Editorial January 2012
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During our visit to Laguna Beach I read “Odiferous Solar
Secrecy” in the December 22 - 28, 2011 So. Cal. Focus
of Thomas D. Elias.
Solar energy needn’t smell, it is free, abundant in San
Diego and unsurpassed for lighting, heating, drying and
growing all vegetation. I was therefore horrified to see
that expensive solar electricity has usurped the
reputation of the generous sun to advance uneconomic
interests of utilities and power plants.
As I understand, the solar electricity lobby arranged for
PG&E to buy 617 million kilowatt hours of electricity
from Abengoa Solar’s Mojave Solar at double or more
your already very high electric rate. About 300 million
dollars (at least) per year. When you also read that our
Department of Energy has extended a 1.4 billion dollar
loan guarantee to Abengoa, you might think that your
Public Utility Commission and the US Department of
Energy very much back solar energy, but you would be
wrong. They are intent on turning free solar energy into
expensive electricity which you buy from your utility.
There are far less expensive ways to use solar energy,
especially in mild sunny San Diego.
What a brilliant if deceptive idea for the utilities, for
business, for the infamous 1% - to have a Renewable
Energy Portfolio Standard. It demands that your utility
generate electricity from renewable resources; of course
you pay for it, however expensive. It is confusing for it
leads us, the 99%, to forget that we can use the sun for
better ourselves without the utility. Once we knew to
open the curtain and turn off the lights, but now why even
have curtains and windows? The electricity, if expensive,
will be solar 24 hours a day.
Elias has already told you “something smells”. The
public is being had. Enthusiasm for the sun has invited
the utility to pull a giant trick. As Mike Florio, your
consumer advocate, has recommended, pay the
developers the 70 million they have already spent and
get out of this deal. I recommend going back to
traditional uses of the sun. Orient buildings, windows and
skylights for your climate, champion clothes lines, and
for extremists, go back a century to adobe walls to stay
cool. It is all less expensive than buying solar electricity
from Mojave.
Stephen C. Baer, 1-03-12, Corrales, NM
Secrecy” in the December 22 - 28, 2011 So. Cal. Focus
of Thomas D. Elias.
Solar energy needn’t smell, it is free, abundant in San
Diego and unsurpassed for lighting, heating, drying and
growing all vegetation. I was therefore horrified to see
that expensive solar electricity has usurped the
reputation of the generous sun to advance uneconomic
interests of utilities and power plants.
As I understand, the solar electricity lobby arranged for
PG&E to buy 617 million kilowatt hours of electricity
from Abengoa Solar’s Mojave Solar at double or more
your already very high electric rate. About 300 million
dollars (at least) per year. When you also read that our
Department of Energy has extended a 1.4 billion dollar
loan guarantee to Abengoa, you might think that your
Public Utility Commission and the US Department of
Energy very much back solar energy, but you would be
wrong. They are intent on turning free solar energy into
expensive electricity which you buy from your utility.
There are far less expensive ways to use solar energy,
especially in mild sunny San Diego.
What a brilliant if deceptive idea for the utilities, for
business, for the infamous 1% - to have a Renewable
Energy Portfolio Standard. It demands that your utility
generate electricity from renewable resources; of course
you pay for it, however expensive. It is confusing for it
leads us, the 99%, to forget that we can use the sun for
better ourselves without the utility. Once we knew to
open the curtain and turn off the lights, but now why even
have curtains and windows? The electricity, if expensive,
will be solar 24 hours a day.
Elias has already told you “something smells”. The
public is being had. Enthusiasm for the sun has invited
the utility to pull a giant trick. As Mike Florio, your
consumer advocate, has recommended, pay the
developers the 70 million they have already spent and
get out of this deal. I recommend going back to
traditional uses of the sun. Orient buildings, windows and
skylights for your climate, champion clothes lines, and
for extremists, go back a century to adobe walls to stay
cool. It is all less expensive than buying solar electricity
from Mojave.
Stephen C. Baer, 1-03-12, Corrales, NM