Guest essay by Eric Worrall
President Obama’s administration appears to be pushing out a final hundred million dollars in grants to foreign green projects, ahead of the January 20th handover to the new Trump administration.
OPIC AND RENEW POWER VENTURES SIGN COMMITMENT FOR 100 MEGAWATT SOLAR FARM IN INDIA
Marrakech, Morocco – The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. Government’s development finance institution, signed a commitment with ReNew of approximately $74 million for a 100 MW solar project in the Indian state of Telangana. Announced during the 22nd session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP22), this project will diversify the country’s power generation mix with a clean source of renewable power and help the country reduce GHG emissions.
“In India, outdoor air pollution is an ever growing public health concern. OPIC’s partnership with Renew Power Ventures will have a transformative impact by helping India both reduce its emissions and increase energy capacity in the country through a diversified power generation mix,” said OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth L. Littlefield. “OPIC is committed to assisting India in its transition to a low carbon economy by investing in clean energy projects.”
The Telangana solar project is the first project approved under the ReNew Master Financing Facility, a $250 million facility between OPIC and ReNew to be used for the development, construction, and operation of solar energy projects awarded under the Government of India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Under the ReNew Master Financing Facility, up to 400 MW of new solar renewable power generation will be constructed in India across multiple projects. ReNew will be utilizing the innovative Master Financing Facility provided by OPIC to streamline the timeline for financing new renewable energy projects.
Generating electricity from renewable energy can reduce a country’s dependence on fossil fuels and offers significant health benefits, in addition to being a sustainable source of energy. As the fourth largest energy consumer in the world, India must overcome a number of challenges to meet its rising energy demand and sustain economic growth. Currently, solar energy accounts for approximately one percent of total energy capacity in India, or 7.5 gigawatts. This project will support the Government of India’s goal to have 170 GW of installed renewable capacity by 2022, of which 100 GW are to be solar.
###
OPIC is the U.S. Government’s development finance institution. It mobilizes private capital to help address critical development challenges and in doing so, advances U.S. foreign policy and national security priorities. Because OPIC works with the U.S. private sector, it helps U.S. businesses gain footholds in emerging markets, catalyzing revenues, jobs and growth opportunities both at home and abroad. OPIC achieves its mission by providing investors with financing, political risk insurance, and support for private equity investment funds, when commercial funding cannot be obtained elsewhere. Established as an agency of the U.S. Government in 1971, OPIC operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to American taxpayers.
All OPIC projects adhere to high environmental and social standards and respect human rights, including worker’s rights. By mandating high standards, OPIC aims to raise the industry and regional standards of the countries where it funds projects. OPIC services are available for new and expanding business enterprises in more than 160 countries worldwide.
According to India Economic Times, an additional $20 million has also been released, bringing to total so far to $95 million, as part of what Economic Times describes as a rapid mobilisation of financing.
I would so like to claw it back.
In the minimal amount of information given here I don’t see any mention of the word GRANT. That seems to be Eric’s own spin.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation
That does not sound like a grant based organisation and in any case it is NOT a U.S. govt hand-out but private capital.
May be this site would do better than to post knee-jerk comment without thinking and checking the facts.
BS. This will in no way enable India to reduce it’s emissions. They are energy starved. They will have exactly the same amount of emissions as a result of this financing, plus some extra “clean” electricity from solar.
OPIC – cui bono?
Greg, ‘OPIC is appropriated administrative funding, and reauthorized on a regular basis, by the U.S. Congress.”
https://www.opic.gov/who-we-are/faqs
Sounds like Government funding to me.
Greg it seems to me that you are not recognizing that the entire section of Eric’s report that is boxed in is from press releases from OPIC attendance at the IPCC Marrakesh conference now going on. Eric’s “spin” is a one sentence introduction, a link to the site, and a one sentence observation about an article in the India Times. It seems to me that your response is the knee jerk post here.
A grant by any other name, would still be a grant.
They are giving away money, what else would you call it?
Actually, they’re pretty damn shady. It’s hard to find anything on their site about what percentage of monies is invested in any given project, let alone the India build.
OPIC is a government enterprise. From the OPIC webpage “OPIC provides financial products, such as loans and guaranties; political risk insurance; and support for investment funds, all of which help American businesses expand into emerging markets. By mobilizing private capital to help solve critical development challenges, OPIC advances U.S. foreign policy, and catalyzes revenues, jobs and growth opportunities …” “Risk insurance” and “guarantees” means taxpayers are ultimately on the hook for “investments” that go bad. This is not the free market. Without these kinds of government protections private investment would not happen because private business knows that these schemes are sure-fire money losers.
‘Private Investment’? I have seen nothing about the source of the money. It is very possible, if not probable, that there were ‘grants’ to shell companies from the Treasury that were, in turn, used to fund the project(s). No ‘REAL’ company is ever going to shell out millions without hope of any return, ever. To do so would be to invite endless shareholder lawsuits. [Unless the ‘shareholders’ are the US voters!]
I don’t think it matters, it’s our money not his, and he’s handing it out to foreign nationals.This concept of our government sending our money overseas needs to be outlawed. It needs to be an impeachable offense.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. Government’s development finance institution…
OPIC achieves its mission by providing investors with financing, political risk insurance, and support for private equity funds.
Sure as h**l sounds like GOVERNMENT money to me!
(From their OWN website, Greg.)
In my experience ( and I have some ) such arrangements are generally structured as loan guarantees, allowing ‘the private sector, Banks etc.’ to reap the upside rewards without downside risk. This is called ‘Moral Hazard’ and explains the role of Fanny mae and Freddie Mac in the ’08 Financial meltdown not to mention the AIG bailout of $180 Billion to repay the ‘short sellers’….
anyway you cut it the taxpayer is on the hook.
Cheers
Greg~ go to their site and plug ‘grant’ into their search engine.
OPIC is an “independent” government agency whose goal is to bridge investment between private United States firms and the developing nations in an attempt to gain an economic footing in those nations. (I know — an independent government agency sounds like an oxymoron.)
Regardless of carbon dioxide, India has problems with air pollution. This definitely has the feel of a solyndra style program.
You’re in luck — OPIC is live streaming the Marrakech program. Today’s events include programs such as:
— Innovative Adaptation: How African Leaders are Tapping State-of-the-Art U.S. Climate Science and Data to Build Resilience – NASA/USAID (I think they should cover “State-of-the-Art U.S. Climate Manipulation of Data”.)
— Addressing Climate Change through Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Energy – USDA
— Charting a Low-Carbon Course for the U.S. Economy – C2ES/EEI (they should probably just cancel that one.)
— Promoting the Central Role of Women in Clean Energy Entrepreneurship and in Addressing Climate Change – wPower {I wonder where the central role of the LGBTQ community is. It seems they have missed a few special interest groups in their presentation here.}
considering the Indian govt intends to install 100GW of solar capacity by 2022, I’d have thought the US would like to be involved in that investment.
The Germans and Chinese are certainly getting a lot of contracts… not so UK and US…
If an agent of the government says something, it is the truth and may not be questioned.
Obama said it, I believe it, that settles it.
@Griff
If it was India’s money I’d say “go for it”, but since they’d be taking my money, not so much.
@ Griff..the Chinese have warehouses full of solar panels, and the Germans have the most experience/best tech for the accessory equipment that ties the panels into the grid.
“””””….. “In India, outdoor air pollution is an ever growing public health concern. …..”””””
Maybe they could clean up all the wandering cow-sh**, so it didn’t smell so bad.
Come to think of it, all those stray cows could help alleviate any food shortages.
g
George,
Be very careful what you say about the Holy Bovine or their Holy S#!t
Reminder of the last Labour government in UK.
‘It is a convention for outgoing ministers to leave a note for their successors with advice on how to settle into the job. Liam Byrne’s note – which he later said was intended as a private joke – drew attention to Labour’s economic record when it was revealed by Laws at a press conference today.
Laws told reporters: “When I arrived at my desk on the very first day as chief secretary to the Treasury, I found a letter from the previous chief secretary to give me some advice, I assumed, on how I conduct myself over the months ahead.
“Unfortunately, when I opened it, it was a one-sentence letter which simply said: ‘Dear chief secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left,’ which was honest but slightly less helpful advice than I had been expecting.”
So wait. Are they going to really build a solar plant or are they going to turn around and pay it to the Japan company who they are negotiating with for some new generation nuke power plants?
They are going to build a solar plant…
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of solar plants are being built at present in India
Really griff, 1oo’s perhaps 1000’s well then we will really see had “well” solar does for them. Right now on cursory search I am finding 3.
You’re so cute when you blindly repeat propaganda.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands
=============
why not “perhaps billions”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_India
The Wikipedia link above shows that India gets just 1% of it energy needs from “other renewables” which would probably be wind and solar as of 2013 judging from the chart at the right side of the page. Bimoass, other waste and fossil fuels make up the bulk of its energy generation fuel sources. Hydro is at 2% and nuclear 1%.
Obama, Griff and solar energy enthusiasts are living in a fantasy world if they thinks giving (or granting) India money for more solar farms is going to make some meaningful difference in India’s solar future and its CO2 output.
This is just another example showing how solar does not easily or quickly scale up to meaningful commercial base load levels—which it is not doing here in the U.S. either. Physics cannot be defied (at least not easily).
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3.
India. Hmm,wasn’t that where a village rejected a GreenPxxx solar installation, saying that they wanted REAL electricity?
@Russ Wood: Here it is: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2717149/Bihar-village-rejects-solar-powered-micro-grid-demands-real-electricity.html.
ferd, try “twillions and twillions”.
I think they meant thousands of silicon diodes.
I haven’t kept up with how big they build silicon diodes these days.
I know they grow 300 mm silicon ingots for 300 mm wafers. That’s about 212 mm square, unless you allow some corner rounding. But let’s say they are 200 mm square, so that is 25 diodes per square meter, which gets you 200 Watts of electricity, or 8 Watts per diode.
So that’s 125,000 diodes per Megawatt.
So I believe the thousands of diodes.
G
Bio-mass = cow shit.
g
He must have read it in the Guardian – they don’t do facts there.
Biomass also equals burning which equals CO2
“Established as an agency of the U.S. Government in 1971, OPIC operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to American taxpayers.”
Does that mean the hundred million dollars in grants to foreign green projects is not costing the American taxpayer anything? If that’s the case, it’s hard for me to find fault with what they’re doing, even if I think the money could be better spent. OPIC’s web page says that “OPIC is appropriated administrative funding,” but doesn’t say how much that is. On the other hand, they also say this:
“OPIC operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to American taxpayers. In fact, 2015 marked the 38th straight year that OPIC has generated money for American taxpayers and helped reduce the federal deficit…”
I find it hard to believe that any agency of the U.S. Government actually generates money and reduces the deficit. That’s quite an accomplishment if it is true. Is it?
Sounds like some creative accounting to me.
They don’t count the cost of air travel back and forth to India. That’s the “private” part to the investment. It also includes any interest payments on the loans or bonds.
OPIC should be at the top of the list for thorough auditing
What usually happens in government departments is that if you save money and don’t use your full allocation one year, you’ll get that much less the next and, as governments don’t like admitting that they’ve overtaxed their voters, the last few months of any financial year is spent re-allocating money between offices until the books (almost) balance. Sounds like this might be a novel way of doing the same shuffle, only giving them a ‘green feel-good factor’ – “well, if we’re gonna tax the American people x amount anyway, let’s make sure we don’t underspend, otherwise they might think they’re not getting their money’s worth!”
why doesnt TATAs spinoff greenscam TERI just cough up?
after all thats what Pachauri and co who had ties into that I gather implied TERI was about
using the nasty TATA profits in a tax claiming green cred scam like many others
Nothing suspicious in a govt agency making money , as long as it’s the mint .
Why would a govt agency need to make money? The federal government prints the USD.
Actually, it doesn’t. Those somewhat green slips of paper are Federal Reserve Notes. Notes are IOU’s so those USD’s you referred are Federal Reserve bank IOU’s.
Is it not digital now? Just a few mouse clicks and the numbers increase. Voila! More money.
Why would a govt agency need to make money?
========================
why is the government competing with business? If the agency is making money, it must be taking opportunity away from business. Otherwise companies could do the job and make money.
The federal government prints the USD.
=====================
actually the government (Treasury Dept) can only print money that it has first borrowed from the Federal Reserve. And although you would think that the Fed was a government agency, it is actually a private bank.
The Federal Reserve is not a private bank. All of the profits from Fed operations are deposited into the US Treasury. If it were private, the owners are not getting any of the profits.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-federal-reserve-profit-20160111-story.html
It is private only so much that Congress can’t go in and print out a trillion dollars to pay whatever they want. The managers are appointed by the president, and all proceeds go to the treasury at year’s end.
Given the level of responsibility our elected officials have shown with money, this is a good thing.
Congress “prints” money each and every time they raise the debt limit. When the debt limit is increased, the US Treasury “prints” bonds and sells them.
“In India, outdoor air pollution is an ever growing public health concern. OPIC’s partnership with Renew Power Ventures will have a transformative impact by helping India both reduce its emissions and increase energy capacity in the country through a diversified power generation mix,”
OUTDOOR air pollution? It is the INDOOR pollution, burning crap and wood in hovels that would be better off with cheap electricity that is the health problem!
Exactly! WHO’s Fact Sheet 292 from March 2014 gives estimates for premature death from indoor pollution.
Agree. Exactly!
Outdoor air pollution is pretty bad too. Flying into Delhi, you can’t even see the city because of the pollution. However, it’s a pretty good bet that a large part of that pollution is caused by open fires in the tent cities. Even the rural areas we visited were often hazy.
The cost of this is horrendous even for solar plants. The winning bid from ReNew is $100/MWhr for capital costs, higher than any cost listed in the EIA study of levelized electricity costs.
Per the EIA, capital costs for new solar plants in the US are about $61/MW of installed capacity, less than two-thirds of the cost of the plant that the US taxpayers are ponying up for.
Waste the money on wildly overpriced green fantasies in some foreign land, or spend it on say US infrastructure rebuilding … tough choice, no?
w.
With lower labor costs in India, they should be able to build it for $50 MWH. I wonder what they have planned for the other half of the money?
Hey, India is thoroughly rotten with corruption.
$50 per MWh for installation ; .$50 per MWh for baksheesh. Business as usual in India.
Their climate “commitments” are on the same basis. They will cut emissions IF they get $2.5 TRILLION from the Green slush Fund.
They are probably going to sub-contract to the Clinton Foundation, ; > ) .
Back pockets. Leading elites.
The proper question.
Er Willis? How can $/MWh be ‘capital costs’
That’s cost of the product.
Capital costs are $/MW [capacity]
If you take the MW nameplate, multiply it by around 0.15 and then multiply by the number of hours life (say 10 years worth) you can convert MW to MWh, take the Capex divide it by the MWh and viola $ per MWh.
In this low interest environment the cost of money isn’t as big an issue as it might otherwise be. On the other hand, if you want to maximize the apparent cost of the installation, you shouldn’t ignore it.
I’ve watched the press turn a hundred million dollar boondoggle into a billion dollar boondoggle using such techniques. The trouble is that things get complicated and the real truth gets foggier and foggier.
Leo Smith November 15, 2016 at 3:49 am
Thanks, Leo, I was moving too fast. Fixed.
w.
It seems strange that OPIC is needed for this solar project. From the article-
“OPIC achieves its mission by providing investors with financing, political risk insurance, and support for private equity investment funds, when commercial funding cannot be obtained elsewhere.”
It would be interesting to find out which category or categories were used to approve this project for OPIC aid.
If solar PV is economically sound (especially in India), as I have read in many articles, then commercial funding should be straightforward with no need for OPIC.
India has plenty of investment resources available.
Solar PV is claimed to be the cleanest, safest source of electricity, so there is no technological or safety risk.
I don’t see how “political risk insurance” is needed for India.
India is committed to growing solar PV over the next decade, so there should be few barriers for funding and/or building projects such as this.
$100/MWhr for capital costs
==================
yikes. So we are ta;ling $0.10/kwh wholesale, before operation, maintenance and transmission. Compared to $0.03 kwh for fossil fuel wholesale in the US all in, with 300 years of known coal reserves.
No wonder Google engineers said they couldn’t make solar work. Energy is a huge part of everything manufactured. If you energy costs are high it is hard to compete and you end up like Detroit.
Except Forrest with coal you get to choose when and the duty cycle is a little better.
And, as others have pointed out, you could supply the same amount of electricity more reliably with coal and have a lot of money left over to build something else like schools and hospitals.
I’m surprised that the incumbent President isn’t just in a caretaker role until January’s Inauguration.
In OZ, once an election is called the PM is merely just that until the next PM is in the job.
And goes to show the country can run all on it’s lonesome without some banker at the wheel!
It’s a legacy from the time when you had to ride on horseback to get from your home to the capital. Which at the time was in Philidelphia.
Usually a lame duck Presidency IS just a caretaker, but we have a LEGACY to protect here. And a mission to ‘fundamentally change America’ to continue up until the very last minute.
off topic but Watter’s World has started the rumor that Elizabeth Warren will be appointed to Trump’s cabinet as Secretary of Indian Affairs.
Eugene WR Gallun
Hilarious …
w.
If it means sending her to India, I’m all for it. (*;
Pocahontas?
Fauxcohantas
There goes my coffee 🙂
Is ths project PV or solar thermal?
PV
Air pollution in India is mostly caused by cars and buses.
A suggestion for a more effective “foreign energy policy” (for many countries, not only India). Sell them the following, or, if you want to be generous, give them: the knowledge of how to build a clean-coal power plant and a few shovels to dig for coal.They will have a much better start than our ancestors had.
Forbes magazine lists the richest 100 India billionaires. Watching how the world operates, real estate salesmen in London will get a bit of a boost from Obama’s largess.
The US could assist India by blocking Democratic funding blocking the construction of Indian coalmines in Australia, such as the Adani mine.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/dennis-shanahan/green-campaign-against-australian-coal-trail-leads-to-john-podesta/news-story/42784b8b30e0ab18d7386054189a0933
As the US has no right to interfere in the internal affairs of Australia it would be a sign of goodwill were the US to freeze accounts that interfere in our national affairs.
Leave that to us, let the Australian governments’ with electoral mandate make the decisions, not overseas funded elites.
This would lead to low emission coal being burned with scrubbers to reduce air pollution.
India would then be able to compete with the US for the production of raw materials such as steel a well as aerospace defence, vehicle manufacture and intensive food production.
After all, they have the bomb and ICBM.
They have the kit to measure Indian Ocean cloud cover and temperature
https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/09/08/gslv-counting-down-to-launch-advanced-indian-weather-satellite/
You never know, India may then build a fleet to patrol the Indian Ocean and take some of the load that the USA as world policeman, has around its neck.
Trump needs to play the Indian card, as well as the Anglosphere card and start trading with the old Commonwealth of nations.
Including the US, the Anglosphere is bigger than Britain ever had with the EEC.
Rather than going for Hillary, the money would be better spent on auditing green grants to US and third world countries, such as this solar grant , to make sure the money does not end up in mansions on the Gold Coast of Queensland.
LOOTERS! (Obama is still inside prying the cash register off of he counter)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-16/banzai7-news-looters
Nov 13, 2016 – A “Pollution Front” moving southward over the Bay of Bengal:
MP4 (10.6Mb)
That’s what happens when you don’t burn things properly. 🙂
How oxymoronic that a government agency claims to be involved with investing private capital. This is one office that will hopefully be completely shut down, but after a thorough audit.
It is how public money gets privatized.
With a robust Planning protocol, they can alleviate stress in urban ghettos, and have their low-density, ecologically disruptive, non-renewable photovoltaic and windmill farms, too.
India.
They are the country that just signed a cooperation agreement with Japan to expand nuclear power.
“India is already in advanced negotiations to have U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric, owned by Japan’s Toshiba Corp, build six nuclear reactors in southern India, part of New Delhi’s plan to ramp up nuclear capacity more than 10 times by 2032.”
https://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/japan-india-sign-nuclear-pact-for-non-military-use
Looks like India understands that nuclear is the only real clean alternative to bring electricity to all their citizens
Seems like this solar project is just India taking whatever they can get for free. I mean if Obama offered me a bunch of money to pay for putting solar panels on my roof, I would be stupid not to take the suckers money.
That was my point. Given the nuke plant deal, what use would they have for the land eating solar plant. They would do better to give poor households one 12v converter and an individual panel.
One final stick-in-the-eye to India that says we want you to live in the 19th century and never succeed, since we cannot con our own people into this.
How much land will this require to be cleared? I would think the space would be better used as forest and not clear cut and burned.
None whatever… this is a link with pictures of existing solar farms in the region.
Very poor/barren land…
http://www.rayspowerinfra.com/solar-parks/solar-park-telangana/
a lot of Indian solar goes over irrigation canals (which also helps reduce evaporation) or in deserts or on rooftops.
Translation, small and not where it’s needed.
Have you ever stood behind solar panels in the day? The ground beneath them is scorched dry because it is hotter. The shade is in the visible spectrum, the IR is obviously going through. Just an empirical observation…
IR cannot penetrate a solar panel
Heats and is then re-radiated. Better?
Better?…..Nope.
.
http://phys.org/news/2011-07-solar-panels-cool.html
With the population density of India, power – solar or other – is badly needed everywhere.
I saw a study measuring the effect of solar panels in Arizona. Net effect: heating.
slumpingDromedary, you really need to do a little research.
They assumed PV efficiency of about 30% for that study. Out in the real, the absolute maximum is closer to 20% and actual average is closer to 15%, and that’s when the cells are brand new. Efficiency goes down with age.
I’d call it a rabid mobilization.
“Elections have consequences”, says the one that it apparently does not apply to.
The projects are only $82 million. There are “shipping and handling” charges that will land in the Obama Foundation.
it is \ok
to spend money on solar
but I would want my investment back + interest
is that included in the deal?
In India, outdoor air pollution is an ever growing public health concern.
Yes, but is it from burning coal in power stations? You could argue, that adding solar and wind, may delay scrapping of older more polluting power generation.
Because a mid-western middle class family struggling with health insurance, college tuition, and total taxation, is just thrilled to hear that his tax dollars are going to India to be wasted on another solar swindle.
You would think leaving the Democratic party in complete free-fall would wake up some of these socialists, yet they don’t seem to really be able to control their addiction to OPM.
“I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” – Thomas Jefferson
So my question is, Will this cost the US tax payer? If so, how much?
In the thousands of accounts and funds involved in dishing out U.S. taxpayer dollars overseas, there are ways to throw in some zeros after Jan. 20th to even out the balance. The receiving countries might actually start to prioritize at that point.
How are solar panels supposed to help with diesel burning vehicles??
…most of India’s pollution comes from diesel
Guess who is the major investor in ReNew. Go on guess.
Goldman Sachs, imagine that.
Crony capitalism at its finest.
The Obama adminiatration is already years late with the budget cuts that are suppose to have gone along with the tax hike on the rich and the ACA taxes as part of Obama’s balanced approach to deficit reduction. So the Obama Administration is suppose to be spending less money, not more. Of course the federal government will have to borrow the money. I estimate that the money the federal government is borrowing today will end up costing the tax payers more than 12 times the ammount borrowed to repay over the next 170 years. If the federal government really wants to spend moeny on solar power they should spend it at home. I want a solar power system installed on my roof that will allow me to remove my home from the power grid and to chanrg up an electrical car. I cannot afford any of this myself so need the federal government to fund it with the provision that anything installed on my property, I own, tax free.
willhaas says
I want a solar power system installed on my roof that will allow me to remove my home from the power grid and to chanrg up an electrical car. I cannot afford any of this myself so need the federal government to fund it with the provision that anything installed on my property, I own, tax free.
sic
henry says
by my own experience
1) solar geyser works = just make sure it is freeze proof, in winter, initially I had a problem there.
we had an allowance from the government to subsidize the system which made sense to me….as there was a shortage of electricity.
\
2) solar panels for electricity is a waste of time [for me] = too many trees and birds around here that foul the panels + problems with the dc [deep cycle] batteries. Too much maintenance required. Cannot recommend that to anyone. Wonder what Anthony’s experience is? [I remember he put up a system]
Thank you for reading my post and commenting. I am not familiar with a solar geyser. From what you say I should add that I also want the government to provide free Maintenance, upgrade, and repair of the system for ever.. I live near the ocean in Southern California so freefing is not a problem but we do have to conserve on our water use. Trees are not really a problem where I live and the birds are not that bad. Some of the people in my neighborhood have solar panels but no batteries so they do not serve them off grid. I would like the solar panels to provide power if the grid goes down. I also need batteries to help charge the car at night. To be perfectly green I should require that the panels, batteries, associated electrical equipment, and the car be made entirely without the use of fossil fuels but such does not exist. I should also require that those who come to do the istallation come via transportation that does not envolve the use of fossil fuels in any way.
I believe we should make an effort to minimise the use of fossil fuels but not because of climate but because the supply of fossil fuels is finite. I would llike to add climate change as another reason to conserve but the AGW conjecture has too many holes in it to defend. The climate change we have been experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans over which Mankind has no control. There is no real evidence that CO2 has any effect on climate and plenty of scientific rational to support the idea that the climate sensivity of CO2 is really zero. If CO2 really affected climate then the increase in CO2 over the past 30 years should have caused at least a measreable increase in the dry lapse rate in the troposphere but such has not happened. The AGW conjecture depends on a radiant greenhouse effect caused by the LWIR absorption properties of so called greenhouse but such a radiant greenhouse effect has not been obsereved anywhere in the solar system including Earth and Venus. Without the radiant greenhouse effect the AGW conjecture totally falls appart.
This article is a canard from beginning to end. OPIC is not spending tax dollars. It sources private capital. This project may be ill-intentioned and stupid, but it’s not costing the US taxpayer a dime. See here: “Established as an agency of the U.S. Government in 1971, OPIC operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to American taxpayers.”
Its really hard to see how a solar electricity generator is going to pay back interest and capital in a third world without green subsidies from someone.
Here in Australia, a first world country, they have to be subsidised by other electricity users.
This financial package would be underwritten by the US taxpayer, presumably with an overseas or green climate fund guarantee.
One never knows who may benefit.
http://www.wnd.com/2016/08/hillary-helped-crook-get-10-million-for-haiti-scam/
There has to be a catch.
Just like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae operated at no net cost to the American taxpayer, … until they didn’t. There is always a cost, otherwise private capital would be willing to invest, and this agency would not be required. That fact that it is “ill-intentioned and stupid”, means when it goes south, the private capital will be converted to public debt.
Posted along similar lines but lost in cyberspace.
If a solar plant in a third world country returns interest and capital someone else is paying.
In a first world country, like Australia, its some other poorer electricity user.
In a third world it will be coming from some green funded grant, as the locals can’t or would not pay anyway.
One such mechanism of graft is well known and featured in a recent local US election,
featuring OPIC.
No doubt Trump will be more careful with his money.
http://www.wnd.com/2016/08/hillary-helped-crook-get-10-million-for-haiti-scam/
Seriously?
You actually believe that providing “political risk insurance, loan guarantees, and direct loans to U.S. and foreign companies to encourage investment in developing and emerging economies” does not artificially lower the cost of such investments?
You actually believe that having the U.S. taxpayer assume a portion of the risk of the venture does not socialize risk and privatize profits?
You actually believe that regardless of the nature of the investment, OPIC is the embodiment of crony capitalism?
People can be ignorant, or stupid, or blinded by ideology but, worst of all, they can be intentionally deceitful.
I suspect Donald Trump has a long memory and the people ripping off USA tax payers in the final days of the Obama debacle will be paying for it .
Time to tell the traitor-in-chief to get………
At least, India has lots more of sunshine than we here in Germany. On average the same as Alaska.
Yet Germany gets enormous amounts of electricity from solar…
Solar, in such high northern latitudes? Really? lol Griff the “Renewable” court jester!
There is one thing (and probably only one thing) that governments do really well: pissing away money.
Would you believe there is one renewable energy system that actually works – It’s a farm in South Australia that uses a solar tower to desalinate sea water to feed a vast hydroponic tomato farm. It powers the whole factory – they currently use 15% off the grid but claim that will eventually be reduced to zero.
http://www.sundropfarms.com/