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ORIGINAL: tweakabelle

Thanks for that link. Those new solar cells sound exciting.

It's odd that some people who claim to be experienced in this area are adopting such a Luddite response to new technologies ...

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Stanford University researchers led by civil engineer Mark Jacobson have developed detailed plans for each state in the union that to move to 100 percent wind, water and solar power by 2050 using only technology that’s already available. The plan, presented recently at the AAAS conference in Chicago, also forms the basis for The Solutions Project nonprofit.

“The conclusion is that it’s technically and economically feasible."

https://singularityhub.com/2014/03/08/100-renewable-energy-is-feasible-and-affordable-stanford-proposal-says/

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Death of Coal: Even Banks Are Giving Up On a Coal Recovery
With investors and utilities giving up on coal, there's little hope for a recovery.

Five years ago, coal provided nearly half of all the electricity consumed in the U.S. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Today, the coal industry is rapidly going out of business. Coal plants are being shut down, miners are going out of business, and even import countries like China and India are turning their backs on coal. How did we get here and is a recovery ever going to take place? The answer may surprise you.
The coal conundrum

Renewable energy gets a lot of credit for the decline of coal. But if you want to know the real reason coal companies are struggling, you don't have to look further than natural gas. You can see in the chart below that natural gas generated about half the electricity coal did as recently as five years ago, but today natural gas is the No. 1 electricity source in the U.S.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/28/death-of-coal-even-banks-are-giving-up-on-a-coal-r.aspx

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Death of Coal: Even Banks Are Giving Up On a Coal Recovery
With investors and utilities giving up on coal, there's little hope for a recovery.

Five years ago, coal provided nearly half of all the electricity consumed in the U.S. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Today, the coal industry is rapidly going out of business. Coal plants are being shut down, miners are going out of business, and even import countries like China and India are turning their backs on coal. How did we get here and is a recovery ever going to take place? The answer may surprise you.
The coal conundrum

Renewable energy gets a lot of credit for the decline of coal. But if you want to know the real reason coal companies are struggling, you don't have to look further than natural gas. You can see in the chart below that natural gas generated about half the electricity coal did as recently as five years ago, but today natural gas is the No. 1 electricity source in the U.S.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/28/death-of-coal-even-banks-are-giving-up-on-a-coal-r.aspx

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Mostly we're fighting over fracking.

You know -- we have to frack for natural gas. There's nothing wrong with pumping toxic chemicals into the ground, and your flammable water faucet could be from any number causes completely unrelated to its starting when we started fracking.

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ORIGINAL: Nnanji

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Mostly we're fighting over fracking.

You know -- we have to frack for natural gas. There's nothing wrong with pumping toxic chemicals into the ground, and your flammable water faucet could be from any number causes completely unrelated to its starting when we started fracking.

I'm not going to provide you a link, but it's been determined that whole flammable water faucet thing was fake news drummed up by environmentalists to scare people.

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ORIGINAL: WhoreMods

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ORIGINAL: Nnanji

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Mostly we're fighting over fracking.

You know -- we have to frack for natural gas. There's nothing wrong with pumping toxic chemicals into the ground, and your flammable water faucet could be from any number causes completely unrelated to its starting when we started fracking.

I'm not going to provide you a link, but it's been determined that whole flammable water faucet thing was fake news drummed up by environmentalists to scare people.

I can provide a link: here you go.

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

A lot of solar is oversold, admittedly.

Tesla's "cheap as roof" solar tiles are definitely not at this point -- it would be cheaper to get a roof and add solar panels. Cool idea, but not cheaper.

A lot of solar around here is sold to hippies as "no more expensive than over time." My partner wants solar based on this.

My finance background kicks in here and points out that no, if you put that investment in an index fund and added the income you would have had from that after taxes, indeed, you'd do better financially to invest it and let the investment pay your electric bill.

But it does keep coming down, and it is in reach for people who want it (my partner figures she'll do the "banking" option and then, since her roof will overproduce, use the excess by using as efficient an electric heat option she can find to heat the cooler areas -- not the surplus she sees, but at least a reasonable use of that money).