[The_Virginian]

SPG,

Keep in mind not everyone owns their own property...and not everyone has the gumption and brains to start a project like that and make sure the contractor doesn't "rip them a new one."

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'C')orporate types love big these monster projects that they can make big bank off of, but smaller personal systems make way better sense.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Virginian', 'S')PG,

Keep in mind not everyone owns their own property...and not everyone has the gumption and brains to start a project like that and make sure the contractor doesn't "rip them a new one."

[taizee]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Virginian', 'S')PG,

Keep in mind not everyone owns their own property...and not everyone has the gumption and brains to start a project like that and make sure the contractor doesn't "rip them a new one."

[smallpoxgirl]

Yeah. That's exactly the problem. If you wanted to build an earthship so you didn't need the power grid, 3/4 of your building cost would be administrative expenses from fighting with the building codes people. If you want to build a $500,000,000 solar turbine power plant, the government can't wait to start stuffing green energy credit money in your pocket.

[patience]

taizee,

Back in 1975, a friend of mine moved from Indiana to Eagle, Idaho, and built a house in the high desert up out of the Columbia River valley. With solar technology available at the time, he built an earth sheltered, south facing home. It was super insulated, had triple pane windows, and maximum south window exposure, with a heat absorbing masonry wall in the south face. He bought a Kubota tractor and dug his own "cool tubes", 6 feet into the ground, put 600 feet of drainage pipe in the ditches and manifolded them into a concrete box. The outer ends of the tubes took in outside air, cooled it underground and a small fan pulled it into the house for cooling.

He retired a couple years ago from Hewlett Packard there, and never needed an air conditioner or furnace. The water heater leaked enough heat to keep the house warm through December, then a tiny wood stove did the rest.

It can be done in that climate, and it doesn't require high technology. But society DOES conspire to maintain the status quo, as you and others pointed out. His was an uphill battle getting it done, and would have been impossible if he had needed bank financing. Since he had no mortgage, he had no requirement for insurance, either, which allowed the wood stove use without paying high premiums. The savings on utilities and insurance paid him back several times for the home cost.

[The_Virginian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IslandCrow', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')yths about Solar Energy

"Solar energy only works in the daytime, and it can't provide the reliable power we need."
Solar thermal power plants can store energy during daylight hours and generate power when it's needed. Ausra's power plants collect the sun's energy as heat; Ausra is developing thermal energy storage systems which can store enough heat to run the power plant for up to 20 hours during dark or cloudy periods....

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Virginian', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IslandCrow', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')yths about Solar Energy

"Solar energy only works in the daytime, and it can't provide the reliable power we need."
Solar thermal power plants can store energy during daylight hours and generate power when it's needed. Ausra's power plants collect the sun's energy as heat; Ausra is developing thermal energy storage systems which can store enough heat to run the power plant for up to 20 hours during dark or cloudy periods....

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Virginian', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IslandCrow', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')yths about Solar Energy"Solar energy only works in the daytime, and it can't provide the reliable power we need."
Solar thermal power plants can store energy during daylight hours and generate power when it's needed. Ausra's power plants collect the sun's energy as heat; Ausra is developing thermal energy storage systems which can store enough heat to run the power plant for up to 20 hours during dark or cloudy periods....

[Jupidu]

I've read a booklet half a year ago about building a small house with a framework of wood. The spaces between the beams was filled with a mixture of mud and straw. The mud has to be placed during one winter under the open sky. I think it's because of better handling.

The same should be good to insulate a house (cheap and very healthy).
1. A wooden framework around the house.
2. Fill the spaces.

Cow dung is very rain repellent if it is dry: i had to clean the ground of a former cow stable a few months ago and by mistake i dropped some water of it - no effect.
Perhaps this can be used as a part of that mud-straw-mixture to give a certain rain security. Or the surface of the mud has to be covered with other materials (wood boards, whitewash?).

[TheDude]

Mega Solar : the World’s 13 Biggest Solar Thermal Energy Projects. Some of these are in the 500 MW range so it is proven tech, just isn't cost-competitive with FFs quite yet. The energy storage aspect is attractive, but most grand schemes for solar power I've seen go down the route of massive buildup of PV and huge storage systems - or global grids.

Do agree that better insulated housing and installation of low temp collectors etc. is a more sensible approach; might take wings on a local scale, too. But you leave Con Ed out of the loop in doing so.

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', '[')url=http://ecoworldly.com/2008/04/12/mega-solar-the-worlds-13-biggest-solar-thermal-energy-projects/]Mega Solar : the World’s 13 Biggest Solar Thermal Energy Projects[/url]. Some of these are in the 500 MW range so it is proven tech, just isn't cost-competitive with FFs quite yet. The energy storage aspect is attractive, but most grand schemes for solar power I've seen go down the route of massive buildup of PV and huge storage systems - or global grids.

[copious.abundance]

--> Fortune Magazine <--
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')...]

That's putting it mildly. A solar land rush is rolling across the desert Southwest. Goldman Sachs, utilities PG&E and FPL, Silicon Valley startups, Israeli and German solar firms, Chevron, speculators - all are scrambling to lock up hundreds of thousands of acres of long-worthless land now coveted as sites for solar power plants.

The race has barely begun - finished plants are years away - but it's blazing fastest in the Mojave, where the federal government controls immense stretches of some of the world's best solar real estate right next to the nation's biggest electricity markets. Just 20 months ago only five applications for solar sites had been filed with the BLM in the California Mojave. Today 104 claims have been received for nearly a million acres of land, representing a theoretical 60 gigawatts of electricity. (The entire state of California currently consumes 33 gigawatts annually.)

[...]

[Daniel_Plainview]

Some buyers "are paying upwards of $10,000 an acre for desert dirt that a few years ago would have sold for $500."

Stunning ......

[KingM]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DoomWarrior', '[')color=blue]Some buyers "are paying upwards of $10,000 an acre for desert dirt that a few years ago would have sold for $500."[/color]

Stunning ......

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KingM', 'I') don't care if you're a doomer or a cornucopian, this has bad investment written all over it.

[heroineworshipper]

And you'll be subsidizing all those loans after the real estate collapse.

[frankthetank]

Wouldn't it make more sense to put panels on the roof of houses and tie it into the grid? Also wouldn't solar hot water even make more sense considering how much heat is produced each day by hot water heaters that currently run on gas or electricity?

[3aidlillahi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'W')ouldn't it make more sense to put panels on the roof of houses and tie it into the grid? Also wouldn't solar hot water even make more sense considering how much heat is produced each day by hot water heaters that currently run on gas or electricity?

[Kingcoal]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'W')ouldn't it make more sense to put panels on the roof of houses and tie it into the grid? Also wouldn't solar hot water even make more sense considering how much heat is produced each day by hot water heaters that currently run on gas or electricity?