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Solar Energy Is Gaining Powerful Friends

February 9, 2006 | 6 Comments

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Washington, DC [New York Times] It was not so many years ago that solar power was a niche concept for electricity generation, an idea embraced mostly by the green-minded who were eager to do their part for energy conservation. It is still a niche concept, providing less than 1 percent of the electricity on the grid. ... But the list of leading solar supporters now includes President Bush, a former oil man living in a partly solar-powered White House who is suddenly endorsing solar energy as an affordable source of power in the future. Mr. Bush's overall budget for so-called renewable energy in the 2007 fiscal year is $1.17 billion, about the same as the current level of spending. And solar energy is only a tiny part of that, at $148.3 million. Still, spending for research on solar energy, both by government scientists and by outside scientists and academics, would be 78.5 percent higher than it was in the 2006 budget. ...
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NYTimes.com

Solar Energy

6 Reader Comments

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justin-gammino-30647

February 10, 2006

I like this kid!

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justin-gammino-30647

February 10, 2006

Who would have ever thought that a war with Iraq, and the U.S. spending 200 billion + for an estimated 10 billion worth of Iraqi oil would ever lead to people like Bush supporting solar energy! So, basically to say this in laymans terms. People had to die for simple minded people like our president to pull their heads out of their asses! Lets now take this time to psycologically manipulate the simple minded pro-war people. SAVE A TROOP! Do your part and help reduce demand on foreign oil! You all do realize that if you don't, Bill O'Reilly will call you anti-american right? Hey! as the President said, YOUR EITHER WITH US OR YOUR WITHOUT US! So, what is it people? Proud to be an American that "walks the walk"!

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kevin-kolb-14570

February 11, 2006

Unfortunately, he reduced spending for staff, so the NREL had to fire people.

I support renewable energy, but solar does not reduce the use of oil because not much electricity is made with oil, about 2 to 3% in the U.S., and it is mostly the leftovers from distillation that nobody else wants. The same is true of nuclear energy. We would need electric vehicles that plug into the electrical grid in order to use solar or nuclear energy to decrease oil consumption. Either that, or make solar or nuclear powered cars. Without electric cars, wind energy, geothermal energy, hydroelectricity, wave power and biomass (except biodiesel and ethanol) do not reduce oil consumption, either. However, if production were substantially increased, renewable energy would displace coal, nuclear and natural gas, which produce roughly 50%, 20% and 16% of U.S. electricity respectively.

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justin-gammino-30647

February 12, 2006

Yes, you are right that only about 2-3% of our electricity is made from oil. This is still a huge amount that we can work together to reduce, but of course, that would only matter to those who care enough to do their part. More importantly, much of our natural gas is also imported "LNG" from the Middle East. Furthermore, imported LNG is increasing exponentially. http://www.ameinfo.com/75112.html
http://www.energy.ca.gov/lng/faq.html#700
http://www.researchreportsintl.com/news/news-details.cfm?id=23546&FLink=
I suppose I should have clarified my statement by saying "Help reduce demand on foreign ENERGY" Renewable energy enthusiasts such as myself understand the big picture and consider it all part of the same environmental and political cause. Do you know what the primary ingredient is of that bottle of water you drank earlier today? And where did that ingredient come from?

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fred-widicus-46856

February 13, 2006

Some of you need to see past your own meager world views and get over your anger at the right. Being mad at them will get you nothing in return--unless you are the type of person why thrives on anger and the feeling of being oppressed. We are all in one boat and the other side should not be attacked because they actually began to row in a similar direction. Get over it and run with what the right has recently conceded. The Christian Right just extended an olive branch by announcing the need to combat global warming--it would seem rational to accept it rather than to assume the worst about their intentions. Face it, if Bush was as evil as many people seem to actually believe we would have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq quickly--because the US would have planted them there to find. Well NO weapons of mass D have been found with 100's of thousands of opportunities to find them since the US has been there.

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al-tasken-24634

February 13, 2006

Future theory here. I think the popularity of hybrids will continue to expand and pluggable hybrids will quickly become the norm. As pluggable hybrids become universal electricity will increasingly displace oil. If the solar industry continues to grow like it has over the last few years our children will be fueling their cars with sunshine.

It's going to take a while but it will come. A few years ago I wouldn't have dreamed of such a future but hybrids have come along and it's apparent they are here to stay. And then solar power passed the GW threshold (and I'm not talking about Bush) and didn't even look back. If cost reductions resume after the silicon shortage I think solar will get big. Invest now...

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