coming soon to a beach near you

My brother has solar to offset utilities costs. For him it works as his monthly electric bill was cut in half. If you do the math he wont break even for 15yrs but it makes him happy which is about all you can ask. Note: he lives in HI so energy costs are sky high.

Lobbyists - they are the devil. Funny how law makers end up much richer after "serving".

 

we looked at it a couple of years ago....the math just didn't work. (for example: $10k in state tax credits doesn't do you any good if you don't pay $10k in state taxes in the first place) in general, wouldn't accept a break-even point beyond 10 years - life is too uncertain.

the other sticking point was the inability to store power. I understand Tesla has some battery technology that's gonna make that feasible in the near future and I'd be interested to hear more about it when the time comes. Tesla also is talking about solar shingles (as opposed to panels) and i'm gonna need a new roof one of these days so it seems like it would pay to wait a bit for the technology to evolve/mature/whatever.

 

I have two Tesla Powerwalls in my house, the near future is now...and the shingles are also available on the market now, though only out west at the moment. I actually regret not waiting for them to be available in FL so I could have gone that route. The technology is there, just waiting on him to create the infrastructure to mass produce and bring the costs down (gigafactory's being built as we speak.)

Idk about the state ta credit, the only one I received was a federal credit (Thanks Obama) for 30% of the cost and the credit rolls over to the next year if you so happen to not pay 10k in federal taxes. Florida didn't offer any kind of credit when I purchased my system last year.

Barry, luckily, living in FL, the solar heating costs don't effect me. Just turned my heat on for the first time this week only for 2 days!

Let's not get away from the point of the thread....oil platforms are as antiquated as solar is in it's infancy. Oil has one foot out the door and solar has one foot in it. Why keep putting our shorelines at risk for a technology that is obviously in decline....I'm more pro solar than fracking, but I'd much rather they go the fracking route then build platforms off the coast of South FL.

 

Kyle, do your research on fraking if your pro water source.

 

How would you get a state tax credit in Florida when there is no state income tax?

 

Elon Musk will destroy the oil syndicates soon, better sell you oil stocks now, Barry.

The domestic shale revolution is making offshore drilling a joke, a shrill rallying cry of old white guys who hate the rest of the world, and our environment.

Even our alien (Mars?) Governor Rick Scott says he is against oil drilling off our coastline here in Floriduh.

Get off my fucking lawn you greaseballs. Sell your oil stocks and buy sensors. It's all going AI we won't need oil except to lube up the bots.

 

I sold all my oil stocks a while back, earned enough with them--at my age, it is not wise to hold volatile stocks as one has little time to earn it back!! My long term positions are in pharma, & ATT & Verizon--they pay great dividends for daily living. Trading is a different story in and out daily on a variety of stocks--do that for fun. I regret not having done that since high school--I would be a multibillionaire by now.......

 

Whaddaya talkin' about??!! We need MORE erl!!...Gotta have erl fer my 12 mpg pick 'um-up truck, 8 mpg RV, 16 mpg SUV, power boat, jet ski, ATV, ridin' mower, gas-powered weed wacker, leaf blower, and all my other plastic gear and high-tech gadgetry!

 

Kyle, I applaud your efforts to get off the grid and would like to know more about the "red tape" you had to go through. Up here, I bought a house in PA with the intent to get it on solar. A lot of the folks who live around my PA house are saying it's not worth going through all the red tape. I'd like to know how you managed to do it. I'm not sure if your power companies and State laws are different in how they regulate it.
And for once, I actually agree with you about something. The oil platforms. But I do disagree with your fracking solution. I've seen the environmental effects of fracking with my own eyes in upstate PA. It's a disgrace and it's only getting worse. The water table in Pa's northern tier is on it's way to being ruined. Now, they are allowing drilling to take place in State forests and State game lands. The gas companies are trying to wiggle their way into the Delaware River watershed now. That could potentially lead to water quality issues for millions living in the watershed. On a positive note, the PA State EPA halted further construction on the Mariner 2 pipeline that run across the State and right through the Philly burbs. The project has been one leak after another. PA is barely regulating or barely taxing these gas companies. They are running amuck.
Plus, all that damage and most, if not all, of the gas gets sent to Europe via the terminal in Marcus Hook, PA in our attempt to make the EU less reliant on Russian gas.

 

It is worth noting that while the BP Oil Spill was a worst case scenario, few if any of the long term claims of destruction that the media was running with came to fruition. The well got capped and the cleanup was completed. We learned from that experience and new technology for well drilling, capping, disaster preparedness, safety and cleanup came as a result.

There are currently approximately 2,604 active offshore oil rigs in the world. Given the way one side of the argument acts you would think that there would be oil spills EVERYWHERE instead of them being a very rare occurrence.

It would be nice to have real alternatives but until we do oil is what we've got. It has to come from somewhere and it has to reach market somehow either by pipeline, ship or train.

 

I'm no fan of fracking, but we aren't going to get off fossil fuels overnight. Lesser of two evils is my point.

To answer the question about a tax credit in a state with no income tax (someone else asked this earlier in the thread). There are other credits states offer. Florida actually just put in effect a "ta credit" of sorts. Going forward now, I can add the value of the PV system to the value of my house; however, it does not go the value when being assessed for taxes. This is one credit in a non income tax state.

As far as red tape, for starters, I had to apply for a PPA license (Personal Power Authority). These are heavy regulated and only X amount given per year. I know people that have been waiting for years for theirs because of the county they live in. I happen to get lucky I don't live in a crazy populated county (live on the Martin county side of the Martin/Palm Beach County) border. I had to hire an attorney to go to court vs the Town of Tequesta/FPL to honor the PPA and get them to come out and disconnect. And actually getting FPL out her to disconnect.. HA...it took almost 9 months. They were in no hurry whatsoever to get to my house. There is a ton of BS minutia to go along with this, but gotta get back to work!

 

Sounds like a major headache...and lawyers ain't cheap

 

that's pretty awesome...

the mental picture I get from your story is something like Kramer quitting the Post Office

 

The lawyer cost was minimal, worked with pro bono lawyers connected with Floridians for Solar Choice. Wasn't free, but def saved me a good amount of cakes.

I originally didn't want to disconnect with the grid. I wanted to obtain my PPA and then use the FPL grid to sell my energy at a reduced rate to my parents up in Vero. Theorectially I should be able to use the grid and pay FPL a percentage for using their grid. Say my dad pays .10kwh from FPL, I should be able to (according to state laws regarding PPA) create a contract with my dad to sell him my excess energy at lets say .08kwh and pay FPL .02-.04kwh for grid use. Netting me .04-.06kwh in profit. (this is better than the bs rate you get from FPL for net metering ((selling it back to FPL))). According to my attorney, to accomplish this, would have costed me an arm and a leg in court. So I went the cheaper route and cut the cord.

Lesson is, government selling out the citizen for big energy corps, bummer. But, you can fight city hall, to a certain extent at least

 

so ur only a billionaire,that sucks..

 

I drink your milkshakes

 

Yes, very commendable that you where able to do this for your family Kyle but your last post-up leads me to believe that it is far out of reach for most people. It also leads me to believe, that the alternatives for clean energy come at a cost. It's the cost of human dignity and false promises. You can petition city hall, you can fight with all you got but in the end it amounts to exhausted energy, of the human kind.
Yup...like a farting in the wind. It's all gone before anyone can appreciate the sacrifices you've made for sustainability.
You want oil? Your gonna pay. You want solar energy? Your gonna pay. You want to be totally "GREEN" and live by the beach??? Who's going to pay?

 

Oops, posted without replying lol. Sounds like a major headache. Will they not buy your excess energy?

 

Being Green has little to do with it for me, a bonus perk so to speak. It's all about the independence. Hurricane Irma and Matthew I never lost power. Self reliance is far more important to me than the green aspect, though it does hold some importance.

DonQ, I've said this before on that forum, for some reason I can't just take this kind of stuff in stride. I guess I am kind of an annoying a hole in that sense. It's drove me nuts someone telling me I couldn't do something that is perfectly legal. So I pursued it as far as I reasonably could. But I do see your point, it can be very frustrating, but that's their gameplan. Frustrate, irritate and intimidate until you give up and go home.