The greenhouse where I work, we're on solar. Our electric bill went from $400+/month to $28, sometimes < $10. Very cool to know we can pass on that savings to customers in our prices and employees in their paychecks. Large area dairy farmers use methane converters for their farms, and not only power 100s of homes, but have so much of what we call "black gold", liquid cow manure byproduct, they spread it for free on other farmers' fields. Natural fertilizer good for two years. I would be interested to know more about tidal power/generators for here in Maine, and remember when my state had its own hydro electric power companies. We're a state of many rivers, and sold power to other NE states. Many of the dams were dismantled, which honestly, needed to be done to get the fish stocks back once we became aware of the dangers of pesticides, runoff, everything detrimental in our waterways. We were once a huge industrial state too. But we're all cleaned up now, and have made so much progress. Hydro electric power has been around since the early Middle Ages, surely we could do it responsibly now, I think, for humans and wildlife. I'm not so keen on wind power, at least those huge wind turbines. How many birds and bats do they actually kill, I'd like to know. And what affect on the sea bed do they have when constructed there? Two of my brothers are lobstermen and log in winter. In this state, fishing and forestry(logging) are the true sustainable industries. Sorry to ramble. lol I just get what you're saying.
I'm not against what they said. If capital investment can lead to a decrease in operating costs, it's not a bad idea for a facility to look into it.
That said, this kind of thing should only apply at the individual level. A greenhouse using solar power is fine. Trying to run an entire state on it is not.
No offense taken. We're a greenhouse in central Maine, heating greenhouses from January1 24/7 thru 2nd week of April, after that, maybe nightly for another 30 days. Under Dept of Ag regs, we're considered seasonal, so all the tax right offs and Ag rebates the big plug producers and plant growers get, we don't qualify for. If a crop dies, there's no crop insurance that'll cover it; if we have to dump half a greenhouse worth of product, there's no tax right off. Under seasonal greenhouse Ag regs, if I lost my job, I can't claim unemployment. Heat is our biggest expense. Right now, it's 800 gallons propane a week @$2.20/gallon. Wednesday the big house gets turned on, and heat costs almost double. We're too small to qualify for REAP grants from D of AG, so no taxpayers paid for anything. It was a 30k loan, and the monthly payment is about what the electric bill used to be. It's a commercial installation, and we do net metering, no batteries. We had to do something to save money somewhere. We're retail/wholesale, and the only wholesale grower in the state(there are 3, total in Maine) that has no minimum purchase requirement, which means a lot to other small growers, farmers, grocery and hardware stores in the 5 counties we service. We have to stay open, matter what. There's such a thing called Yankee ingenuity here; if a dairy farmer who milks 1000 head can use cow shit to power his farm, save on electric and save $20k per year in fertilizer for himself, and hay and potato farmers nearby, I'm all for it. Not pushing the Green New Deal, at all. I'm a greenhouse grower, remember? I have loggers in my family. Plants eat carbon. The only thing keeping us from plunging into another ice age is carbon emissions. So you know GMOs are the hoax before climate change, right, or did you figure that one out?
The greenhouse where I work, we're on solar. Our electric bill went from $400+/month to $28, sometimes < $10. Very cool to know we can pass on that savings to customers in our prices and employees in their paychecks. Large area dairy farmers use methane converters for their farms, and not only power 100s of homes, but have so much of what we call "black gold", liquid cow manure byproduct, they spread it for free on other farmers' fields. Natural fertilizer good for two years. I would be interested to know more about tidal power/generators for here in Maine, and remember when my state had its own hydro electric power companies. We're a state of many rivers, and sold power to other NE states. Many of the dams were dismantled, which honestly, needed to be done to get the fish stocks back once we became aware of the dangers of pesticides, runoff, everything detrimental in our waterways. We were once a huge industrial state too. But we're all cleaned up now, and have made so much progress. Hydro electric power has been around since the early Middle Ages, surely we could do it responsibly now, I think, for humans and wildlife. I'm not so keen on wind power, at least those huge wind turbines. How many birds and bats do they actually kill, I'd like to know. And what affect on the sea bed do they have when constructed there? Two of my brothers are lobstermen and log in winter. In this state, fishing and forestry(logging) are the true sustainable industries. Sorry to ramble. lol I just get what you're saying.
Solyndra
I'm not against what they said. If capital investment can lead to a decrease in operating costs, it's not a bad idea for a facility to look into it.
That said, this kind of thing should only apply at the individual level. A greenhouse using solar power is fine. Trying to run an entire state on it is not.
Not in a privately owned greenhouse we aren't.
At a presumably private greenhouse?
Agree.
No offense taken. We're a greenhouse in central Maine, heating greenhouses from January1 24/7 thru 2nd week of April, after that, maybe nightly for another 30 days. Under Dept of Ag regs, we're considered seasonal, so all the tax right offs and Ag rebates the big plug producers and plant growers get, we don't qualify for. If a crop dies, there's no crop insurance that'll cover it; if we have to dump half a greenhouse worth of product, there's no tax right off. Under seasonal greenhouse Ag regs, if I lost my job, I can't claim unemployment. Heat is our biggest expense. Right now, it's 800 gallons propane a week @$2.20/gallon. Wednesday the big house gets turned on, and heat costs almost double. We're too small to qualify for REAP grants from D of AG, so no taxpayers paid for anything. It was a 30k loan, and the monthly payment is about what the electric bill used to be. It's a commercial installation, and we do net metering, no batteries. We had to do something to save money somewhere. We're retail/wholesale, and the only wholesale grower in the state(there are 3, total in Maine) that has no minimum purchase requirement, which means a lot to other small growers, farmers, grocery and hardware stores in the 5 counties we service. We have to stay open, matter what. There's such a thing called Yankee ingenuity here; if a dairy farmer who milks 1000 head can use cow shit to power his farm, save on electric and save $20k per year in fertilizer for himself, and hay and potato farmers nearby, I'm all for it. Not pushing the Green New Deal, at all. I'm a greenhouse grower, remember? I have loggers in my family. Plants eat carbon. The only thing keeping us from plunging into another ice age is carbon emissions. So you know GMOs are the hoax before climate change, right, or did you figure that one out?
That guy's running solar. In Maine