Jan 07 2011

Now This is What I’m Talkin About!

(3 pm. – promoted by DDadmin)

Massive solar plant in Mojave Desert the first of its kind on federal land

The LA Times

“Las Vegas-bound travelers nearing the Nevada border rarely take notice of the vast, empty stretch of the Mojave Desert surrounding them. But that may soon change. On Wednesday, ground is to be broken for a massive solar thermal plant spanning about 3,600 acres and involving 346,000 mirrors, each about the size of a billboard.

Not only will the plant be highly visible to travelers on I-15, it also will be closely watched – and probably copied – by solar developers. Many developers are angling to start their solar projects by the end of the year, when a federal program that could cover up to 30% of the construction costs is due to expire.

The nearly $2-billion project is the first of its kind to be built on federal land and also the first to have slogged through myriad environmental, financial and technical issues that future solar projects are likely to face as well.”

Jesus. Just $2,000,000,000.00 little dollars? How come we aren’t already building like forty of these already? $2 billion is NOTHING!-scarcely a drop in the bucket compared to the kinds of money the federal government pisses away on illegal wars and cover-ups for corporate finance! If we kept building solar fields like this array in California, we could power the entire nation cleanly and  affordably – no doubt about it.

And will projects like this see any more funding in the near future?!? Not if the Republicans can help it.

“Can’t afford it, don’tcha know? Now’s the time to build anything, or invest in infrastructure to create jobs. Deficits and what-hoo. No, now’s just not the right time to be investing in America.

From New Jersey to Ohio to the House of Representative in the person of your new Speaker John Boner, RepubliCons across the country are busy fighting against jobs, while in one of the bluest states in the  nation, Californians are spending a few billions dollars to invest in a huge source of clean energy, creating jobs in a place I bet there aren’t a ton of them.

Hmmm, which is a better message to send the world and our own people?- that America is worth investing in and can build great things?-or that America is not a safe investment at this time, and probably shouldn’t be trying to build more things?

Why not kill three birds with one stone?

1) Create jobs

2) Contribute to a cleaner future

3) And get us off of foreign oil?

4 comments

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    • Edger on January 7, 2011 at 01:53
    • #

  2. Why not give readers a reason to check it out?

    You might also want to consider the downside:

    “It’s the old centralized robber-baron monopoly model,” said Sheila Bowers, an activist with the advocacy group Solar Done Right. “This is the worst way to go about getting clean energy – it’s slow, it’s remote, it’s devastating to the environment, and taxpayers are footing most of the bill.”

    But…

    Solar thermal power plants are large, but when looking at electricity output versus total size, they use less land than hydroelectric dams (including the size of the lake behind the dam) or coal plants (including the amount of land required for mining and excavation of the coal).

    I can’t figure out why just about every solar installation in the Mojave Desert uses a different technology. CSP, photo-voltaic, parabolic troughs…

    Why?

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