Map: Solar Power Potential Of The United States

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Solar Power Potential Of The United States

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[eppur_se_muova]

1. LOL, poor Seattle ....

it really is cloudy or rainy all the time.

[Irish_Dem]

2. That and Alaska...cloudy and snow I guess....

But sure seems to be a lot of potential in the other states.
What a waste of a natural resource not to be utilizing sun power.

[texasfiddler]

3. I'm powering this up at my house next week

[link:http://blog.ecodirect.com/solar-in-action-kirk-of-texas/|

[ornotna]

8. Nice

How much power do you expect to get?

[texasfiddler]

9. It is rated for 13.5kW

The maximum panel rating is 15.6kW dc. However, it gets hot and humid down here so the temperature will limit the output most of the time. I chose micro-inverters that have a maximum total output power of 13.5kW. According to PVWATTS software, I might reach this level a few times during the year. The total annual energy output will be 22,000 kWhs (90% of our annual usage). We still need to replace our lighting with LED and do some other things and we will be at 100%.

[caraher]

4. And yet, even Seattle is better than Germany

https://www.washingtonpost.com/pbox.php?url=&w=1484&op=resize&opt=1&filter=antialias&t=20170517

[BBG]

12. A fact that clinched our decision

When exploring solar energy I saw that we in Seattle fared better than Germany in sunlight. That fact carried the day.
Yeah, it’s gray in Seattle and we’re down in the winter production dip. Yesterday we made less than 3 kWh but it helps. Our small system offsets over 50% of our annual power consumption.

[marble falls]

5. But, but, but but, coal!

[librechik]

6. 85% of Germany electricity is supplied by residential solar panels.

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/05/08/germany-breaks-solar-record-gets-85-electricity-renewables/

Don't tell me we couldn't do the same--Profit motive screws all of us!

[hunter]

7. For rare moments, yes.

Most German power is dirty coal.

https://www.energy-charts.de/power.htm

[caraher]

13. Not "most"

Click the "All Sources" button and the picture changes... wind, nuclear, hydro and biomass together are easily more than coal. Still, too much of the mix is coal.

ETA: the picture does depend a lot on the time period as well - my comment above was based on the latest week (the time frame the site defaults to). It looks like, for November, hard coal and wind trade off - when there's little wind they burn more coal

[hunter]

14. The pie charts tell all...

https://www.energy-charts.de/energy_pie.htm

About 25% of Germany's electricity is generated by wind turbines and solar power.

[caraher]

15. And 40% by coal

Which is not a majority. That was my point.

I do agree with your original point that the peak day for wind & solar as a fraction of total production is misleading.

[marble falls]

10. German court: Ancient forest can be cleared for coal mine By The Associated Press BERLIN Nov

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-court-ancient-forest-cleared-coal-mine-51362826

A court in western Germany says an ancient forest near the Belgian border can be chopped down to make way for a coal strip mine.

Cologne's administrative court ruled Friday against a legal complaint brought by the environmental group BUND that wanted to halt the clearance of much of the Hambach forest.

The group said it would appeal the decision and seek an injunction to prevent energy company RWE from clearing the trees in the meantime.

Hambach forest has become a focus of environmental protests against the expansion of a vast mine that supplies much of the coal used in nearby power plants.

The coal, a light brown variety called lignite, is considered one of the most polluting forms of fossil fuel.

[marble falls]

11. And more:

Cologne’s administrative court ruled Friday that Germany’s biggest electricity provider, RWE, could proceed with plans to chop down a section of the 12,000-year-old Hambach forest in order to clear space for the company’s open-air coal mine near the Belgian border. The mine produces lignite, a light brown variety of coal considered one of the most environmentally-unfriendly forms of fossil fuel. The mine has been expanded every year since 1978, reducing the Hambach forest to less than 10% of its original size.

The ruling comes just days after the European court of justice warned Poland that it would be fined more than €100,000 a day if it continues to chop down the Unesco-protected Bialowieza forest.
The Polish government claims that the forest must be logged in order to stave off an outbreak of the spruce bark beetle.

Poland’s environment minister, Jan Szyszko, accused the EU of “spreading lies” by publicizing photographs detailing extensive logging in Bialowieza that had been “manipulated” in a cyber-attack. Warsaw also called into question the protected status of Bialowieza, insisting that the forest is man-made, and not the last primeval forest in Poland.