pete Geren. "As we move ahead we will look for more opportunities to take gasoline-powered vehicles off the road and replace them with electrical systems. This is the first step. Across all of our vehicles we are looking at ways to achieve greater fuel efficiency, not just on installations which these are used for but for deployed forces."

2009 is shaping up to truly be the year the electric car is revived as models are rolling out, with this year America’s automakers getting into the race, at the North American Auto Show. Also Mercedes BlueZERO trio (electric car, plug-in hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cell) by Mercedes are now production-ready and will be turning out on the market for low Volume runs during 2010.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3898211

Picture from http://www.defensenews.com

edit

General Motors EV1 TV Commercial

so who did kill the electric car? When General Moters was forced to make electric cars under California law, they came out with this ominous video to "sell" the car. at least partial responsibility falls on automakers, though we can't place all blame. The voiceover sounds so much more frightened or nervous that the intrigued or excited tone you would expect when promoting a product like this.