Solar is a scam

[Russ661]

There is an outfit trying to get public approval to build a solar farm in Wagoner county. I am against it. Imagine, if you will, having the pasture land or soybean farm near you disked under and thousands of solar panels put in. Or maybe it will be the woods down the road that are suddenly gone, replaced by you guessed it…thousands of solar panels. About the only good thing about solar farms IMHO is that they are quiet neighbors. Chances are that people who live in close proximity to these solar farms will not see any benefit whatsoever and I would bet their property values drop. I mean, who would want to live next to that?

 

[dennishoddy]

How about a free, cheap to build and fix, non-electric solar preheater for your hot water supply? Ever nearly burn your hand with water from a hose lying in the sun on a summer day? Hot water heater inlets are usually directly fed from the house cold water supply. Route that cold feed to the roof, and loop it through a small heat exchanger network of 1" plastic pipe painted flat black lying up there, and then back to the water heater inlet. Rig a drain valve setup for winter to empty and bypass the "preheater" loop, and Bob's your uncle. Surely a lot of people have done this?

We built a pool heater for a friend that had a pool house with a nice roof in the right direction. We did use 1" rigid copper with soldered joints though vs plastic pipe when copper prices weren't so expensive. Built a frame around the network of piping that was covered with black plastic Visqueen.
A throttling ball valve on the discharge side had to be installed to slow down the water so it could heat up. Garden hose attached to the intake side with a pump protected by a GFCI in the water to circulate it. The water was steaming when going into the pool.
The pump was removed before anybody was allowed to get in the pool.
An unfortunate side effect was that under the Visqueen it got so hot it almost melted the asphalt shingles under it requiring some roof repair.
After taking the piping down to repair the roof, it never got put back up.

 

[larrybparks]

I wouldn't call solar a scam it has its place. Great for RV's camping and some minor home use. But electric companies and other service providers charge you a base rate no matter how much you use or don't use. Some electric companies will buy back your excess, but my co-op won't so it's not worth it.

Solar for me has been a huge benefit. My boat dock is now electrified, I can operate 2 boat lifts, basic lighting, and have electrical outlets that power up to 15 amps. My deer blind has a microwave, and basic power for charging phones and I now have limited power in a storage building. All parts, easily sourced from American companies. Solar is not your enemy unless you want it to be.

 

[trekrok]

Solar for me has been a huge benefit. My boat dock is now electrified, I can operate 2 boat lifts, basic lighting, and have electrical outlets that power up to 15 amps. My deer blind has a microwave, and basic power for charging phones and I now have limited power in a storage building. All parts, easily sourced from American companies. Solar is not your enemy unless you want it to be.

For niche uses like that I think it makes a lot of sense.

But for utility scale projects, it's stupid imo, just because of the political side. How about the oil embargos and OPEC. A group of countries basically controlling a chunk of a commodity worked out really well for us. And with solar, it's one single country that controls 75%. Why in the world would we be working so hard to put ourselves in such a precarious place for power?

 

[Shadowrider]

But for utility scale projects, it's stupid imo, just because of the political side. How about the oil embargos and OPEC. A group of countries basically controlling a chunk of a commodity worked out really well for us. And with solar, it's one single country that controls 75%. Why in the world would we be working so hard to put ourselves in such a precarious place for power?

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