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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (3690)	12/30/2008 12:58:27 PM
From: Eric	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86355

Well the scary thing for a lot of the "old stuff" is the amount of labor needed to maintain the infrastructure. Many less people are needed with the renewables to generate and maintain these sources of energy. Many years ago I thought I needed to wash off the PV panels to maintain their output but after doing an experiment (I washed a few panels and compared their output to some I didn't wash) I discovered there was not much difference. Of course that depends where they are located but here in the NW the rains we get off and on do a pretty good job keeping them clean. I have two back-up generators that do not get used anymore and I have to fire them up for about half an hour every six months to keep them from rusting up inside. It's nice not having to pay for deliveries of propane anymore for the generators. Not to mention greatly reduced maintence costs. The other nice thing about being "off grid" is the quality of my AC power. No spikes, dropouts to wreak havoc with delicate electronics! A beautiful sinewave devoid of noise.