william's Comments

San Diego rejected a combined solar and desal plant long term contract.The financing would be linked to the revenues generated by the water company.
There's no reason this combination cannot be applied to Baja California,Peru,or Chile where US, Japanese, and Chinese investors could establish towns or agriculture along the coast using the water.
In addition railroads could use the electricity to create a corridors for tourism.

The tidal range in Alaska should stimulate more power generation for those port cities.If they could connect with the grid and distribute this power inland it would greatly help those villages located along the Yukon where ice stiffles hydro power initiatives.

Pooling residential solar panels into coops would help create an infrastructure.Then India could meet its demand for air conditioning and electric bicycles or small trucks.
Over the next decade local authorities could establish solar funds for their provinces or villages.The loads would be far less than western countries and could utilize all the roof tops within a village.

High net worth Russian folks should be getting out of the gas-oil business as rapidly as possible. Their assets can be taken immediately by Putin or his allies in the other republics to cover the large gaps in the Russian and Central Asian budgets.
If its underground,the state can take it.
It's harder to extricate assets from abroad hidden in offshore accounts,although given the past Russian History,arrangements by the interior ministers have seldom applied any legal precedents for seizures.At present most big spenders tied their assets into teams and yachts.

The success of several large companies like Costco should indicate the financial wisdom of solar investments to other owners of commercial properties.
Apartment houses,factories,malls can all effectively utilize these panels and greatly increase the appeal of hard to market property.It may be outside repaved parking lots,the single best investment. Changes in the depreciation allowance for these panels should also increase their value.

China,India,the Middle East,Africa,South America could all move actively toward electric bicycles,ATVs,trains, and smaller electric trucks if the governments and business community coordinated their solar production through large scale bank investments.
Going toward smaller vehicles saves land and capital from subsidizing large scale road grids.
On the other hand,hydro,tidal,geothermal,and wind electrical generation must be used in Europe,Russia,,Canada,the US because they already have weather issues regarding open vehicles, have established costly road grids,and created an enormous industrial base for automobiles.

The solution for these problems might be found in San Diego.They use solar power to generate energy for a desal plant. The entire project is based on funding which ties the production of the solar farm to the desal plant for fifty years. This means revenues will come in to pay off the bonds.
I am surprised franchises to set up corporate PV plans for large scale operations like Costco does.Any building with a flat roof can cut utility costs and provide direct usage without the cost of grids.It is a great selling point for commercial investors who can transfer the savings to with the leases.

Oil and gas prices will fall injuring the present renewable marketplace.
Commodities traders face the alarming disintegration of the gold,corn,wheat,and soybean markets and the impending arrival of calls on their flimsy positions in oil and gas.
However,over the next ten years,the taxes gained on income taxes from workers in the renewable energy companies will more than make up for the lost capital gains in commodities.It will become chic to promote domestic renewable resources.

Brazil managed to utilize sugar cane and other biomass to become less dependent on oil imports.
Then they made discoveries offshore which made them independent,and helped underpin their currency.Finally,their old way of electing and dismissing military or political leaders fell into disrepute as they sought more offshore funding. This helped enormously.
The Islands should shoot for a much higher level of renewable fuel sources,and they should accept the inevitable coalition between the tourist industry and the oil shippers who are both opposed to any changes in energy policy. Now,the tourist industry,unlike the Cape Cod tourist industry,recognize the merits of lowering air conditioning costs.All the hotels,motels,and condos should be installing solar panels. The irrigation canal on Maui can be set up as a hydro project with the injections of cash. There's enough water power available on the islands since they get over 200 inches of rain.Channeling this hydro power will require investments.
Lastly,Hawaii like many other islands can initiate and subsidize electric or hybrid vehicles.

Small wind turbines offer a great potential for those living in the mountains or along the shorelines around Europe.One would hope more efforts were put into these less intrusive,noisy,and modest attempts to generate electicity.

Brazil and soon Cuba will be using sugar cane for biofuel. Maui has enough sugar cane to light and air condition the entire island.

It seems we agree on many elements of a solid energy policy for the US.
I would recommend people visit Denmark, or some of the Pacific Islands where they have had a permanent shortage of fossil fuels.For they provide many sound designs for homes and commercial buildings.
The Russians,Finns, Swedes,and Norwegians also have proven designs which conserve precious fuel.
The size,mobility and wealth of the US make it attractive to automobiles and definitely trucks.
In Europe,more dependency was placed on avoiding automobiles,the most famous example being Switzerland,and it should be copied whenever possible.
The significant research into saving gasoline ignores the problems now found in many Asian cities. You can have cheap movement,but the number of people is far too great to allow traffic loads. China has over 200 cities with a population over 1 million.Think about this reality before you begin thinking about creating cheaper and smaller vehicles.
Somehow lessons should be learned in countries with very few natural resources,and very expensive grids.
The early electric cars folded like the horse and buggy,and the auto marketplace began its evolution toward the interstates,and suburbs.These ideals may appeal to many citizens who have the same strange factors found in the US.
Any other nation including the Philippines or Australia are not going to be able to use them.Housing and transportation adapts to geography and fuel supplies.

The Admiral was responsible for saving the lives of great,intelligent,well trained Naval Personnel.
To waste these men on a poorly conceived energy policy bothers everyone connected with the military.
The Congress refuses to face the economic choices and release our dependency on commodity prices dictated by Gulf States,and their hedge funds.

The Capital has a tremendous amount of non taxed property.It is called the Federal Government.
You would think the Federal rooftops could serve as models for other commercial operations.You need not purchase one system,for it would defeat the experiment.If you bild the systems over a ten year period it could take advantage of the innovations in the various air conditioning units,and the insulation paybacks.
The air conditioning of Federal buildings remains and will remain an serious cost over the next decade.
Find out the rates being paid,and how much the solar panels would cut this one cost factor. Much of the population in the US lives in regions with very high air conditioning costs. Would not this experiment help them develop their own policies?

DC should set the model for other cities.