Wind and solar energy beats fracking: Steven B. Smiley

CMHA solar array.jpg
More than 4,200 solar panels feed power to the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority's new headquarters on Kinsman Road in Cleveland. With recent cost declines wind and solar power are the lowest cost new energy sources. The cost advantage widens considering "apples to apples" financing, environmental impacts, price stability and energy security -- and in twenty years their fuel price will still be zero, writes Steven B. Smiley. (Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer )
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Guest Columnist/cleveland.com By Guest Columnist/cleveland.com
on February 08, 2014 at 9:00 AM, updated February 08, 2014 at 10:33 AM

This year marks a major turning point in energy in America. Wind and solar power beats natural gas “fracking” (hydraulic fracturing). With recent cost declines, they are the lowest cost new energy sources.

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/02/wind_an_solar_en...

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Permalink Reply by Finnbear on February 10, 2014 at 4:09am
Reply by Booger yesterday
Is there sunshine in Cleveland?

Every once in a while, kind of like how often the Browns win...

Permalink Reply by Mark McGrail on February 9, 2014 at 7:27am

Look at the picture, it's a huge area covered by solar panels. This is one of the problems with solar and wind, they require huge amounts of land to produce minimal electricity.his picture was for one facility.

I once saw a comparison of the acres of land needed to produce enough electricity for a medium city in the U.S. a natural gas plant needed 15-20 acres, solar farm several square miles, and a wind farm 60 square miles ( I'm sure these are not the exact numbers but they are close and you get the idea. Plus the wind and solar farms still required a backup source of power for times when there was no wind or sun.

I

Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on February 10, 2014 at 12:56pm

Avine annihilation embraced and welcomed by filthy "renewables" proponents further advances proof of their porcine proclivities; not that anyone was ever seriously in doubt.

Permalink Reply by Mark McGrail on February 15, 2014 at 3:21am

Frank,

Have you seen the solar mirror project in the desert of CA? It literally fries birds as they fly over it.

They placed all these mirrors on the ground which reflect sunlight on a steam turbine placed on a pole 400' in the air. The reflected sunlight generates temperatures up to 1000 degrees. So when birds fly over the mirrors and through the reflected sunlight they are fried alive.

It's good to be green. Right ? Not !

Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on February 15, 2014 at 3:30pm

Mark

Yes, I was aware of the avine incineration via solar array.  But in my view their "joy of killing" comes into full bloom primarily with their despicable "wind turbines".  I think they take special pleasure when they massacre our raptors.  The fact they also destroy songbirds and field birds is just icing on the cake for the bloodthirsty renewables murderers.  Wanton and carefree destruction of innocent avine life is, for them, no worse than and completely akin to destruction of innocent human life in the womb.  It's all killing, and killing for them is certain evidence of their awesome power.  It motivates them.  Killing is their "thing".  It makes their otherwise empty lives worth living!  Their's is a culture of death.

Permalink Reply by Mark McGrail on February 15, 2014 at 4:55pm

Frank,

It is indeed a culture of death.

Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on February 15, 2014 at 5:22pm

You left out euthanasia and O-Care death panels......otherwise called "rationing" of care.

Permalink Reply by Mark McGrail on February 16, 2014 at 2:59am

Jim,

For liberals (which includes fractivists) the results are not important. All that's important is that they care.

Another good example is the "CAFE Standards" for automobile mileage. In order to meet these standards automakers have made cars lighter. This has had an unintended consequence; lighter cars are less safe in an accident. Auto deaths have increased since the standards were first imposed. This is a particularly true of children killed in auto accidents.

Sadly the standards don't work our consumption of oil for transportation has continued to rise. People can drive further for the same amount of money (Americans love their cars). So we don't have less consumption but what we do have is millions of people who have died needlessly in auto accidents.

Permalink Reply by Bill Barnaby on February 10, 2014 at 1:31pm
I guess its over folks take your checks with a smile.
Permalink Reply by Brett on February 14, 2014 at 3:55am

No one is offering to buy my wind or sunshine at $7000.00 an acre.

Permalink Reply by Mary Beth Huebner on February 14, 2014 at 4:05am

The thing I find most ironic about this was at one time Cleveland was listed as one of the "mst depressing towns".  mainly because of the lack of sunshine.  That's why they built the huge Ravenna arsenal there.  With the cloud cover you could not spy on the movement that much.  I don't think solar panels work well with a lot of cloud cover.  Should have built a wind turbine...its always windy there close to the lake.

Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on February 14, 2014 at 4:26am

Mary Beth;  you don't understand why these solar panels were built.  It has very little to do with generating electricity but is much more about being politically correct, about showing you care about the environment (ignoring all the damage that the process does). It is about looking good to fellow progressives, about patting each other on the backs over wine and locally grown organic hors d'oeuvres.  Its about pretending your are smarter than the masses and being futuristic. 

Easy to do all this with other people's money. Lets visit the homes of the government officials that ok'd this project and see if they have them on their own homes, paid for with their own private money.  I'm betting they don't have any, even with the huge tax write offs.

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