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Old 01-23-2011, 10:05 AM   #21
ken0042
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Originally Posted by Matata View Post
Solar and wind energy are not sources of free energy. They require large amounts of land that will largely be unable to provide any other service, such as wildlife support.
Very true. Where solar really has merit is from more of a "grassroots" perspective; where a lot individuals get together and start a large movement. What I mean is this- the south side of my roof of my house is probably around 400 square feet. That is big enough that I could probably produce enough solar energy to satisfy most of my own electrical needs. Tied into the grid I could produce electricity to the grid during the system's peak times (which also happens to be my personal low times), and then pull back during the non-peak hours.

The problem is for me I would need to put out $10-20K to save myself $50 per month. This approach is inherently more expensive because each house requires its own infrastructure like the grid connection; whereas with a solar farm there is only one.

So if gov'ts want to help produce greener power; perhaps some sort of incentive could be given to home owners- as opposed to spending the money to build this huge farm.
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