From the Guardian:
It has been said that Obama is the worst president since Jimmy Carter, perhaps now in the eyes of 350.org supporters, he’s “worse than we thought”. Carter was the first to put solar panels on the White House. Being nothing more than an icon, they didn’t last.
And here we have a more recent example of iconic posturing:
350.org “community solanizer” Bill McKibben writes:
Disappointment at the White House, Pride in the Movement
For the last three days, I’ve been sitting at my kitchen table in California cranking out press releases, calling reporters, and generally playing “pit crew” for Bill and our Put Solar On It road trip. It’s been a great ride: tens of thousands of people have shown their support for putting solar back on the White House, the crew had great stops in Boston, New York, and D.C., and we managed to secure a meeting with the Administration to discuss putting solar back on the roof.
As we expected (but secretly hoped wouldn’t be the case), the White House didn’t commit to … well, anything. We tossed them a big, fat soft ball to hit out of the park and they just watched it float on by.
===============================================
So much America’s “first green president”. Solar isn’t even mentioned here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/energy-and-environment
The irony, it burns.
UPDATE: some people wrongly got the idea that I hate solar power, which is not the case at all. I put solar on my own home, see the story here.
-Anthony
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Mike Borgelt says:
September 12, 2010 at 4:42 pm
David L
Please feel free to be our guest. Do post here on how you get on. You could also try going without modern medicine, walk or ride a horse for transport and eat only locally grown food without benefit of modern synthetic fertilizers or herbicides and insecticides. Go for it! Let us know!
I live near Amish people. They can show you how to live with less electricity. My electric bill is $35 per month. If you really are interested to reduce your electrical consumption I’d be glad to tell you. Here’s a start: reel mower, candles, broom and rake (not leaf blower), hand sickle and scythe, hand hedge clippers, solar water heater….etc. Would you like to sign up for the advanced course?
David, your comment is excellent. In my childhood years, my siblings and I were assigned garden scythe duty in areas around the house and barn overrun by tall grass. It was not by choice. The second something electrical or gas operated came along, and we could afford it, we bought it.
By the way, anything the Amish export to an amount greater than their roadside food/product stand, you can bet electricity and gas are used somewhere along the way from their hands to the wholesale buyer. The Amish roll around space heater is a case in point. It runs on…electricity.
Since this is an election year and the post was originally about Obama’s decision regarding solar panels, AND since I voted for him, this next go around I promise I will vote for anyone running for the CDIPF party.
Justajoe:
The motor is an Etek $400 delivered from ebay. The mounting plate is a piece of 1/8 steel with a lot of holes drilled in a circle and the edge filed smooth. Cost $5. The driveshaft adapter is a $10 weld on hub from an agricultural parts store. Cheap and easy.
The batteries are 3 12 volt dual purpose Freightliner’s. 36 volts gives lots of power at 2800 rpm. I can cut heavy grass for over an hour on a charge.
Before I made the solar panels, I used a 30 year old Lester 36 volt golf cart charger. An hours mowing takes 2 1/4 hours charging ( there are heat and line losses) and provides power for over an hour of mowing. The sun does the same thing for free with no losses but takes 2 days.
The electric mower is cheap, easy , effective and efficient. My old MTD is just a pain in the ass. I haven’t bothered to get it running after its little tantrum last summer.
While not a fan of Obama, he at least contributed some of the stimulus to upgrading the electrical grid. I am a big fan of energy conservation, I’m just skeptical of the CAGW crowd that has changed it’s focus to CO2 or fight!
wind generator
A vertical turbine picks up wind from all directions. Magnetic suspension minimises frictional drag. Large mass maximises the flywheel effect.
vickyyouvi said on September 13, 2010 at 12:37 pm
What’s that got to do with your link, that goes to a maker of normal lightweight-construction bird choppers?
Just read about a new solar process, based on photosynthesis-like properties, that they claim is 40% efficient. Sounds pretty neat.
http://www.greendesignbriefs.com/component/content/article/8532
RE: Main Article:
“It has been said that Obama is the worst president since Jimmy Carter…”
How soon people forget: It seems not so long ago they were saying George W. Bush was the worst president ever, perhaps even including James Buchanan who traditionally received that appellation for not preventing the secession that lead to the Civil War.
Brad says:
“…and tell me again how Obama could be worse than Bush?”
OK, let me count the ways:
What has this patently biased and moronic photo shop criticism of the American President got to do with a scientific website?
Where are the moderators when you need them?
If all the overtly political (i.e. party political”) comments had been snipped (as they should have been) this might (just possibly) have become a sensible thread about the value of solar panels and other so-called “renewable energy” policies.
Back to the article; How much ghg was produced for the “bio-diesel van” to drive across the country?
For better or for worse, this appears to have been introduced as a political topic by the title “Oh, that’s gotta hurt – Obama denies solar panels” and the text in main article…
wind generator
A vertical turbine picks up wind from all directions. Magnetic suspension minimises frictional drag. Large mass maximises the flywheel effect.
Obama is worse than Carter. Carter had an excuse. He was an outsider and pissed off congress. Obama does not have that excuse, so he merely pissed off a large majority of Americans.
who do you think that decision hurt ?
yeah, here is my opinion obama
http://thesheetnews.com/archives/4460
Anthony,
I have enjoyed the reporting, commentary, and insights from WUWT for nearly three years. Sadly, you have drifted once again into partisan political commentary here. It is too bad that the global warming debate is almost exclusively determined by the left-right political divide, and it is too bad that you choose to reinforce that state of affairs. The world doesn’t need another political blog (conservative or otherwise). Suggest you stick to the science and policy debate and leave the Obama bashing to Rush and Glenn.
“”” Gareth Phillips says:
September 12, 2010 at 1:07 am “””
Well Gareth; you are free to speak you piece. But a part of the whole climate and energy science issues is intimately (wish it wasn’t) connected to Politics.
So it is certainly legitimate to bring up such issues as this thread does. You (and anybody else) can tell what the subject is pretty much from the title; and if it doesn’t do anything for you; just pass on by to something you want to get your teeth into.
Frankly; the degree to which this particular administration has injected their own personal philosophical beliefs into the science issues of climate and energy, is without precedent in my experience (which is only 50 years of American politics.
In case you haven’t noticed; quite a number of Anthony’s threads have taken off like a lead balloon. Those that deserve it, die a mercifully short death agony. I can’t think of a single one though that I wish Anthony had not posted; so the threads are self governing.
Some of them have more energy than Steven Chu’s whole damn department; and that is the way it should be.
I’m not a US citizen; so this close to election time, I have to bite my tongue; since that privilege is not mine to have (or responsibility to exercise either). but these preferrably science issues have been forced into the political arena; and this is an appropriate venue to alert readers who may have an interest.
It’s like a radio station; there’s always a dial to tune to another station (or thread).
“”” wind turbine says:
September 14, 2010 at 9:57 am
wind generator
A vertical turbine picks up wind from all directions. Magnetic suspension minimises frictional drag. Large mass maximises the flywheel effect. “”””
Vertical wind turbines have one fatal problem; vertical wind shear. If you happened to be an Americas Cup sailing enthusiast; or any kind of sailing enthusiast, you may have noticed how the main sails on AC class boats have become more like the sails on a Chinese Junk; with a big flat square top, instead of a point. That is to put more sail area up top, where the wind speeds are much higher than at the deck level.
And in wind turbine land; the power generated goes as the cube of wind speed; so the vertical increase in wind speed collects a lot more power.
Verticals have another advantage; namely that for the very same reason (vertical wind shear) they don’t shake themsleves to pieces because of the permqanent built in vibration driver due to the top blade generating more thrust than the bottom blade.
Tehy had Verticals on the hills over the Tehatchapee Pass in California, going in to Mojave; but they have taken them all out because theys imply don’t generate as much power, and becasue of the ground turbulence, they generally need to be wider spaced that the conventional ones. Either way there are problems. I think vertical would be simply great to put on top of tall buildings; but no way are the green whackos going to tolerate a windmill spoiling the view (of the hills)
The problem I see is that even for a relatively easy installation on an ordinary modern house, the initial cost of the energy PV systems provide is prohibitively expensive for most budgets. Typical payback periods can be in the 20 yr range, maybe 10 with subsidies (rough guesses), for just an ordinary modern house in a location sunnier than DC.
If they were to be built for, and installed on the White House, the cost would be many times greater than for the ordinary house, making it unlikely any benefit would ever be derived from them. Heck, just the energy consumed to produce and install them might never get replenished.
I applaud Obama for doing something right for the environment..
BWD
It appears the President has relented and is going to install solar panels on the White House after a talk with environmental activist Bill McKibben.
Solar Panels to Return to the White House Roof
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/10/solar-panels-to-return-to-the-white-house-roof/64075/