More green math

[lostinblue 1,989]

Renewable energy is taking off in one of the United States’ most pristine places. Yosemite National Park is now home to the largest solar array in the entire U.S. National Park System. The brand new, 672-kilowatt system in the park is said to provide about 12 percent of the park’s power needs.

The array has been installed by Suntek, which designed the system that contains 2,800 solar PV panels. The system consists of a 500 kilowatt (kW) solar canopy over a parking lot, a 100 kW rooftop array on a warehouse and a 72 kW wall mounted array, all located within the park's maintenance and administrative complex.

In all, the installation cost $4.5 million and is expected to save the park $50,000 a year on energy costs. Over the next five years Yosemite will receive $700,000 in energy rebates to offset the cost of installation.

By putting the solar panels in the park's parking lots and other maintenance facilities, it seems like Yosemite officials have struck a good balance. There aren’t solar arrays on the pristine half dome or the other amazing landscapes in the park, but in some of the less pristine spots, the harvesting of green energy is taking off. Seems like a plan that makes sense.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

Yosemite just spent $4.5 million on a solar installation to save them $50,000 per year. They also claim $700,000 in rebates. $4.5 million minus $700,000 leaves $3.8 million net cost, which divided by $50,000 per year means 76 years to break even, or about a lifetime.

That’s bad enough, but since solar panels only last about 25 years it means they’ll have to replace them about 2 more times over that 76 years, costing another $9+ million. Add that to the original $3.8 million and that’s $12.8 million total costs, which divided over 76 years equals $168,421 per year to save $50,000 per year. That’s a net loss of $118,421 x 76 years, a total loss of about $9 million of your tax dollars

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/energy/blogs/solar-power-shines-in-yosemite

[Sofiyya 1,687]

I think it's great if you sell/install/maintain solar panel systems.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Great deal! Sign me up and just take the money from my paycheck!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Jaut sayin'...

this topic has been here almost 24 hours and NO ONE that supports this kind of...thing...has come forward to tell us why we need to do this and how it will benefit us. Maybe give some scientific data to support it.

Strange. They all just run away and act like it isn't there.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Jaut sayin'...

this topic has been here almost 24 hours and NO ONE that supports this kind of...thing...has come forward to tell us why we need to do this and how it will benefit us. Maybe give some scientific data to support it.

Strange. They all just run away and act like it isn't there.

perhaps it was really cloudy and the solar powered alarm clock hasn't woken them up yet!

[Zero Sum 305]

That’s bad enough, but since solar panels only last about 25 years it means they’ll have to replace them about 2 more times over that 76 years, costing another $9+ million. Add that to the original $3.8 million and that’s $12.8 million total costs, which divided over 76 years equals $168,421 per year to save $50,000 per year. That’s a net loss of $118,421 x 76 years, a total loss of about $9 million of your tax dollars

Assuming the cost remains the same over that time span. Which of course, it won't. New technology and the wonder of capitalism (yay) will drive the consumer cost down. So would anyone here like sugar-free lemonade to go with their whine?

Really, can we claim to be market geniuses and ignore that simple fact?