Jennifer Granholm, our former governor and current Energy Secretary, said on Aug. 19, “If we want to be energy secure and energy independent, that means we’ve got to produce our own energy,” in an interview with VOA News. “My counterpart in Ireland, the energy minister there, has said that no one has ever weaponized access to the sun. No one has ever weaponized the wind. Perhaps a move to clean energy will be the greatest peace plan the world has ever known.”
Wow! How dumb is that? But political correctness does not allow us to ever question the newest of the world’s religions, Global Climate Change, all praise Mother Earth.
I recently sold my beloved Harley and purchased an electric bicycle. Since I am pushing 75 years old, safety (mine and others) dictated the life change. Some of the dollars from the sale went to an experiment with using solar to charge the new electric bike. You need the panels and a converter/battery to store the electricity, costing thousands of dollars and with a life span of 500 cycles (full charges).
If used every day, the storage/controller system has a life expectancy of 1.4 years, assuming the sun shines eleven hours a day, every day. The cost savings would be non-existent; $2,000 for the charging/controlling system and the amount saved with 500 charges is a wash. However, if you add in the cost of the $500 battery that needs to be replaced every three years, the cost is a bit more using solar than plugging it into the wall
If someone wants to use solar to “save the planet” good for them, but it is not a cost-efficient or efficient way to generate electricity, not to mention the sun does not shine eleven hours a day 365 days a year. Solar panels degrade over time and must be replaced. Granted, they may last 20 years or more, but lose efficiency every year.
Exactly why we are not allowed by the politically correct crowd to even discuss hydro and nuclear energy is a mystery to me. Nuclear is safe, having been used by the Navy for nearly 70 years with no loss of life. As even electricity distribution has become safer over time, so has nuclear power.
About 31.5% of our renewable power comes from hydropower, and we have not built a new dam in a very long time. The tens of billions we spend on solar and wind could have made us energy independent of fossil fuels if we used hydro, but it is not about renewable, it is about politically correct renewable. Those who pay the eco-corporations, politicians and environmental groups hundreds of millions are not interested in saving the world, but getting rich.
A hydroelectric plant, the Whiting Hydropower plant, has been operational in Wisconsin since 1891, generating 6.3 megawatts of power, but the good folks on the left will tell us they are bad for the environment? So, the deicing chemicals wind turbines need, and the chemicals used in making solar panels are not?
Protecting the natural environment is the excuse used to ban hydro. Does the natural environment include wind farms and solar farms? Is a lake behind a dam not more environmentally friendly than a wind farm or solar farm?
Back to the dangers of global warming or now global climate change — some blame the obesity crisis on, you guessed it, global climate change. We must believe eating junk food and playing video games not requiring more exercise than moving a finger are not factors? Business Insider predicts cannibalism may be necessary, due again to global climate change as agriculture fails. Will we have fat cannibals playing video games, one must ask?
The crisis at our southern border is because of (one more time) global climate change. Some 2.2 million people are fleeing to the United States because of food shortages, violence and poverty, caused by climate change; open borders and free stuff from our national, state and local governments apparently has nothing to do with it.
Common sense has nothing to do with the climate change crisis; fat illegal immigrants, cannibalizing folks playing video games with heart problems will be the result. Do not commit a mortal sin and dare to question it, but do not be worried — war will be a thing of the past.
Remember that China has 3,037 coal power plants, and the number is growing every week. The United States has 241, do the math. We outsource our pollution to China to the delight of green groups. My opinion.
nuclear kills people dams kill fish and people grow up
Hey Hey My My….. what a profound comment. Have you strongly considered being an author or perhaps a speaker?Jones…. you are indeed a treasure.
Army Bob
Your question isn’t a Lake behind a dam more environmentally friendly than a wind farm or solar farm. No it isn’t.
When one dams a free flowing river, it has a dramatic effect on all life within and around that river.
Hydro, wind, solar,nuclear, all have negative effects upon the environment. It’s how the effect conflicts with each individual human, deems how they view its value. An example…if one really has no interest in the destruction of a cold water river. Since they do not trout or salmon fish. They may have no interest in restoring a grayling population in a river.
Than putting in a dam or two is no big deal.
I personally dislike dams and wind farms. Solar doesn’t make much sense to me either especially here in Michigan.
Being the selfish person I am …..stay with the coal fired power plants.