> ““the Telephone Pole Solar Panel Rip-Off”” : Readers comment
Ellie Gruber , just had to comment on this story:
There are numerous errors of commission and omission in the blog.
1. NJ has better sun than Germany but German panels are producing year round- (better in the summer but even in the winter as long as they are not totally snow covered).. PV panels work well in low sun conditions- they do not need direct summer sunlight in order to produce energy. NJ has about 15-20% more sun than Germany on an annual basis
2. The structure and costs of the NJ solar program and the German program are very different. Germany has been more aggressive for longer than NJ and has more capacity on a per capita basis. Germany has been able to reduce peak usage in their grid and reduce peak energy costs by hundreds of millions of dollars.
3. As opposed to fossil fuel technologies, the cost of installing solar is dropping- last year prices were 30% less than 2009. The NJ solar progeam is making solar more competitive with fossil fuels while cleaning the air and providing jobs for thousands of NJ residents.