Bryan Simpson's Friends

View All

Bryan Simpson's Page

Latest Activity

Profile Information

Are you interested in becoming an organizer in your area?

Tell us about your experience with alternative energy:

We just installed a photocell solar system on our home, 11.4KW

What excites you about this campaign?

Breaking the foriegn hold on the USA

What do you want to do to help?

I don't know what I can do other then forward Pickinsplan to my friends and family, about 80 emails.

Solar system is kickin in!!!

The solar panels installed in August is paying off. Our tru-up bill (year end) from mid August thru September was -$28.00 yes(-)!! Although the construction loan is around $490 fixed we won't be paying our typical $650-$750 monthly summer bill + 7% to 10% yearly energy increase and we can also write off some of the home equity interest. If you're on the fence about a new system look into it hopefully it will pay off as ours has.

Enjoy your day

Bryan

Bryan Simpson's Blog

federal tax credit

Hello Pickins members

I installed my solar panels in August 08. I understand that now a 30 % federal tax Credit is available for this type of install, can I go back and get this credit? I've heard conflicting thoughts.

Thanks,

Bryan
bryanjs@sbcglobal.net

Posted on October 22, 2008 at 9:57am —

Comment Wall (7 comments)

You need to be a member of PickensPlan to add comments!

Join this Ning Network

At 8:22pm on August 12, 2008, Bruce Campbell said…: Auntie Tutu is correct. Hawaii does generate electricity from petroleum liquids. It must be imported. It certainly helps explain why Hawaii's electricity prices are clearly the highest in the country. It also helps explain why Auntie Tutu can justify PV solar when many of the rest of us can't. Based upon DOE data, the average price of electricity in Hawaii in 2007 was 21.9 cents/kWH. For the first three months of 2008, the average price in Hawaii was 29.4 cents/kWH. The average for the entire U.S. was just above 10 cents/kWH. In the first 3 months of 2008, the state with the second highest price of electricity was Connecticut at 18.3 cents per kWH. So, clearly Auntie Tutu's economic justification for using other sources of electricity are much higher than any place else in the U.S.

My point is that generating electricity in the U.S. is not a significant factor in our dependence on imported oil. Only about 1.1 % of all the electricity generated in the U.S. in 2007 used petroleum liquid as fuel.

Our dependence on oil imports is almost totally due to our consumption of oil for transportation: gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel.

That is why the PickensPlan is based upon using natural gas to replace gasoline and using wind power to free up natural gas that is used for generating electricity. Nearly all of our natural gas is produced in the U.S. or Canada.

At 11:51am on August 10, 2008, Auntie Tutu said…: Bruce said below that none of our electricity is made from imported oil. ALL of Hawaii's utility company electricity is made from oil imported here in big tankers. Where it comes out of the ground, I dont know, but it is VERY EXPENSIVE and the power company has a mandate to raise our rates without even asking every time their oil price goes up.

At 11:48am on August 10, 2008, Auntie Tutu said…: Your plumberis COMPLETELY wrong. Go to the yellow pages and interview plumbers and ask if they have installed Paloma water heaters or Aqua Star, or BOsch. Don't even talk to them if they havent oput at least five of them in. Talk to their client--did they do it right? Okay, then go with the experienced plumber and put in the water heater. IT WOULD ONLY USE MORE GAS IF YOU WERE CONSTANTLY RUNNING THE HOT WATER> If yours is a normal household, and you need three showers a day and two dishwashing sessions, you will use only a FRACTION ----1/4 maybe---of the gas you would use with a regular gas water heater. And YES put the water heater close to the main bathroom, and yes, if you are in a cold area put the water heater and pipes inside---it can be vented out. The water heater only runs during the actual use of the hot water. Do not use that plumber for this project.

At 9:28am on August 10, 2008, Bruce Campbell said…: Bryan,
Basically none of our electricity supply is related to importing crude oil. However, your move to PV is clearly a good green step since about 70% of our electricity comes from burning coal and natural gas.

The primary reason we import crude oil is to provide gasoline for our cars. Of course we also provide diesel for cars, trucks and trains with the same imports.

The key element to the PickensPlan is to move a significant portion of our car fleet to natural gas. Currently, 84% of our natural gas supply is from the U.S. and 15% is from Canada. So, at least on paper this sounds like a good idea and it is as a start. However, we do import 1%. Imports are increasing because demand is beginning to exceed supply. So, where is all the gas going to come from? The PickensPlan is based on a simple concept. Generate electricity from wind so that we can free up some natural gas from the power plants and use it for cars. The tough question is how much of the electricity that is generated from natural gas can we replace with electricity from wind power. Since wind is not reliable, we will still need the backup capability currently provided by some of the natural gas fired power plants at least until an effective means to store electricity is available on a large scale.

However, the amount of energy consumed by our cars is enormous (like 50 times the amount of Brazil) so replacing much of it with natural gas will be difficult and as we do, the price of natural gas will go up. This means our costs for electricity, home heating and industrial consumption will be more expensive. So, this switch to natural gas is only a short term part of the answer.

Eventually we have to find a way to move most of our energy demand to electricity. The more of it that can be provided by wind and solar, the less dependent we are on fossil fuels. The most critical part of this step is to figure out a cost effective means to store it. Right now, the vanadium redox batteries may show the best potential for the large scale facilities needed to support large wind farm and solar panel use. Super capacitors, rather than batteries, may be the best technology to meet the range and short recharging times that the American market expects.

The other important concept is that the longer we wait to start, the longer it will take to achieve the objective. Our Congress doesn't appear to understand this concept.

At 8:46am on August 10, 2008, Bruce Campbell said…: Thanks for your comments on your PV system. Sounds like you made a good investment. However, where I live in Texas, there are no rebate programs from the state or from my utility. I am eligible for the Federal tax credit. I hope Congress extends it. Also, my utility does not have a net metering program and is exempt from having one by the state. My electricity rates are about 11.5 cents/kWH and my total electric bill is only about $2,000 per year. So, no matter how I look at it, I can't justify the investment at this time. From my research, folks in states with few cloudy days, strong state/utility company incentives (like Hawaii and California) and high electricity prices can justify these home PV systems. The rest of us will just have to wait.

At 9:21am on August 9, 2008, Bryan Simpson said…: Kim,
Great idea in the car window, I'll do the same and ask other's to do also.

Bryan Simpson

At 11:02am on August 4, 2008, Kim Anderson said…: Welcome!
Here's how you can help.

PLEASE email the Pickens Plan video to everyone you know. www.pickensplan.com. Ask them to JOIN. Ask them to pass it along. Time is of the essence. If every member had 10 friends join today, we could put the number of members over 1 million very quickly!

If we can not get critical numbers how can we take advantage of this golden opportunity? High gas prices have "woken up" America to our plight and a paradigm shift like not other is in the wind. We need to do this now.

So many new members write "I want to help, what can I do?" This is a start. We may not get to the next step if we can not get this one done.

Our leaders can not ignore millions of members of the Pickens Plan. We are not there yet. One person can make a difference.

I have put a sign in my car window that reads...
" 700 BILLION IN FOREIGN OIL ANNUALLY. STOP THE LARGEST TRANSFER OF WEALTH IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND.....TO OUR ENEMIES. JOIN www.pickensplan.com."

I also have small business card size notes with the same message that I can hand to friends. It's grass roots, but that is what this is going to take.

If you have a connection to the press- get them to cover this.
If you know someone who blogs- get them to cover this.

We added close to 2,000 members yesterday.... it should be 10 times that!
Have a nice day. Please let me know how it goes.