The Militarization of Sunshine

The Next Niche Market for Solar? Drones—Yes, Drones

 

See Also: Powering the Dream

 

GE's New Smart Fridge Commercial

Guy 1: Hey... New fridge. Nice

Guy 2: Yeah... This is my wicked smart fridge... She talks to the internet.

Guy 1: She huh? What do you need that for? *sarcastically* To save the environment?
Guy 2: You know me *holding tree* No... That's not it.
Guy 1: What's the big deal then?
Guy 2: My fridge sends my phone photos of its contents when I'm at the store. How many extra trips do you think that saves me? This beautiful baby can also choose when to run to minimize the cost of electricity she uses.
Guy 1: How's that work?
Guy 2: Beats me... Satellites... Doesn't matter... I like the extra time and money this fridge keeps in my pocket. But check this out. You put your warm beer in the freezer... The camera up there sees it and... BEEP... she tells you when it's cold.
Guy 1: Bullshit.
Guy 2: Seriously.
Guy 1: Whatever... any other fake abilities?
Guy 2: Yeah... Customizable accents... My baby's from Boston.
Guy 1: Double bullshit..
Guy 2: I'm serious. There are all sorts of accents. There's French, British, Brooklyn, Boston, Red Neck, Stephen Hawkings.
Guy 1: You are so fucking full of it.
Guy 2: Ten bucks.

Commercial closes like the end of a TV show. Long break. Commercial comes back for the Easter Egg shot with the guys sitting on the couch watching TV. The phone rings...

Guy 2: It's for you.
Guy 1: Whaddaya mean... It's your phone.
Guy 2: Trust me...
Guy 1: answers... Beep... Your beer's cold.
Guy 1: No fucking way.
Guy 2: Bam! How do you like dem apples. I love my fridge. Pay up bitch!

Fritzed to Fixed - Shoulder Hula Time

Thoughts on how to Phase Out the ITC

If you assume the average installed cost for a photoelectric system in the US is currently $3/Watt this implies the 30% tax credit costs the government 0.9 $/Watt. Approximately 4.3 GW are expected to be installed in 2012 so assuming a $3/Watt average installed cost the total ITC will cost the Treasury about 4 billion. One way to gradually phase out the ITC would be to set this 4 billion as a step budget that triggered an ITC degression. i.e. You'd get a 5% ITC degression for every 4 billion spent on the program.

First drop would be automatic to 25%. If prices stayed the same at $3/Watt the budget allocations would progress like so.

• 25% step: 5.3 GW
• 20% step: 6.7 GW
• 15% step:  8.9 GW
• 10% step: 13.3 GW
• 5% step: 26.7 GW

Experience shows that prices wouldn't stay the same. There's good evidence to suggest that average prices could well come down to $2/Watt. If this happened you'd significantly extend the GW per step.

Must Read Civil Beat Story

I gotsta have my tax credit fix. Paweese!

Just one more.... Paweese 

 

Do you think the pro-tax incentive folks (Yani and Au) in this story realize how childish and greedy and irresponsible they sound?

I Mo Love you when you're down

EEG Surcharge on Heavy Electricity Users

The Germans seem to be stuck on the question of how to deal with the EEG surcharge with their heavy electricity users. Why not set it up such that electricity users pay the full surcharge on the first X GWh per year, a 50%  surcharge on the next Y GWh per year and a base surcharge on all consumption above this. If you set up the surcharge apportioning system this way it would prevent companies from inflating their consumption in an attempt to avoid the surcharge.