what about Solar in the pickens plan ?

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Permalink Reply by TSBinLV on July 8, 2008 at 5:56pm

I am a huge solar enthusiast. I live in the Mohave Desert (Henderson, NV - near Las Vegas) where we have enormous solar resources. My city is looking into a program that will help get solar roofs on more houses. Solar must be a part of the solution.

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Permalink Reply by hollisg on July 8, 2008 at 5:56pm

Southern California is rich with desert areas that are very windy. Companies have set up wind farms in these areas, but I don't know what percentage of the state's electrical grid is being relieved by them, or what the issues are preventing more of this open land from being repurposed as wind or solar farms. Today there is a power flex alert because of the heat. I don't understand the issues preventing energy companies in this region from depending more on wind energy, and would appreciate answers.
Perhaps if Southern California could produce enough energy, they could pay back Northern California for all the water they take. I have heard from a Stanford physicist that clean coal is a more practical approach, though it is not renewable. What needs to be done to give greater precedence to wind power in the southwest? Because of the recession, there are a lot of people out of work in California.

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Permalink Reply by stanley kul on July 8, 2008 at 5:59pm

there is one thing that is evident in the plan, all the sources of energy are still controlled by bigger companies and mr. pickens probably has a stake in . I do agree we need to break our dependence on foriegn oil we also need to reduce our green house gases .we need to empower the people ,we make the whole thing work , with out us as customers there would be nothing
we as americans need to dictate our future through the government and policy and look at the big picture where we will be in 100 years. take the o so hard steps to get there it will not be easy
people tend to want things to stay the same because it's easy ,for survival we need to shake things up

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Permalink Reply by NMR on July 8, 2008 at 5:59pm

T Boone for President.
Just like John Kennedy's 10 year plan to put a man on the moon , this country desperately needs a 10 year plan for energy independance. We are enriching are worst enemies.
I like the plan , but also lean more toward Solar Power and some of the newer developments ( nanosolar). Large wind turbines are a step in the right direction, but I wonder about transmission losses when power gets transmitted across the country, and the possible resistance to large wind farms. If the grid is compromised you still lose power, Residential solar roof tops would eliminate transmission loss. OIl wil always be important , but we need to get private transportation off of it.

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Permalink Reply by BryanR on July 8, 2008 at 6:12pm

GE should add Solar Panels to Wind Turbines for Mr. Picken's Wind Farm

Mr. Pickens should ask GE to add solar panels to the wind turbines he has ordered. Anybody that spends billions of dollars should be able to convince GE that it is in their interest that their wind turbines also contain solar panels.

If GE added solar panels to their wind turbines, it would create a more constant supply of electricity. The wind blows very little in the summer which is when Texas, California and other southern states reach their peak demand.

Since these wind turbines are sitting idle in the hot summer, they do nothing to reduce peak demand and are not counted for peak demand calculation. This causes old, inefficient coal and natural gas plants to have to fire up in summer to help with the additional electricity load. A wind turbine with solar panels would provide electricity during this peak demand.

Also, solar panels on the wind turbines would not require any additional land and additional maintenance costs should be minimal since the wind turbines and solar panels could be serviced at the same time.

Natural Gas Vehicles
Currently, the Honda Civic GX is the only natural gas powered "mass produced" vehicle. I put mass produced in quotes since Honda only sells only a few hundred per year of the Civic GX in California and New York. However, southern Utah has become a haven for natural gas vehicles since it is 64 cents/gallon according to this link.
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=111&sid=1393204

The reason natural gas vehicles have not become popular is the lack of natural gas filling stations. However, Fuelmaker has an at home natural gas fueling appliance now.

Clean Energy, founded by Boone Pickens, has the most natural gas filling stations in the country.
GM partnered with Clean Energy, to provide the hydrogen fueling station in LA, needed for GM's hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The hydrogen needed is created from natural gas.

Why don't we use a cheaper technology of natural gas vehicles now instead of waiting for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which will have to get their hydrogen from natural gas?

Please visit www.ngvc.org and www.ngvglobal.com for all of the other great benefits of natural gas vehicles, including reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

The use of natural gas vehicles is much greater in Europe than in the US despite the fact the US has vast natural gas reserves.

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Permalink Reply by Paul on August 13, 2008 at 11:02am

We'd love to provide solar panels beneath wind turbine towers... Each acre can produce another 100kW for 8 hours per day, for a minimal extra investment.

The Light is Green!

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Permalink Reply by Sean McDonald on August 13, 2008 at 11:32am

Do you have a website?

Sean

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Permalink Reply by Kemos on July 8, 2008 at 6:13pm

Think of what a trillion dollars could buy in solar THERMAL power!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy#Levelized_cost

Or the infinite potential of geothermal, imagine a trillion dollar geothermal array!

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Permalink Reply by Mike Smith on July 8, 2008 at 6:22pm

What I see in many of your posts, in concert with determination to find alternatives to oil, is a dependence upon long-distance distribution of energy, through pipelines or existing electrical distribution grids. With low-cost PV systems, every rooftop and many building sides can be used to generate energy sufficient to satisfy all needs of occupants, including energy for vehicular requirements.

I have discussed this with my cousin, who just retired as head of powerplants for a major Eastern utility, and we are both convinced that distributed generation will make large scale distribution obsolete. Electricity from PV can be used to crack water into Hydrogen that can be used to power fuel cells for generation of domestic electricity, power vehicles (and if you think this is far-fetched, go to http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/car_shopping/green_ma.... Bob Lutz, Vice President of Global Product Development for G.M., stated that this vehicle would be in production, with a home Hydrogen fueling system, by 2010), heat homes and domestic water and cook our food, all without reliance upon utilities or oil companies.

This concept terrifies energy and utility companies, as you can well imagine. I am certain someone will reply that this will not happen soon enough, but consider that crude prices dropped $5 today, based on the decrease in consumption in the U.S. because of prices. We don't need to provide every person with the technology to show current suppliers that there are viable alternatives, leading to substantial decreases in traditional energy costs.

Thin film and nanotechnology photovoltaics and fuel cell development by G.M, Honda and others is driven by the marketplace, to our benefit. There is extrordinary money to be made, and that is reflected in the speed of development. When the oil producers and traders see commercial launches of these technologies, crude prices will most certainly fall.

Stay tuned!

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Permalink Reply by Paul on August 13, 2008 at 11:23am

Hi Mike,

Better late than never. Perhaps I could request that you and your cousin take a look at STS. DG is the essence of our model. Every rooftop is a potential brightfield!

The Light is Green!

P.S. My partner worked with Lutz a while back...

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Permalink Reply by WILLIAM HEASLEY on July 8, 2008 at 6:31pm

Solar is great, as is Coal Gasification. Bio mass is great. Those technologies are great and are becoming more researched/funded.

But the Wind goes back to the Dutch and even further back in history. There is a good bit of wind technology out there dating back for centuries.

Current wind technology is ahead of solar and other technologies.........for mass electric generation.

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Permalink Reply by stanley kul on July 8, 2008 at 6:35pm

hello everyone i've started a new group solar power under the heading groups ,anyone interested in getting solar in the pickens plan please sign up and lets discuss the options
what we can do
and how to get it done .
and why

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