#5673: This is not a selling point.
So I decided to have a gander at my Facebook page to see if anything new was up. I was presented with this:
"Invest in solar"--let's see, just off the cuff, and without looking at any sources, what is wrong with this idea?
1) Absent massive government subsidies, solar power cannot compete economically with any fossil fuel source, but especially with coal. Solyndra, anyone?
2) Solar power panels are expensive to manufacture because it's a messy process involving many toxic chemicals. Currently China is leading the world in the manufacture of photovoltaic panels because a) they don't care about dumping toxic chemicals into their local environment and b) wages and working conditions that amount to slave labor. American companies can't compete.
3) What does Bill Nye have to do with this? He's not a scientist; he's only famous because he won a Steve Martin look-alike contest and parlayed that into his present career as a purveyor of pseudo-science. Having him in your ad asking for investors is not a good idea.
4) What is "next generation" about solar power? There have been no breakthroughs in the efficiency of solar power; the best photovoltaic panel we can make is 30% efficient and other solar technologies are not much better than that.
5) Just because a thousand investors "believe" in the future of renewable energy does not mean it will magically become economically viable absent massive government support which--as noted in #1 above--is still the case.
* * *
There was something else I wanted to comment on, but demolishing that horseshit made me forget what it was.
"Invest in solar"--let's see, just off the cuff, and without looking at any sources, what is wrong with this idea?
1) Absent massive government subsidies, solar power cannot compete economically with any fossil fuel source, but especially with coal. Solyndra, anyone?
2) Solar power panels are expensive to manufacture because it's a messy process involving many toxic chemicals. Currently China is leading the world in the manufacture of photovoltaic panels because a) they don't care about dumping toxic chemicals into their local environment and b) wages and working conditions that amount to slave labor. American companies can't compete.
3) What does Bill Nye have to do with this? He's not a scientist; he's only famous because he won a Steve Martin look-alike contest and parlayed that into his present career as a purveyor of pseudo-science. Having him in your ad asking for investors is not a good idea.
4) What is "next generation" about solar power? There have been no breakthroughs in the efficiency of solar power; the best photovoltaic panel we can make is 30% efficient and other solar technologies are not much better than that.
5) Just because a thousand investors "believe" in the future of renewable energy does not mean it will magically become economically viable absent massive government support which--as noted in #1 above--is still the case.
* * *
There was something else I wanted to comment on, but demolishing that horseshit made me forget what it was.