EGEB: Wind and solar more dangerous than terrorists, Trillions in ‘clean’ investment money, more

Travis Fisher: Author of Rick Perry’s grid study called clean energy policies a greater threat than terrorism – The single greatest threat to reliable electricity in the U.S. does not come from natural disturbances or human attacks. Rather, the host of bad policies now coming from the federal government –  and unfortunately from many state governments – is creating far greater and more predictable problems with grid reliability. Now, you tell me whether you think the Department of Energy is going to deliver a fair study.

Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan herald the clean money revolution – “Socially Responsible Investing” – Across many areas of the world people are moving their cash into ‘cleaner’ places. Sometimes we make a lower return on investment in quarterly calculated returns on investments – but we recognize that there are benefits outside of out our standard valuation models. Mental well-being, peace of mind, physical health – these things are starting to matter. Trillions in investment money prove this.

I know Fred posted this about 3 hours ago on this website – but…Tesla’s solar roof tiles get approved for permitting and installations – that’s great. UL approval is a lot of paperwork, a lot of samples back and forth with the labs, lots of testing and a bunch of fees – but at the end of the day, the electrical grid – and the local permitting bodies that govern what we install on/in our homes – will allow your hardware to connect without question. Good solid step forward.

How Big Money in Politics Blocked U.S. Action on Climate Change –  Senator Sheldon Whitehouse believes the 2010 Supreme Court decision unleashing corporate money into politics derailed any chance of U.S. climate legislation – Two key things I took from it, first is that the Senator said in 2007-2008 there was a lot of talk in the Senate about Climate Change action. This lines up with the first 30% tax credit for solar being signed in that time frame – not to mention Jeb Bush of Florida having a strong solar power incentive at that time. Second – the Koch brothers are behind so much of our current political tension due to dark money. Simple as that.

DP2 jack-up vessel ‘Goliath’ sets sails to China for first offshore wind project – Big hardware specifically built to install off shore wind turbines – not a lot of these machines exist in the world. Probably costs a few million just to move the machine. Expect the Chinese off shore wind industry to take off big time. With that, expect the powers that be in the industry to shift – and expect the price to begin to fall as global scale and learning curves begin to attack the challenges. And – because of the large cities being on the coast of China – near the wind – we may have fewer transmission challenges. Google Image search for ‘Goliath DP2‘ – it’s a big machine.

Meyer Burger secures follow-on PERC upgrade orders worth US$82.4 million – the new follow-on orders from the two customers for its MAiA 2.1 PERC cell technology platform combined with previous orders from the same companies accounted for more than 7GW of PERC capacity valued at around CHF 120 million (US$123.4 million) – All of this for a technology that increases efficiency 1% – that speaks volumes of what 1% means.

Video inside a Trina factory from a reader’s comments two day’s ago. The video popped up in a discussion of jobs and solar manufacturing. Note – a lot more machines than people –

Tweet of the Day –

Another use for #wind turbines DISCOVERED! Sheep seek shade in the shadow of one of the turbines we installed. #WindEnergy #WindPower #Sheep pic.twitter.com/jfhbDdMQZ0

— FairWind (@fairwind) May 31, 2017

Header image is the e-tree – its got wifi, solar water generation, etc. Neat stuff if it gets people thinking about solar.

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