Green news for the day:
Grand sale, grand sale, grand sale.* Solar panel manufacturers will be slashing prices this year, reports Worldchanging. With a recent increase in investment in the production of silicon, the price of solar photovoltaics could fall between 30-40%.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the cost of installing solar panels in the US fell be 27.6% between 1998 and 2007, while another study is predicting solar power systems will reach $1 a watt by 2012.
Putting a price on endangered species. A team of scientists in the US have suggested that financial contracts should be pegged to the health of endangered species to create a financial incentive to proctect animals, writes Wired:
Under their plan, the government would determine the cost of protecting a species if it becomes endangered. That money would be set aside to fund contracts with payouts pegged to species health. The contracts would be sold to landowners and developers whose actions directly affect the animals, though the contracts could be freely re-sold.
Should animal numbers fall beneath a predetermined threshold, contracts would be voided, and money devoted to anticipated recovery programs. If the species thrives, investors would be rewarded, with profits growing in direct proportion to species health.
Hack the planet. Can we “geoengineer” the planet to stop climate change? That’s what some scientists in Britain are recommending, and politicians are listening. New Scientist has this rather lovely diagram of the effectiveness and viability of various geoengineering schemes, from space mirrors to planting reflective crops.
*Apologies for such a Melbourne-only joke here and in the picture. If you’re from elsewhere, watch this.
5 Comments
ah… oh dear where to start?
Here in Hobart the “usefullness” of solar panels has been very clearly demonstrated in the overwhelming Green electorate of Denison.
At Sth Hobart Primary School they installed solar powered signs to highlight the 40Km/hr School zone times. This was about 5 days ago. Presumably at a cost in the 10’s of thousands.
To date, not a single glimmer has been seen from them. It’s been cloudy.
Every morning and afternoon the kids and I check them expectantly, nothing. I don’t think we’ll bother tomorrow.
“Green: It’s a good idea…”
JonB: The lattitude of Hobart is roughly the same as Naples so when it’s sunny there should be ample solar input. I’d be concerned about the effectiveness of solar cells in places closer to the poles like Alaska, Scotland and Antarctica (although you see combined solar/wind powered phone boxes in rural Scotland).
Assuming you’ve done the sane thing and have some trickle-charged battery backup, in the long run your solar panels will be fine.
My argument is that “brownies” are just too used to having instant gratification and sod the consequences. Your solution is simple: just take the kids out to look the next time there’s a sunny day. Also after that you can take them back the next time there’s a cloudy day after that too, in order to see if the designers of your solar system have thought things through properly (i.e. a big enough battery).
Hi kdkd,
Just to clarify matters, I’m a qualified Electronics Tech.
Still no lights after a few sunny days. Maybe not installed correctly?
To be honest I love wind/sun power. If I could put up a $500 wind plant in suburbia I would. Not legal but.
However, our council spent a lot of money on this and I just haven’t seen any difference.
This incident just illustrates the “green appeal”. The council get to say “we put up solar powered school signs” but just as many kids get run over…
Green is about making it work not wishful thinking.
Yeah, sounds like someone stuffed more up than just the weather there. Now that I think about it, it doesn’t make much sense to have solar generation in tasmania, as the electric generation mix is a little bit of gas (348 MW) and remainder hydroelectric (2300 MW). There would be a strong case to start replacing that gas capacity with wind though.
Via the Basslink HVDC interconnector, Tasmania now buys in lots of coal-fired power from Victoria as well, in order to save some hydro capacity to send back at a premium price in peak hour.