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Home / Articles / Editorial / Letters / There's no time like the present to move toward solar energy
Wednesday, December 26,2012
There's no time like the present to move toward solar energy
To the Editor:
I second the comments by Gary "Spruce" Houser (Dec. 13) and Geoff Greenfield (Dec. 20) on solar power in recent editions of The Athens NEWS. The time is now. Do it!
Solar panels have never been cheaper, nor more needed. Unlike coal-fired power plants, which have yearly fuel costs almost as much as the plant cost to build, once you have bought the solar panels, the electricity they produce is free for decades afterwards, and when the sun is shining, you can use as much solar electricity as you're getting with a clear conscious – no carbon dioxide, no global warming, no stirring up monster storms, and a better life for our grandkids.
I had just enough solar to get through 11 days of no grid after the big end-of-June storm, and since then I have doubled that, and am about to double that again. Too big a bargain to miss! I am planning to be driving around Athens on solar energy within a year.
And when you do the numbers right and count all the costs, solar is way cheaper than coal.
And another thing – solar is bound to get cheaper and cheaper as we learn more about it, while coal, like all other fossil fuels, is bound to get more and more expensive as we learn how expensive it really is. It just might cost us our whole planet if we don't change our ways, and fast.
William
Beale
Robinson
Ridge Road
Athens
Also in Letters:
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James,
Solar makes electricity when the sun is shining, you're right there. Have you heard of this other item, batteries, where that energy is stored 'til needed.
When you show .00001% of the energy knowledge that William Beale has, there might be reason to give some weight to your ridicule. As it is, once more, you make a laughing stock of yourself, and your prejudice.
James,
Your ignorance is showing. Are you suggesting you know more about this than inventor and entrepreneur William Beale, who incorporated Sunpower, Inc., in 1974?
James,
Yer funny.
Maybe he left out the batteries, because most people would know that. It's kind of agiven in energy storage.
Again with the prejudice. At least that's consistent.
Yet, James, solar does work, despite your denials. No, not perfectly, it's still developing. But hey, that's not good enough for you. It must work now, perfectly, to compete with coal, despite it's[coal's] pollution issues, and the death and suffering that is, and has caused.
And, you claim to know more than William Beale, so where's your energy comany? Where's your work? and, why do you claim the sanctification of Beale? and, then, claim to know more than he? I just think that it's likely a man that's been in the field for the length of your lifetime, might just be more knowledgeble than you in that field. I guess you know it all.
Oh yeah, you're too busy whining, and not working. Grow up, little man.
James,
Are you PUI? Back to Reading Comprehension 101, reading the actual words. I said that you claimed to know more than he. What part of this quote, "Yes! I believe I know more about it than William Beale, genius, who is so important he must be italicized, lol." did you not say?
Damn, you're taking dumb to new depths.
jmyerian,
Maybe you should stop while you're behind.
Sarcasm, you say, doesn't translate in this, " Yes! I believe I know more about it than William Beale, genius, who is so important he must be italicized, lol. That's exactly what I'm saying."
I have to agree with b.