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RE: [RC] The Price of Solar, was the Price of Gas - Alison FarrinI guess living in Sunnny Southern California helps - especially when you are paying $.16 per KW for electricity. We spent $18,000 3 years ago for solar. We sell power to SDGE every year. Our neighbor's electric bill (roughly same size house) June, July, August Sept last year was $800 per month. His runs $200 a month in the winter. $3200 + 1600 = $4800 annually. $18,000 divided by $4800 is a 3.75 year payoff. From about midsummer on this year, my power is FREE! The cost of electricity continues to rise, so the payback time gets shorter and shorter. The new wind turbines coming out of Finland are beautiful. Some of the painted ones look like olympic torches. I WANT ONE to power my barn when its built! Alison A. Farrin -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Barbara McCrary Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 9:34 AM To: Truman Prevatt; Ridecamp Subject: Re: [RC] The Price of Gas ----- Original Message ----- From: "Truman Prevatt" <tprevatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: "Ridecamp" <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 9:03 AM Subject: Re: [RC] The Price of Gas Today solar is on the verge of being economically feasible - but it's not there yet except in specialized applications. At the rate it is going it may never get there. I looked at a solar system for my house and while I would like to do it - the payback for it is 30 years. I can make a lot more money by putting the same money into a reasonable investment than putting it into solar. That is the problem. We invested thousands of $$$ in a solar system for our house and all we got, for a while, was enough electricity to power our refrigeration equipment for a day or two during a power outage. We have routine power outages here, due to our line running through a forest and trees or heavy branches falling during stormy weather. Now the system is not working for some reason, and every time we call in some "expert" to track down the problem, they charge us plenty but no one has solved the problem yet. We are extremely disappointed in solar. So I suspect it is going to take a lot more than expensive gas to push the alternative technologies over the top. The one that seems to be ready for prime time is wind. But there seems to be a lot of "not in my back yard" associated with wind energy fields. As Joe Long pointed out a big issue with gas prices is our refining capacity. Hopefully that might be resolved at some point. But there is the "not in my back yard issue there also." I can't blame anyone for not wanting a huge field of wind turbines. They have to be the ugliest blight on the landscape that I have ever seen. Lud and I believe that nuclear is the answer. I know a lot of people are worried about safety, but there are two nuclear power-generating plants in CA, and no one seems to be very worried about them. It's just the idea of creating new ones that gets people all in a stew. Too bad...it's clean, it's effective, and it's available. It doesn't pollute the air and we don't have to sell our souls to the middle eastern countries to have it. This does not, however, solve the problem of sending our cars and trucks down the highways. Barbara =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: IRS regulations effective June 20, 2005, require us to notify you that this communication was not intended or written by this TPA firm to be used, and cannot be used, by you as the taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding penalties that the IRS might impose. You should seek the opinion of an appropriate tax advisor regarding information contained here within. PLEASE NOTE: This message, including any attachments, may include privileged, confidential and/or inside information. Any distribution or use of this communication by anyone other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender by replying to this message and then delete it from your system. Thank you. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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