Fox News Claims Solar Won't Work in America Because It's Not Sunny Like Germany

reply to post by karen61560


The temp has absolutely nothing to do with solar power. Not sure what your point is.

reply to post by tide88


The lowest number of days worth of sunshine on average, in the US, is in Michigan, which had seventy one days worth of sunshine. Germany has an average of sixty four days worth of sunshine per year. The numbers speak for themselves, since many states in the US get much more than one hundred days worth of sunshine per year.

reply to post by Blarneystoner


Argh, Fox News makes my brain hurt, it really does. Their attitude to science is a total joke.

yeah it is more sunny in Germany sure... wtf is wrong with this people. I was born and raised in Germany, I have been to the US many times....

It is the same in the northern states (ok... except alaska) and in the midwest and south it is even more sunny than in Germany.

Originally posted by TrueBrit
reply to post by tide88

 

The lowest number of days worth of sunshine on average, in the US, is in Michigan, which had seventy one days worth of sunshine. Germany has an average of sixty four days worth of sunshine per year. The numbers speak for themselves, since many states in the US get much more than one hundred days worth of sunshine per year.

Completely false. The sunniest place in the USA LA, CA has an ave of 5.5 hours of sun a day, the cloudiest play in Germany, Hamburg, the sun shines 2.5 hours a day. I've link the data on page three.

Originally posted by aLLeKs
yeah it is more sunny in Germany sure... wtf is wrong with this people. I was born and raised in Germany, I have been to the US many times....

It is the same in the northern states (ok... except alaska) and in the midwest and south it is even more sunny than in Germany.

Read the link I posted. It isn't a simple as this place is sunnier than that place. I'm amazed the posters that don't do any research and just blindly believe a poster and other opinions.

reply to post by TrueBrit


I've seen those, and they would be very inexpensive to make. But you would be trading some water for the energy, so that would need to be taken into consideration regarding EROI (energy returned on investment). Especially in the desert.

Originally posted by aLLeKs
yeah it is more sunny in Germany sure... wtf is wrong with this people. I was born and raised in Germany, I have been to the US many times....

It is the same in the northern states (ok... except alaska) and in the midwest and south it is even more sunny than in Germany.

Let’s look at an example: In Chicago, at around 42 degrees North, a solar panel tilted 42 degrees towards south is exposed to 37% more sun than a flat piece of lawn of the same size (1/cos(42 degrees) = 1.37). So a one square metre panel’s 1500 kWh/year in total solar irradiation in Chicago is basically the same as 1100 kWh of horizontal exposure, which is the same or less than you catch just about anywhere in Germany. Far from being comparable only to rain-swept Seattle, Germany’s annual exposure to the sun is actually not too different from the US east of the Mississippi, except for the Southern sunbelt from Texas to Florida, which does get more sun.

www.joewein.net...

Originally posted by InnerLogic
A thread was started about this yesterday. www.abovetopsecret.com...

I couldn't agree more though...what a pack of lies.

The original thread was just on the newest flag threads page, I posted a great thought provoking comment on it, then they switched it out.
You'd think they did it on purpose.

Here's what I wrote:

Originally posted by Ghost375

Originally posted by teslahowitzer
Put it this way, If solar energy is so great and marketable, EVERY large company would be fighting for the making and marketing of these panels, PRIVATE companies, not forced special interest taxpayer billions.

It's not marketable, that's the whole point. The reason we need the government to invest in it is because it's not profitable. Sometimes you have to lose in the short term, to gain in the long term.

Having a renewable clean energy source is worth whatever billions we put into it.

Here's a thought: If republicans spent half the amount of time complaining about the outrageous amount, we're talking 100s of times as much money as what we've invested in green technology, that we've spent on our military, Obama wouldn't have his drones that they so love to complain about! It truly was the republicans who bought the drones!

Watch how quickly this thread gets pulled.

I saw someone on FB post a question about this earlier, I thought it was a joke, imagine my surprise logging in here and seeing a thread about it..

I always thought that even in cloudy weather, that a solar panel could work, correct me if I'm wrong (I mean at a reduced rate but still get some charge yes/no?)

But to say that it's because Germany is sunnier? Sorry I'm having trouble typing, laughing way too hard..

It's not that we get less sunshine, it's just that Fox news can't see it because they have their heads stuffed in a location where the sun doesn't shine.

reply to post by Blarneystoner


So disturbing. Only because there will be lots of people who will believe this
to be true.
Why are so many, so...easily fooled?

Wow. Even knowing how biased Fox news is, and how dumb they can be, this is still surprising. And the saddest part is that people are going to believe this. The people who religiously watch Fox are easily apparent in actual conversation when they spout off claims like this one, which they could have only gotten from one place. Just because Fox is a major news network does not mean anything. It does not mean they tell the truth, and even their founder said that the purpose of Fox news was not to give the news, but to promote an ideology.

Here's an article, citing a study conducted by the Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory, that explains why solar is so much more popular/feasible in Germany compared to the U.S. The primary reason: Soft costs, i.e. the costs involved in getting the system installed.

Link to article

Note this quote in particular:

For one thing, it isn’t mainly about the hardware, or the panels themselves. Those costs are comparable. The difference comes almost entirely in “soft costs” — customer acquisition, labor, interconnection to the grid, and the like. Long story short, when it comes to residential solar, in the U.S. it costs a little bit more to do … just about everything.

And this one:

Most of those differences can be attributed to policy, either directly or indirectly. PV installations don’t pay sales tax in Germany. Rules governing permitting and interconnection are much simpler. And of course there’s the biggie, which is German feed-in tariffs, whereby customers who install rooftop solar are guaranteed a high rate of return for the lifetime of the system.

With almost none of those incentives available in the U.S., and the average cost of a solar system in the neighborhood of $20,000 and up, this supposed "cheap" renewable energy isn't so cheap.

But then here comes the $0 down solar lease! Hooray! As long as your credit score is pretty good (roughly the same credit score you'd need to get a 0% interest loan on a car, when they used to offer them), they'll stick the system on your roof for free and maintain it for you. Sounds great, right?

It would be, except for the fact that it's a lease, not ownership, and you are not producing the energy for yourself, which, if you were, would effectively make your monthly electric bill $0, and any surplus you don't use would be bought from you by your local power company. No, instead, you're actually paying THEM for the energy your system generates, but at a modest discount compared to your normal utility, out of the kindness of their hearts.

You pay them for what it generates, you get a reduction in your monthly electric bill, and they get to sell what you don't use to the power company at a profit.

Solar isn't working in America because of America's unique ability to take useful technology and price it out of reach by being greedy, which then lends to the vultures coming in and letting you rent it from them at a profit.

Who cares if some vapid talking head spouted something about less sunlight, when the real conspiracy here is the bureaucracy and greed within the "clean" energy sector itself.

-Mordeen

reply to post by Reflection
I am not assuming anything. Power companies do not generate electricity and maintain the grid for fun.

If alternate energy replaces 50% or less of the necessary energy required and powerplants cannot replace costs they will likely be shut down unless subsidized and then you will be without power for 50% of the time.

At one time I liked to fool around(experiment) with solar, wind etc. On an individual basis it's a personal choice if you want to implement alternate energy for your residence or whatever--go for it...but, it's a lot of work for little practical gain. I'd rather do something else, than maintain solar panels and windmills.

good day

Originally posted by Blarneystoner

It's a place called Pasadena and it's just South of Houston, which is my backyard.

Do me and everyone else a favor and stop trolling this thread.....

So...what you are saying is you do not own the property.

If being truthful is trolling, I will own up to it. After all, the truth is a powerful thing.

Wishing for something however, is just a wish.

Green energy is just not there yet tech wise. And it never will be until some company can make a profit off of it.

Good luck with your wish.

you have got to have an IQ of less than 80 to believe ANYTHING Fox News says. I swear if they said that the sun was a burning lump of coal that Fox News viewers would believe it. Fortunately, only a very small segment of the population watches those nitwits.

Originally posted by Blarneystoner

I thnk it would be great to offer low or no interest loans for people that want to install solar in their homes.

Gotta ask the question.

Where would the money come from for these low or no interest loans?

Oh wait! I can answer that for you. The taxpayer.

I'll even back you if they cut the welfare entitlements. After all, they are cutting everything else but that.

Move out of Pasadena and come up north. Then tell me how well the solar and wind energy is doing. My sister has both on her property in Wisconsin, and all they do is help cut costs. Nothing more, nothing less.

And they also cost a pretty penny to install.

I would suggest that you travel the country a bit more without the blinders. Get in touch with all segments of society. Then move forward with a vision.

just a quick post. i believe i seen a thread about green energy on ats that said any solar panels that are over 20-25% efficient get taken by the DOD for "national security reasons". national security being the big guys pockects and them keeping there heals on the little guys necks

I am not sure if this is entirely relevant; but, here it goes anyways. I am currently enrolled in an engineering program in Canada, and as part of one course we have lectures from various currently working engineers on what they do. One guy does R&D on solar panels. According to him there is actually a huge problem with using solar panels in Canada, and its not what you would expect. The cold climate here in Canada actually makes solar panels more efficient, and actually so efficient the problem is their out put spikes wreck the system that feeds their power generated into the grid; this is actually a serious problem. Part of his current job is actually to try and figure out how to stop this from happening. Basically, right now solar panels don't work here in Canada, not because of sunny light hour differences, but because of the climate making them too efficient.