solar power generation. (Houston, Austin, Frisco: how much, house, to buy)

[starfields]

I would have loved to have watched the PBS NOVA program Saved By The Sun. Will it repeat or be available as an online stream?

[pjmckay]

Wind power is great, clean power. We had planned on putting in a great residential wind turbine on our 1.5 acre property only to be told by the city mayor and his cohorts no way not in our town, what if everyone wanted to do it?! Heaven forbid. This unit stands 33 feet tall the flag poles in the area are 50+ feet. It would have been 200 feet from any home around us! The would not even consider the data we had! They decided no before we even presented it!
Good luck in your area. By the way Gov. Rick Perry is pro Wind energy and has directed funds to secure this. Ck out his press release datedOct. 2, 2006. i just did and was pleased. We need alternate forms of clean energy!
PJ:

[Trainwreck20]

Check out the FutureGen project, too.... I know it isn't wind, but it is REALLY clean power, potentially. Texas is vying with Ill. for the federal project, but there is a very real chance to get it here, and potential privately funded versions, too.

It involves processing coal to remove the trace elements (metals, silica, etc), converting it to synthetic gas, using O2 (instead of air), and selling the by-products - sulfur, hydrogen, and CO2 (for use in oil fields or deepwelled into brine banks to react the COs). It is almost a zero emission energy production method that looks to be economically as well as technically feasible.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by loves2read

did anyone watch the PBS--in DFW on channel 13 KERA--last night about 6 or 7--was on solar energy--very interesting--showed the new technology in nano cells and the plastic multi-wave solar collectors like sheeting...
also showed how they are doing solar energy in Germany--
German govt pays people a prive 30 cents over what the avg kwh is now on 20 year contract to start solar farms and sell energy to grid--so that they can get financing from banks to install on farms and other large land sites....think electricity rates are set by govt in Germany--not providers--so there is much more control over the marketplace--but the farmer they used as example was able to run his farm and collect about 60,000 a year extra from his solar farm...

one section about new company called Sun Edison (I think) that will do contract w/company to lease area on their flat-roof buildings..Sun Edison installs solar collectors on roofs and sells energy to the owners/users of bldg. to use for its consumption ---anything extra goes back to the grid--one point he made was that in the hottest time of year when people on grid pay more for kwh because of higher demand, the people using solar get max output and so really maximize their savings over conventional electric usage----store they used was Whole Foods grocery in CA--so there is logical tie in with the green/environmentally correct mentality--people go there knowing their food will cost more (sometimes) because of the "better" quality and environmental association...

read article in FTW paper today about lawsuit filed by wind energy co w/farm in far west TX--they have sued TXU because they say TXU is running an older coal plant there to flood market w/higher priced and enviornmentally damaging electricity and keep their solar energy off the wires---was filed over 2 years ago--you know TXU won't go down peacefully---but they also apparentlly won't consider other energy sources besides what they know to power their generators, either....

PS---more rainfall does not always go along w/hail storms----I think they have some terrible storms in W TX although the yearly rainfall is very low (and getting worse)--in Dallas-FTW TX area, we have more rain that in far west TX usually and we rarely have hail storms like the ones in the past weeks---it is just the possibility of damage--like building on a flood plain--that would probably cause insurance liability problems...

I just think if you had some large home builders like Pulte or DR Horton going into solar--you would have no problems period--people would buy what was out there that was a better deal--they would get better prices because of their multiples--the problem is that more time would have to be taken on home design and subdivision development so that houses were oriented to maximize the solar gains--
there is smaller builder I read about who was doing that w/grant from federal and state govt--his houses usually wound up giving back to the grid over the course of the year--but houses were small--under 1500 sq ft I think--and that might be issue of viability/design---the avg sq footage of homes has been steadily increasing over past decade--and I don't know that people are ready to give up that space and room count...

I was just thinking of the NOVA episode on Tuesday night on KUHT in Houston when I saw this topic. Actually Sun Edison and that Whole Foods market is in NJ, probably in a suburb of NYC or Philadelphia. I remember that because I thought it was strange that they, like the Germans, were putting those panels at that Northern latitude. Texas really needs to be more progressive with energy or else see it going away from Houston to Dubai, Chicago, Wyoming, and/or SoCal. Dubai is a big threat according to the KHOU story earlier tonight.

[loves2read]

TXU had the option of designing their new, projected, coal plants w/that level of technology for reducing emissions--and they certainly did not--that is why so many towns/people in wind drift patterns from plants objected to construction----and the govenor tried to fast-track their constructin so there would be no oversight of pollution factor----
think the idea that Rick Perry is proponent of the environment just does not stack up when you look at how he has allowed and encouraged the legislature to strip the parks systems of their rightfully due tax portion and done other deals like the TXU plants---he is so two-sided he is a polyhedron...

[loves2read]

Kerr-Town---are you referring to the fact that Halliburton is relocating to Dubai---
they are such rats---need to be taxed and taxed some more....just like Exxon-Mobil and all other companied that are not just making a profit but are deliberately using market place position to make obscene profit and do little to shape energy policy to get it AWAY from fossil fuels...

[starfields]

.


So, are there any zero energy solar homes being built anywhere in Texas?



[Seville] Power station harnesses Sun's rays





.

[Trainwreck20]

Personally, I think the oil companies should charge obscene amounts for their products...there is no faster way to reshape a society than through its pockets....if gas costs enough, think we would ride the bus, invest in alternative energies, and re-think our use of oil? . As it is, they just charge enough to make money and not really upset anyone enough to do anything about it.....

I guess that is zero energy other than solar? I am too lazy to read the link . I suspect there are a few here and there, but don't know of any. I think there was an article in the AAS regarding a no-energy home somewhere out in the hill country, but that was a while back.

[starfields]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Personally, I think the oil companies should charge obscene amounts for their products...there is no faster way to reshape a society than through its pockets....if gas costs enough, think we would ride the bus, invest in alternative energies, and re-think our use of oil? . As it is, they just charge enough to make money and not really upset anyone enough to do anything about it.....

Counting our Defense spending billions to insure the free flow of oil, I'm guessing it really costs us two to three times the current $60/bbl.

[TVI]

Originally Posted by cdelena

Simple economics. It is cheaper to make electricity from fossil fuels.

Only when you externalize the costs, and internalize the profits (which is pretty selfish if you think about it). If you factored in the cost to sequester the CO2 emissions then fossil fuels are really not cheaper, but we don't do that. We simply puke the garbage into the atmosphere and say to hell with the planet. Sad.