Notes for Mr. Blankenship Michael Noll

Friday, 07 October 2011

Notes for Mr. Blankenship —Michael Noll

Please note that the following was inspired by a letter (attached as a

photograph) that appeared in the Valdosta Daily Times in response to my earlier piece on "Solar: Infinite and Clean". The Valdosta Daily Times seems to enforce a quota of sorts at this time, so they won't publish my additional information for Mr. Blankenship and other "skeptics".

Sources for the Skeptic

I have no idea why anyone would call companies in Mexico or Canada to research the feasibility of local solar energy projects. I also do not know what type of freezer the writer of “Seeking affordable solar energy” has. Either way, I will be happy to share more information, so that anyone interested in solar energy can do more research and educate himself.

At the state level you can contact the “Georgia Solar Energy Association” (www.gasolar.org/) to learn more about the viability of solar power in 2011, which is quite different from the situation in 2001. A larger solar firm our community

has experience with is

“Hannah Solar”, which will also be happy to assist you in finding answers to reasonable questions ( www.hannahsolar.com/). We also have a small local business in Valdosta called “South GA Solar Power”

(www.sga-solarpower.com/).

As I stated in my guest column:

“should you own a home with southern exposure that gives you plenty of solar radiation, this is a perfect time to invest in a solar array. A 5kw unit costs about $9,000 after tax savings have been applied. If such a solar array is paid in cash, you will recover these costs after about 9 years … if you need to finance the solar array with the help of a bank, this may take up to 15 years … However, since solar panels have a warranty of 30 years, you will make money for at least half of the life time of your solar array.”

Finally, if you want to learn more about the situation of energy subsidies, you can start with a publication by the Environmental Law Institute (http://www.eli.org/) called “Energy Subsidies Favor Fossil Fuels Over Renewables”.