Department of Agriculture

[kandrathe]

I guess my point is that the economics should drive it, not the politics.

The big problem here is that our current judeo-christian supercapitalistic form of economy tells us to consume more and things will go better. We also don't need to worry about where we take stuff from because god gave us the earth and we can do whatever we want with it.
It is of course already known some 50 years that it doesn't work like this. So unless we start including effect on the planet and it's resources in costs of things, simply using (current) economics to drive change will not work.

Yeah, that's the problem. Christianity. Without religion telling them to spend, people wouldn't want to consume so much. I guess you have some evidence showing that there is a correlation between religiosity and conspicuous consumption. For a smart guy, sometimes you deal out some whoppers. In fact, much of the Christian philosophy is based upon shedding worldly riches for spiritual riches. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

For solar; do you have a lot of clouds where you live? Otherwise you are quite a bit more south than Holland if I am correct, and the amount of rainy days and cloudy days can almost not be worse than in Holland.

You are actually further north by latitude, but have a more moderate climate due to the currents coming from the equator. By moderate the standard deviation for HDD (Heating Degree Days) in Amsterdam is about 265, while here it is more like 470. You have HDD year around, while in summer we have a few months without heating (or the opposite, air conditioning). Because of the high peak load in winter (during the darkest times), and not wanting to invest thousands in energy storage, I'd still remain on the grid. My house is 100% electric - not ideal. I'd like to convert to natural gas heating or as I said above, a geothermal heat pump may be better. I figured it out once before that I'd pay back the investment in solar infrastructure every 26 years, just in time to replace it. That wouldn't include my perpetual maintenance. It's cheaper to buy it, than to make it locally. If the utility company gets greener, then so do I.

A bigger sun problem for me is that I live in a heavily forested area, and I won't cut down the 100+ year old trees that share my living space. So, cloudy, yes. Severe winter, yes.

SO probably this is solely based on that normal grid electra is much cheaper where you live or energy companies don't allow you to sell back to the grid (or at least compensate the generated and used amounts). I guess you can connect you solar cell system to the grid where you live?

We pay between $.05 - .06 per Kwh. They let you sell back. I doubt I'd ever generate more than I consume.