This is really good news. It seems the only way things change is when money is involved. The University of California is divesting its retirement funds from companies with fossil fuel holdings. Hopefully this becomes a real trend.
Here’s what UC recently had to say to their employees and retirees…
Effective June 30, 2022, companies that own fossil fuel reserves will be removed from the fund options in the UC Retirement Savings Program - 403(b), 457(b) and DC plans.
UC is making this change because the Chief Investment Officer to the Regents has determined that the long-term prospects of companies that own fossil fuel reserves no longer meet the financial criteria for inclusion in the fund offerings for the Retirement Savings Program. The removal of fossil fuel-related companies will reduce the long-term financial risks associated with fossil fuel reserves. This reduction in risk is consistent with the approach already implemented in the UC Pension, Endowment and Working Capital pools.
Just on the news that electric rates in Texas this summer are 70% higher than they were last year. Rate increases like that will really boost solar adoption there. Plus Texas has lots of sunlight.
Texas has its own isolated grid so they could give the finger to federal regulators. It worked ok but beginning of 2021 that lack of regulation and no connections to other grids caused their big blackout. Now electric ratepayers are holding the bag.
Increasing fossil energy costs are just going to be a fact of life now. Today it’s Texas in the news. Tomorrow it will be somewhere else. But it’s coming sooner rather than later. The southwest is looking at losing hydroelectric generation in the near future as the reservoirs dry up. Where will that energy come from? Texas is heading into peak power demand with a number of power plants offline. Energy shortages, hard and mandatory conservation, and maybe even rationing is coming.
The company that installed my system is buried. They have jobs lined up just waiting for parts and enough time to get to them. They are expanding. But right now, call any good installer and ask them how far out they are booked.
If these posts convinced anyone of the need to get solar and they are able to do it, they will probably still have to wait to actually install. Permitting and design reviews and utility approvals also eat up lots of time before work can even start. Meanwhile, current events are just making the lines to get solar longer. Cleetus and others who think it’s all a joke won’t be changing the rates of solar installs. There is no shortage of customers. The only question is who those customers are.
I posted this stuff to hopefully alert others here to what’s likely coming. This whole Ukraine thing and a big looming energy shortage in Europe because of it are going to be spiking prices here too. US oil and gas will be selling at market price. They’ll be making massive bank while the world deals with high prices and shortages and all that brings to economies. Plus we probably have blackouts and brownouts coming.
I just wanted to alert to these issues. This whole energy and global warming thing is not going to get better going forward. With all the delays and availability issues, folks might want to look ahead to fall/winter and consider what their energy situation might look like. If forecasts are correct, we’ll be seeing things that will have people lining up.
Maybe Putin will die or be killed and Russia can open fuels back up to Europe. That should collapse oil prices and increase supplies but still leaves the whole issue of climate change. Putin may go away but global warming won’t. We have to move away from fossil fuels anyway.
Pretty much all I know about this is already here with enough keywords where anyone should be able to find out more if they choose to. I’m done on this. It’s a dead horse now, maybe long ago. Remember there are finance options too if you can’t buy a system outright. You can have solar and just keep paying that bill that won’t go up (assuming fixed interest rates). Texans‘ electric bills have almost doubled in a year. Check references. Educate yourself. Good luck.
Speaking of Fossil Fuels, just read this from National Geographic
Around here, and in a number of documented cases elsewhere, the police and criminals are cut from the same cloth. They may well be the perps themselves or in cahoots with them. Mmm no this is not hyperbole but neither is it universal. The reality is in my experience, I can't depend on them.
Gee. What a delightful thread. I studied the process and pieced together a solar electric system with a morning star charge controller, lifepo4 storage battery bank, and 2k inverter. I lived off-grid because of the remoteness of my camp. I got into a car wreck and had to move into town for various health reasons and recuperation.
When I had someone check my camp after a few months, all of my stuff was gone including my vehicles. My jeep was recovered and torn to hell but still running. I left it at a cousin's place who then sold it, as it turns out, to the original thief. There were a lot of valuable equipment and tools. but all my personal and "sacred" items, photos, gifts from significant persons in my life, photo albums, and news items of projects I had been involved in, were all gone. 3 years of earnings and hard work from the ND oil boom were invested in this now gone.
I know who a few of the culprits are and I've fought off thoughts of revenge and payback. Many times in my life when I've tried to live right and do the right thing, I've been attacked and all movements towards what I understand to be progressive, essential, and positive have been purposely been sabotaged and destroyed.
Since then I've made my life minimalistic. I've considered going full Luddite and joining the ranks of the homeless. I likely wouldn't survive long because of my age and the fact that older people are statistically easy targets for those criminally aggressive, possibly psychotic, and aggressive predators. They appear to be nothing but another animal on the planet without the qualities that make being human a worthy existence.
I don't care anymore as that which we title evil, is alive, well, and in some cases becoming more powerful. Man wants to destroy himself and the environment through avarice, arrogance, greed. and ignorance. In some cases, he/she has the ability to do so through the misuse and nefarious application of tech.
I am not going quietly into that good night, but I am going. In a relatively short time, knowledge of my existence will be forgotten and unknown just like the innumerable number of human beings that have come before me.
"...when I'm done I hit the OFF button and go back to reality" - Cleetus F
Debatable
I think I'm done in this thread now. I know I'm not going to get an answer to what I raised, because Cletus isn't here for a discussion of ideas. What others and I presented stand on their own merits. If he had something (anything at all) he would have posted it already. If he wasn't a liar about not caring about Internet service, he would already be calling his Internet provider to have it disconnected.
I don't waste (much) time arguing with liars. I still find it curious why someone is so committed to the talking points of billionaires and promoting them. I suppose that's why I could never be a conservative: I can't parrot talking points of my betters and refuse to reassess my positions based on new evidence.
Back to the main thread. Antivaxxers have the same mindset, but they sometimes inadvertently provide a laugh or two when they aren't actively trying to kill people.
I see Cletus up there is one of those folks the New York Times talks to on their Cletus Safaris to diners.
"The Earth cools and heats in cycles." Now for the Kewpie Doll, how many of those cycles were less than two hundred years long?
In 1816 (the year without a summer, due to a volcanic eruption), Earth's temperature dropped about 0.7°C. That was enough to trigger a mass famine across Europe, Asia, and North America as crops failed from that slight change in climate. It essentially ended the feudal economy of Europe over the mass starvation of peasants.
Humans evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to exist in this climate. While Earth will go on regardless of changes in the atmosphere, we won't.
Powerful interests with trillions of dollars of unrealised assets (that is, fossil fuels which have not been mined or pumped) are the ones purchasing conservatives in many countries to ensure their profits aren't ruined by a change in technology. Buying those politicians and befuddling the public is simply the cost of doing business. By the time the disasters are too great, they'll be dead and they don't care. Exxon itself commissioned studies back in the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies indicating it was fossil fuels driving climate weirding, not sunspots, or Earth wobbles or any other nonsense. Those documents are now in the pubic domain (though they sued to keep them from being released). Their business solution was to create FUD, using the very same lawyers and lobbyists who did the same with denying the effects of tobacco. They didn't have to convince you were wrong, they only had to sow enough doubt.
The worst thing that can happen from transitioning away from fossil fuels is cleaner air and water, even if what you assert incorrectly was true. The worst thing that could happen to fossil fuel companies is they go the way of buggy whip manufacturers if they choose not to update their 150 year-old technology.
As an anecdote, if there was powerful monopolies in telecommunications, would you like to be restricted to the technology of the mid-XIX Century? Oh wait, there was a massive telecommunications monopoly (Ma Bell) and they did the same: Sowing FUD that telephone services would be destroyed if the government broke them up.
The technological advances in telecommunications have exploded since Bell Telephone was dismantled, because it allowed innovation and new competition. That created a burgeoning new marketplace for multitudes of competitors to enter.
Like Ma Bell, that's what the oil oligarchy doesn't want. And like Ma Bell, they will buy off, lie, or lobby to restrict competition so they can maintain their profits. Corporations don't give a flying fuque at a rolling doughnut for you, so standing in as an unpaid shill with their talking points debunked by physicists in the XVIII Century about what causes climate change seems a bit too much like libertarian fanbois (groupies).
Fan-fucking tasting! About time someone takes a look at the long term outlook for my kids and future family. This hopefully will start a discussion about the effects of fossil fuel i trying to combat global warming. Bravo U of C!
Thanks so much TheyShouldHaveVaxxed -- I learned a lot from your knowledgeable posts! (And thanks to cath for linking to this forum from the main site!)
I just gifted a little old ezra klein article in the nytimes, here (<== link).
It points out, among other things, that particulates from air pollution currently kill approximately 10,000,000/year?
That fact isn't directly related to atmosphere-warming pollution -- if anything, some of the particulates may reflect sunlight back? -- although, when particulates land on ice sheets, of course, that does the opposite (i.e., causes them to absorb more light, thus heat).
I'm no scientist! The point (in part) is that we already live in an imperfect world, filled with consequences -- good and bad, many of them good of course -- of technology and industrialization.
This point is so basic it's hard to accept that it has to be made, but here goes: we should try to minimize the bad consequences of technology. Climate change is a bad consequence; it's up to us to deal with it.
No one is telling anyone to "worry about" it. Just as I wouldn't tell anyone to "worry about" Trump and election denial. But it is something we have to deal with.
$.02/ymmv
Thanks to the people, above, who have the patience to explain the science.
It will never change the mind of someone who has been brainwashed by the fossil fuel propaganda, but might sway someone who is "sitting on the fence"
So, thanks again to TheyShouldHaveVaxxed.
There's reason for hope in Australia, especially with the new government.
Added 6/9 - Another thing anyone thinking about solar should consider are tax incentives. If republicans win majorities in the election the tax incentives will be defunded and removed. Instead, they will subsidize oil/gas/coal and probably assault rifles. Check state and federal tax rebates. The federal ones are big and same for a number of states. It’s like getting about 1/3 off the price of the system. But these tax incentives apply to the year the solar is switched on. Anyway, more goodness and planet-destroying, backward-thinking from the gun-masturbating right wing crowd. If you are thinking about solar, with the design, permitting, and other delays built into the process, you don’t want to contract for solar and then get caught not getting the tax rebates. It can be a fair amount of money. The clock is ticking…
And it’s said a word to the wise is sufficient. Companies are starting to divest from fossil fuels. There is pressure building to end their use. Only thing is the pressure to end fossil fuel use isn’t being met with parallel efforts to get renewables deployed. There are programs and incentives but people aren’t preparing as fast as they should - and that is compounded by all the pandemic supply chain issues now. We are moving to a situation where we simply do not have sufficient energy for our needs.
Be that as it may, it’s in everyone’s best interests who can to start the ball rolling to get solar installed. My system just went online not too long ago and it took 9 months from signing on to turning on thanks to supply chain and just scheduling. It is a process.
Anyway, utilities across the country are warning of rolling blackouts, blackouts, brownouts, etc. Texas was a study in mismanagement but they had big chunk of the state without power a bit over a year ago. Food spoiled, massive disruption, and some even died. There’s been lots of other examples of long and short outages for various reasons, most climate change related. Climate change is only getting worse.
Straight grid-tie solar goes down when the grid goes down. It’s a safety feature to not put power on the grid that could electrocute linemen. There is a huge reserve of solar power that simply stops working in a power outage.
That doesn’t have to be like that now. It takes a little more equipment but you can have solar power now even if the grid is down. Most solar installs are sized to have enough power to run a home. If you can still generate power when the grid is down, you can power most things in your house without the grid as long as there is sunlight. This is without a battery backup. Full 120/240V power straight from the panels.
You have to feed gas generators and in a widespread outage, you won be able to pump gas. But a solar system with the ability to generate power locally will keep your home livable and an oasis if your community has a blackout even when nothing else has power.
Anyway, I don’t know how many companies offer this. Enphase does, though. Maybe others. You need the controller and a big switch to isolate your home from the grid but cost won’t be much more than a basic solar install. While solar installs with this capability are a little more involved and cost a little more, they can not only eliminate an electric bill and provide clean power, but every day they can provide power. Less power in the mornings and evenings, none at night, but full power from mid morning to mid afternoon depending on clouds, haze, smoke, etc. It will keep fridges and freezers running, even run your A/C or heat (if you have a heat pump).
Anyone getting solar should consider this sunlight backup option. It’s a pretty amazing capability and solves a problem that has confused lots of people who thought their solar install would provide power in an outage. Most likely it doesn’t. These new systems can and do.
Also, get a solar install and the price and availability of gas don’t directly matter. You can charge your car at home using solar power and even drive when others can’t get gas to pump.
Unfortunately we are now headed into an uncertain energy future. Russia’s war is making this all semi-crisis. To help Europe weather Putin’s idiocy, the world will be diverting oil and gas - especially this winter if things draw out that long. That will cut into availability here as well as driving up prices. It was recently in the news the US is using cyber directly against Russia since the belief is it won’t push him to use nukes. But it does open us up to Russian hacking in retaliation which could (possibly likely) even target our utilities.
You can make your personal energy future bright, though, but there can be significant delays right now. Odds are good if you signed up now you might not get your system installed for a while. If anyone is thinking about solar, might get cracking. All it will take to make solar impossible to get are some big blackouts this summer that wake up the masses or more gas or other energy shortages.
There’s lots of ways to afford it too. There are loans specifically for solar where the payments are like paying your electric bill and may even be no money down depending on credit and such. A solar install will pay for itself in 10-12 years in electric savings. It’s a long-term payback but it does pay for itself. Day in and day out.
I have no connection with Enphase other than being a customer and seeing sunlight backup for myself. It’s my opinion that things are going to be getting iffy in the near future. Just putting this out there. Of course there is the added benefit that you will be living on non-carbon energy and helping to push back global warming.
Also added 6/9 - and for god’s sake disregard what Poida writes below. He’s complaining about performance of his 20 year old system and never answered when I was trying to help him sort why his output is so low. It’s an interesting read and there’s sort of a caution in there, but he’s in Australia with different hardware, different laws, different prices, and does not mention any maintenance or troubleshooting. We don’t know his design goals. 1500W is very low. The hardware is way different now and his system sounds like it was undersized and possibly installed improperly. We don’t know because he doesn’t answer direct questions. Not a single one. His only contribution to this thread is his 1500W system now produces 511W and that’s it. See for yourself but warned in advance - it’s not useful information for anyone buying a system today except for the advice to educate yourself a bit about solar. It’s more complicated than just turning on a switch but not by much. All his points are discussed in more detail in my replies to him. Any installer who doesn’t take the time to answer your questions is doing you and them a disservice. If they don’t want to answer the kinds of questions that apparently tripped up Poida, go on to the next on and see if they do better. Utilities won’t allow junk on their grid and will inspect before setting a meter but you could get stuck out of pocket with a incomplete system if you go with a fly by night company. They are out there - just like profiteering homebuilders, dishonest home repair people, or anything else. There are good companies out there too. My system is beautiful, meets all codes, and the workmanship is top notch. The company that did it is well known and well respected for quality work. Their estimate was also slightly higher than others. I can’t comment about what kind of job other contractors would do but my system is beauty. Check references. Look at the number of completed installations and customer reviews. There is no reason to get a bad install. Ask about parts availability, what shortages they are seeing, and when they would be able to install your system. If they don’t mention design, approvals, and permitting delays they are sugar coating things. All that stuff added months to my own install timeline but we have terrible slow permitting where I am but time will still be required. Also know there is financing available where the payments are in line with your present electricity bills. Depending on credit you may not need a penny down. Unlike Poida, my system is brand new but is guaranteed to have almost the same output 25 years from now - not 20. The manufacturers are established and large (Enphase and LG though LG is moving to sell off their panel subsidiary) and the installer has their own warranty that backs up the manufacturers. Poida’s information is too out of date and too much has changed. As he says, do your homework especially picking an installer.