[ExI] What's Wrong With Academic Futurists?

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: Re: [ExI] What's Wrong With Academic Futurists?

On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 5:41 PM, spike wrote:
> In the long run, most of us can see we need effective use of solar 
> power, probably both space based and ground based...
>

And who's leading the charge?   Farmers!

<http://www.midwestenergynews.com/2014/01/27/in-the-midwest-farmers-leading-
the-way-on-solar-power/>
Quote:
"It's a huge buzz now throughout the agriculture industry," said Todd
Miller, sales director for CB Solar in Ankeny, Iowa...Consequently, he said,
"There are more solar panels in Washington County than in any other county
in Iowa."
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BillK
_______________________________________________

Ja, unfortunately the existence of tax incentives causes the solar panels to
end up in all the wrong places, with your article providing a poster-child
example.  Iowa has sufficient rainfall, topsoil and flat arable farmland to
make it too valuable for ground based solar.  The vast American west is
drier, more sunny, more useless for anything else besides collecting
sunlight.  Those less-densely populated areas cannot provide the tax
incentives, so they must wait for market forces to make them economically
attractive.

That's the bad news.  The good news is we are almost there.  With PV prices
where they are now and where they likely will be in the short term,
non-tax-incentivized solar facilities are experiencing a gradual take-off.
We are accustomed to everything happening fast.  This one will happen, but
likely will not explode like the electronics revolution and the personal
computer revolution.

spike