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Solar Plant to be Built in Shoals

The Tennessee Valley Authority announces plans to construct a new 80 million watt solar power facility near the Colbert Fossil Plant. The TVA Board has voted to allow CEO Bill Johnson to execute an agreement with a company called NextEra Energy to install and operate the plant.

NextEra is a Fortune 200 clean energy company based in Juno Beach, Florida. According to its corporate website, the company operates clean energy plants across 26 states and in Canada.

According to a news release from TVA, the plant would be located on the north side of the Tennessee River in Lauderdale County. The Colbert Steam Plant is expected to shut down in 2016, and the location would enable NextEra to make use of the existing infrastructure and transmission system.

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I'm using numbers off the top of my head.  Until about 3 or 4 years ago, a homeowner could get solar panels at their house and TVA would pay $7.50 per 1000 kilowatt hours, then, 3 or 4 years ago the rate was raise to $21 per 1,000 kwh. Now TVA is gonna pay $61 for each kwh to some out of area company?  Is my math and memory right.

TVA is gonna pay some company $56 per kwh to build a gas plant,  Isn't coal power cost about $40 per kwh?

When is someone in power going to force TVA to return to it's charter? Oh, I forgot, we are in the solid south republican area, no one cares about us, not even the good people we send to DC.

'

Originally Posted by jtdavis:

I'm using numbers off the top of my head.  Until about 3 or 4 years ago, a homeowner could get solar panels at their house and TVA would pay $7.50 per 1000 kilowatt hours, then, 3 or 4 years ago the rate was raise to $21 per 1,000 kwh. Now TVA is gonna pay $61 for each kwh to some out of area company?  Is my math and memory right.

TVA is gonna pay some company $56 per kwh to build a gas plant,  Isn't coal power cost about $40 per kwh?

When is someone in power going to force TVA to return to it's charter? Oh, I forgot, we are in the solid south republican area, no one cares about us, not even the good people we send to DC.

'

___________________________________________________________________

How long is the term of office for each director?

A Director serves a term of 5 years. A Director whose term has expired may continue to serve until the date on which a successor takes office, or until the end of the session of Congress in which the term of the member expires, whichever comes first.

http://www.tva.com/abouttva/board/faq.htm

 

The TVA board members are all now Obama appointees. Republican stupidity unneeded.

Originally Posted by jtdavis:

I'm using numbers off the top of my head.  Until about 3 or 4 years ago, a homeowner could get solar panels at their house and TVA would pay $7.50 per 1000 kilowatt hours, then, 3 or 4 years ago the rate was raise to $21 per 1,000 kwh. Now TVA is gonna pay $61 for each kwh to some out of area company?  Is my math and memory right.

TVA is gonna pay some company $56 per kwh to build a gas plant,  Isn't coal power cost about $40 per kwh?

When is someone in power going to force TVA to return to it's charter? Oh, I forgot, we are in the solid south republican area, no one cares about us, not even the good people we send to DC.

'


LOL Jim, like already stated, TVA is on a course set by the Dims.

 

First off, your prices are off by a few orders of magnitude.  Coal cost around $20/MWh not kWh, nuke around $5/MWh.  $56/MWh is still high for a peaking plant considering the cost of operation for a combined cycle gas plant with no solar option.

 

A resounding thank you libs/dims for this situation.  There is no way you can blame the good ol Republicans when your rates increase this time.  It's all on you Jim.

Would we have ultra-HD TV's hanging on the wall, if the tube televisions had never been produced?  Technology has to start somewhere.  No, alternative power is not perfect, but neither were black/white television programs.  Alternative power will come around, but you have to START somewhere. In order to finish, one must first start.

Originally Posted by Scro:

Would we have ultra-HD TV's hanging on the wall, if the tube televisions had never been produced?  Technology has to start somewhere.  No, alternative power is not perfect, but neither were black/white television programs.  Alternative power will come around, but you have to START somewhere. In order to finish, one must first start.

____________________________________________________________

 

Bad analogy, TV's and television stations were backed by private investments, not Unca Sugar. Without mandated subsidies where "clean energy" is paid for by taxes on "dirty energy" and higher utility bills most "green energy" projects would not exist.

We can't rely on fossil fuels forever. At some point we have to move forward and find alternate means. Change is scary to some people. Mostly regressive conservatives. It's sort of like the gay marriage thing going on in our state right now. Regardless of whether the majority likes it or understands it...its the future and it will happen with or without their help or permission. 

 

We progressive liberals will just keep dragging the rest of you along with us into the future. If we didn't we would all still be reading by candle light and believing that the earth was flat. 

 

Progressive liberals may be dragging the U.S. to a cold unlit poorhouse:


A Government Accountability Office review of federal renewable energy-related initiatives for
fiscal year 2010 discovered at least 345 different federal initiatives supporting solar energy.
The programs are managed by nearly 20 agencies and support more than 1,500 individual
projects.

Over the past five years, the federal government spent an estimated $150 billion subsidizing
solar power and other renewable energy projects.

Preferable tax treatment given to solar and other alternative electricity initiatives cost
Americans nearly $9 billion annually, according to the IRS.

State and local governments increasingly subsidize solar energy. Personal tax credits related
to solar products are available in 20 states, 18 states maintain corporate tax credit and
deduction programs, and 14 states and Puerto Rico offer taxpayer-funded grants to support
solar electricity.

Despite a massive and costly government effort to encourage the use of solar energy, solar
will make up only 0.6 percent of total U.S. electricity generation in 2015, according to the
Energy Information Administration.

Supporters claim solar subsidies and tax breaks create jobs, but draining money out of the
general economy to pay for those subsidies harm broader job-creating efforts. The net effect
shrinks the economy, rather than growing it.

Government-backed solar boondoggles are rampant and include such devastating examples
as the Solyndra loan, which cost taxpayers $535 million and left 1,100 employees without a
job, and the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California, which, despite reaping
$1.6 billion in subsidies, produces electricity at a cost three times higher than traditional power
and has requested $539 million in additional direct handouts from the federal government.

Because federally backed solar loans are guaranteed by tax dollars, banks have less
incentive to effectively vet the quality of the project.

http://protectingtaxpayers.org...port-february-12.pdf

 

Apparently the TD software doesn't translate the coding of PDF files.

Last edited by Stanky
Originally Posted by Jankinonya:

We can't rely on fossil fuels forever. At some point we have to move forward and find alternate means. Change is scary to some people. Mostly regressive conservatives. It's sort of like the gay marriage thing going on in our state right now. Regardless of whether the majority likes it or understands it...its the future and it will happen with or without their help or permission. 

 

We progressive liberals will just keep dragging the rest of you along with us into the future. If we didn't we would all still be reading by candle light and believing that the earth was flat. 

 


If gay is the way, then we'll soon be extinct.  The fact of the matter is everything that was right is now wrong, up is down, and left is right.  That is the liberal way.  If it weren't for conservatives to take care and lead the libs, they would surely die as they have lost any survival instinct their ancestors may have possesed. 

 

Imagine a lib world were electricity only flows to about 25% of households, and then only during daylight hours.  People so dependent on the government that the tissue they use to wipe their behinds becomes an entitlement.

 

Nope, not interested in the devolving world the "progs" hope for where the expectation for every man, woman, and child is set at the lower end of the Gaussian distribution. 

We progressive liberals will just keep dragging the rest of you along with us into the future. If we didn't we would all still be reading by candle light and believing that the earth was flat.---Jank

 

I believe the first electric utilities were private companies and Edison was a dirty capitalist. I don't think the ancient Greeks ever practiced socialism and Columbus was partly privately financed.

 

1492 was also a landmark year for another reason. It was the year Christopher Columbus finally got to sail across the Atlantic after years of waiting. The story about Isabella pawning off her jewels to fund his voyage is not true. What she actually said was " I will assume the undertaking for my own crown of Castile, and am ready to pawn my jewels to defray the expenses of it, if the funds in the treasury should be found inadequate." The kingdom's treasury was pretty low in funds but she didn't have to pawn her jewels. Half the money eventually came from private investors Columbus lined up and the rest from the creative shuffling of various royal accounts.

 

http://www.beadinggem.com/2011...castiles-jewels.html

 

Per Jank,

We can't rely on fossil fuels forever. At some point we have to move forward and find alternate means. Change is scary to some people. Mostly regressive conservatives. It's sort of like the gay marriage thing going on in our state right now. Regardless of whether the majority likes it or understands it...its the future and it will happen with or without their help or permission. 

 

We progressive liberals will just keep dragging the rest of you along with us into the future. If we didn't we would all still be reading by candle light and believing that the earth was flat. 

_________________________________________________________________________ 

If progressives were in vogue during the era of cave dwelling, we would reside in very nice caves with a few amenities such as a way to funnel the smoke out. 

The progressives believe that government, under their supervision, is the way to the future.  Central planning, at base, which assumes government bureaucracy are reservoirs of the smartest and the brightest.  History leans towards the opposite view.  From about 1790 until the early 1800s, canals and mule power were seen as the road for US western expansion.  Governments issued bonds to finance the construction of canals.  Private enterprise produced the steam engine, which bankrupted the canals.  First, steam boats, then rail, replaced the canals. 

At the same time, expensive candles for light were replaced with oil lamps – whale oil.  Whales provided not only oil, but baleen – the plastic of its day.  As the whales became scarce, articles bemoaned that a new dark age was upon us.  However, oil was found in Pennsylvania – which provided kerosene to replace whale oil (private enterprise saved the whale).  At first, it was believed Pennsylvania was the only source of oil – proved incorrect, of course.

Using government to pick the winners and losers is a fool’s errand.  The best bets for new energy sources include nuclear, breeder reactors, thorium, and fusion.  The Skunk Works at Lockheed-Martin announced they will have a working model of a fusion reactor by 2017 and commercial models available in ten years.  Fusion reactors used deuterium, available in sea water for fuel.. The commercial model may be plugged in existing natural gas generators.  If it works, this means almost unlimited electrical power -- pollution free.  Electricty cheap enough to produce hydrogen economically from sea water.  Hydrogen that can take the place of gasoline.  Burning hydrogen produces two pollutants -- water vapor and oxygen.  A US/EU research team hoped to produce such a reactor in 2030, 

 

 

 

 

LOL Jim, like already stated, TVA is on a course set by the Dims.

------------------

I worked for TVA. When Bush took TVA from 3 full time directors to 9 part time members, the changes started immediately. I remember talking with other craft people from the entire TVA area, in hydro, fossil, combined cycle and nuclear about the new things being done. The general answer was, Bush couldn't sell it, but he could bankrupt it. Bush took it from being the lowest paying white collar government jobs to the highest paying government jobs. Obama saw no need to change it because no elected people to DC complained. Since no one complained, it has gotten steadily worse.

TVA's board of directors might need to learn from Germany. Once they led the green power revolution and now are surrendering to coal. They are even demolishing old historic villages and towns digging up the coal needed to keep the lights on:

 

New coal power stations designed to burn Europe’s massive deposits of lignite pose a serious threat to the continent’s decarbonisation efforts, according to figures released on Wednesday.

 

Analysts from Greenpeace’s Energydesk compiled data from the German government that shows burning Europe’s reserves of lignite would wipe out the EU’s entire carbon budget from 2020 until the end of the century.

 

Lignite – also known as brown coal – power stations currently make up more than 10% of the EU’s total CO2 emissions. Greenpeace said that if Europe is to continue to play its part in keeping the world within the internationally accepted limit of 2C of warming, 90% of the carbon contained in its lignite reserves must remain buried.

 

Despite this, lignite-fuelled power stations are still being built, locking in consumption of the fuel for decades. There are 19 such facilities in various stages of approval, planning or construction in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Germany, Poland, Romania and Slovenia. Greenpeace figures show these new projects alone would emit almost 120m tonnes of CO2 every year – equivalent to three-quarters of the annual carbon output of the UK’s energy sector. The average lifespan for a coal power station is about 40 years, meaning the plants could release nearly 5bn tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/env...-eu-emissions-target

For decades, the Germans burned lignite.  Their land use laws give the mining companies preemptory rights to dig anywhere, even in historic cities and structures.  (If a building has historic significance, it may be moved, or left on a small island to be back filled later),  Nuclear power begin to replace the lignite.  Then, the green movement alternate power sources.  After the alternate energy sources forced energy prices extremely high, Germany returned to nuclear and lignite.  After the tsunami in Japan, Germany abandoned nuclear, so its back to lignite.  (When were there earthquakes and tsunamis in Germany)?

Originally Posted by CountryBoy:

its a mystery to me why conservatives are against any discovery that makes living on this planet a sensible choice.

___________________________________________________________________

Its a mystery to me why progressives believe people should be forced to pay many times over for something just to solve the sensibilities of the progressives.  Its a mystery to me why progressives believe doing what they believe is the right thing, even if the results are worse than the problem. 

"We progressive liberals will just keep dragging the rest of you along with us into the future. If we didn't we would all still be reading by candle light and believing that the earth was flat."

 

Let us review the results of the first progressive president of the last century.  Woodrow Wilson got the US into WWI, probably the most useless war in history -- extreme slaughter with no true justification (such as WWII had).  Plus, introduction of communism as a fact instead of an economic/political theory resulting in even worse slaughter and the closing of the human mind for millions more. 

 

 

Last edited by direstraits
Originally Posted by direstraits:

That's 117,000 killed and 204,000 wounded, for what.

 

+++

 

It proved we could no longer be isolationist.  That our vast oceans could not protect us from future foreign conflicts.  That Eurasia's business would become ours.  And ours, theirs.  Validated in WWII.  Undeniable truth henceforward as we assumed the anointed role of the worlds' cops.  And both liberal and conservative persuasions would, with their separate agendas, acquiesce to this singular mission surpassing what formally had been considered a strong defense.  Now, we take option of the preemptive strike as our lead in. 

Last edited by budsfarm
Originally Posted by budsfarm:
Originally Posted by direstraits:

That's 117,000 killed and 204,000 wounded, for what.

 

+++

 

It proved we could no longer be isolationist.  That our vast oceans could not protect us from future foreign conflicts.  That Eurasia's business would become ours.  And ours, theirs.  Validated in WWII.  Undeniable truth henceforward as we assumed the anointed role of the worlds' cops.  And both liberal and conservative persuasions would, with their separate agendas, acquiesce to this singular mission surpassing what formally had been considered a strong defense.  Now, we take option of the preemptive strike as our lead in. 

____________________________________________________________________

Simply keeping a strong fleet, enforcing freedom of the seas would have accomplished that goal.  No need for sending men to the muddy trenches of France.  Send a few U boats to the bottom and the Kaiser would get the message. 

Originally Posted by jtdavis:

LOL Jim, like already stated, TVA is on a course set by the Dims.

------------------

I worked for TVA. When Bush took TVA from 3 full time directors to 9 part time members, the changes started immediately. I remember talking with other craft people from the entire TVA area, in hydro, fossil, combined cycle and nuclear about the new things being done. The general answer was, Bush couldn't sell it, but he could bankrupt it. Bush took it from being the lowest paying white collar government jobs to the highest paying government jobs. Obama saw no need to change it because no elected people to DC complained. Since no one complained, it has gotten steadily worse.



You haven't been paying attention since you left TVA.  BO's EPA is why Colbert and all the other fossil plants are shutting down.  TVA was forced to sign an agreement and it had absolutely nothing to do with any Republican past or present.   Again, you can thank people like yourself for any predicament that fossil workers are experiencing these days.

Originally Posted by Mr. Hooberbloob:
Originally Posted by jtdavis:

LOL Jim, like already stated, TVA is on a course set by the Dims.

------------------

I worked for TVA. When Bush took TVA from 3 full time directors to 9 part time members, the changes started immediately. I remember talking with other craft people from the entire TVA area, in hydro, fossil, combined cycle and nuclear about the new things being done. The general answer was, Bush couldn't sell it, but he could bankrupt it. Bush took it from being the lowest paying white collar government jobs to the highest paying government jobs. Obama saw no need to change it because no elected people to DC complained. Since no one complained, it has gotten steadily worse.



You haven't been paying attention since you left TVA.  BO's EPA is why Colbert and all the other fossil plants are shutting down.  TVA was forced to sign an agreement and it had absolutely nothing to do with any Republican past or present.   Again, you can thank people like yourself for any predicament that fossil workers are experiencing these days.

_____________________

 

Sort of like the buggy whip and carriage makers of the late 1800's. Change. It happens. Adapt. 

Germany was the EU leader in alternate energy, but has abandoned expansion because of the extreme cost.  Spain had a similar experience -- part of the reason they are nearly bankrupt.  A study showed that alternate energy costs caused a decrease in jobs. 

 

A smart man learns from his mistakes.  A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.  A progressive never learns.  Rather reminds me of the hard left academics who still say communism works and they need just one more try. 

TVA is/was a liberal solution. Now you are not happy because that liberal solution is growing and adapting to a better way of providing electricity. Fossil fuels are not infinite and they are not safe for the environment and our health. There was a time when they were our best and most advanced method of energy. We can't stand still and never advance. It's time to start moving to other forms of electricity. It will take time and cost will go down as the technology advances and the process becomes more streamlined. Just as with any new way of doing things, it is not always a seamless transition. I hope to see more wind power in our future too. Some offs**** wind turbines would be great. 

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