One of the main goals set forth in Obama’s 2011 SOTU address was the implementation of clean energy. “So tonight, I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: by 2035, 80% of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources”. Let’s take a look at what the “green energy” initiative has done for Spain.
Spain’s Solar Deals on Edge of Bankruptcy as Subsidies Founder
German Vilimelis heard about Spain’s solar gold rush from his brother-in-law in 2007.Across the plains around Lerida, the northeastern Spanish town where they spent weekends, farmers were turning over their fields to photovoltaic panels to capitalize on government solar- energy subsidies. Vilimelis persuaded his father, Jaume, who made a living growing pears on 5 acres (2 hectares) of land in Lerida, to turn over a portion of his farm for the project, Bloomberg Markets reported in its November issue.
Vilimelis, 35, a procurement manager for a consumer goods company, pooled his family savings and mortgaged his apartment to obtain a loan of more than 400,000 euros ($558,500) to cover the investment. Within nine months, the family’s 80-kilowatt generation unit — 500 solar panels on seven racks angled toward the sun — was feeding power into the national grid.
Solar investors such as Vilimelis were lured by a 2007 law passed by the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero that guaranteed producers a so-called solar tariff of as much as 44 cents per kilowatt-hour for their electricity for 25 years — more than 10 times the 2007 average wholesale price of about 4 cents per kilowatt-hour paid to mainstream energy suppliers.
Thanks to the incentives, the family met the monthly cost of the loan and even earned a small profit. Once the debt was paid off in 2018, Vilimelis looked forward to making even more money during the 15 additional years of subsidies guaranteed under Spanish law.
Now Vilimelis and more than 50,000 other Spanish solar entrepreneurs face financial disaster as the policy makers contemplate cutting the price guarantees that attracted their investment in the first place.
“You feel cheated,” he says. “We put our money in on the basis of a law.”
Zapatero introduced the subsidies three years ago as part of an effort to cut his country’s dependence on fossil fuels. At the time, he promised that the investment in renewable energy would create manufacturing jobs and that Spain could sell its panels to nations seeking to reduce carbon emissions.
Yet by failing to control the program’s cost, Zapatero saddled Spain with at least 126 billion euros of obligations to renewable-energy investors. The spending didn’t achieve the government’s aim of creating green jobs, because Spanish investors imported most of their panels from overseas when domestic manufacturers couldn’t meet short-term demand.
So where are all of the “green jobs” that the renewable energy boom were supposed to create?
Look at Spain, Green Employment is Red.
By 2005, growth rates of installed solar and wind capacity in Spain were among the highest in the world. Now, however, the tariff deficit has reached an estimated $26 billion while economic recession has lowered tax receipts and threatened overall fiscal health. In 2009, Spain’s public-sector debt rose to 53.2% of gross domestic product from 39.8% in 2008. The maximum specified for euro-zone countries is 60%.
• For every green job financed by Spanish taxpayers, 2.2 jobs were lost as an opportunity cost.
• Only 1 of 10 green job contracts were in maintenance and operation of installed plants; the rest were working positions sustainable only in an expansive environment related to high subsidies.
• Since 2000, Spain had committed $753,778 for each green job.
• Those programs resulted in the destruction of nearly 110,500 jobs.
• Each green megawatt installed destroyed 5.39 jobs elsewhere in the economy.
A report recently released by Stuart Young Consulting and The John Muir Trust in the UK is highly skeptical of the economic feasibility of wind generated electric power based upon a study of UK wind farms. Among the findings:
- On 124 separate occasions from November 2008 to December 2010, the total generation from the windfarms metered by National Grid was less than 20MW (a fraction of the 450MW expected from a capacity in excess of 1600MW+). These periods of low wind lasted an average of 4.5 hours.
- Actually, low wind occurred every six days throughout the 26-month study period. The report finds that the average frequency and duration of a low wind event of 20MW or less between November 2008 and December 2010 was once every 6.38 days for a period of 4.93 hours.
- At each of the four highest peak demand points of 2010, wind output was extremely low at 4.72%, 5.51%, 2.59% and 2.51% of capacity at peak demand.
- In fact, the average output from wind was 27.18% of metered capacity in 2009, 21.14% in 2010, and 24.08% between November 2008 and December 2010 inclusive.
- below 20% of capacity more than half the time
- below 10% of capacity over one third of the time
- below 2.5% capacity for the equivalent of one day in twelve
- below 1.25% capacity for the equivalent of just under one day a month
Read the whole report here. (Hat Tip Yenta Fada)
Much of the renewable energy initiative has already proven to be a failure and the O-Regime certainly knows this. As with most of their policies, the renewable energy scam is about limiting our freedom of choice, wealth re-distribution and controlling every aspect of our lives.
Rodan Note: These Green policies have led to 22% Unemployment in Spain. Currently the Rightwing Popular Party is ahead in the polls for the 2012 elections. This has led Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero to announced he will not seek re-election. His Green jobs focus has failed!
Tags: Don Quixote, Green jobs, Spanish PM Jose Luis Zapatero
Obama prefers that Brazil drills and we buy from them. America Second is his mantra.
Liquid Thorium Nuclear Reactor. Say it! That is the energy of the future if Odumbo would get off his ass and champion it. He could have replaced every power plant in America with them for the amount of money he blew on the “stimulus”. He could have had a real legacy. He isn’t interested in real green power. He is interested in reducing the living standard of the people of the United States, a job at which he excells like no other.
Or the Scottish study:
@ Speranza:
He wants to enrich his fellow 3rd World Liberation thug.
@ Guggi:
Obama sees that as good results. Progress! His goal is a lowering of the living standard, and the more people out of work, the lower the living standard for all of us goes. Nobody makes money on unemployment, but the Democrats see votes to be garnered if the number of chronically unemployeed is raised. Look at what they are trying to do to South Carolina and Boeing. It is outrageous and unconscionable.
@ Iron Fist:
That could be the answer to many of our problems.
@ Iron Fist:
Hey when your opposition are Eunuchs, you can get away with it.
Iron Fist wrote:
We European are used to this.
Bad News.
AP-Gfk poll: Obama approval hits 60 percent
@ Guggi:
I guess we are joining the club!
Rodan wrote:
Yup and with your gas-prizes and your “reformed” health insurance you become more and more “European”. Welcome to the welfare jungle !
*ätsch”
@ Guggi:
That has been the Democrat’s goal since 1933. The only reason we are behind you on the path to oblivion is Ronald Reagan. Obama is making up with it. Look at what he has done for the deficit. Greece must surely be envious.
Just google Ontario and wind farms to see what green energy initiatives are doing up here.
NJ State Police “Outraged” Over Rapper Invite to White House
Assata Shakur is dead rapper Tupac Shaku’s aunt.
Iron Fist wrote:
Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate!
(Dante Alighieri; Canto III, line 9)
Here’s some happy horseshit: UN appoints proud wealth redistributor to lead ‘green jobs’ effort. Ottmar Edenhofer is guy who famously said “First of all, developed countries have basically expropriated the atmosphere of the world community. But one must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy. Obviously, the owners of coal and oil will not be enthusiastic about this. One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole.”
@ Guggi:
What can one do!
@ huckfunn:
He always was a Marxist even at his time as a Jesuit monk.
Rodan wrote:
hope and change it around ?
Rodan wrote:
Rasmussen has a different take: BO-hole disapproval rating at -12
US trade deficit widens in March as a large increase in oil imports overwhelms rise in exports
@ Rodan:
There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. Polls are all three.
@ Guggi:
This is a direct result of Obama’s assault on domestic production. HE wants us dependant on imports. Then they can become a cudgel to beat us into submission with when we get “out of line”.
I bet Bernie Madoff is pissed that he didn’t work his scam as a Green initiative.
He wouldn’t be rotting in jail now. He could have stolen so much money under the green energy ponzi scheme and be living like albore. Traipsing the world in style, giving lectures, raking in the cash, eating all he wanted, keeping the thermostat where he likes it and getting his second chakra ‘released’ by an attractive female massage therapist instead of a big burly inmate.
@ huckfunn:
I hope that’s more accurate. This economy is good meme is such a lie.
@ Rodan:
Nobody who is honest and aware thinks the economy is good. There may be debate about how bad it is (I call it Great Depression II), but everyone who is honest agrees it is bad.
@ huckfunn:
@ Rodan:
The sample data from AP is just plain rediculous. In order to get the number to 60%, they had to cut the Republican representation in the sample to 18%. The midterm turnout on a national level had the Republican representation almost even with the number of people who identified themselves as being Democrats. The most generous statement which can be made about the AP poll is that it is dishonest.
@ Iron Fist:
It’s funny no one is mentioning the wage of the average job created is 9 an hour and mostly fast food and retail. This needs to be hammered but everyone is silent.
Rodan wrote:
Allowed spouse 1.0 control of the remote when we got back from our Cape May birding trip, and suffered through abc news.
I learned a lot. Apparently the nationalization of GM was a good thing. They have almost paid back half of the money us taxpayers were forced to invest and soon they will be hiring gobs of union workers back.
Oh happy day. We’re the government and we are here to help. This worked out so swimmingly we should try it elsewhere.
/
No mention about who or how those pesky pensions will be funded though.
huckfunn wrote:
LOL
What good news.
He was -9 yesterday.
There is no bounce for zero from the Navy Seals take down of obl.
In fact zero’s internal polls are really bad. He is running scared.
I don’t believe a word of the gushing mfm and prog machine that is fawning over the skank-n-chief, and proclaiming he is ‘unbeatable.’ LOL
The rock star totus is losing his luster from over exposure, He is, off prompter running his mouth too much. He is sounding less and less Presidential. More and more like a grifter who conned his way into the WH.
@ Flyovercountry:
18% Republicans? That’s BS! I have seen that the Dems and GOP are even in voter identification. No wonder it’s at 60%.
Rodan wrote:
Rasmussen proved to be the most accurate pollster in the last 2 presidential elections. No surprise here, but everything Zer0 said yesterday in El Paso was a dead flat lie. He flew from El Paso to Austin and asked Gov. Perry to meet him. Rick begged out because he was busy cleaning out his garage or something important.
Iron Fist wrote:
Well that certainly explains why the democrat and the Fifth Column Treasonous Media keep claiming it is recovering.
huckfunn wrote:
Probably cleaning his toe nails.
doriangrey wrote:
I took a marketing class in college, where the professor stated that “perception is reality”.
[crude comment withheld]
It is interesting to watch him get wound up when he goes off prompter.
We get a clear insight into who he is. His anger and frustration escalates. We are seeing the real zero when he is off prompter and fired up by a crowd.
That b.s. he spewed in El Paso abt. the border was so obnoxious. Lots of good material there for us to use against him in the campaign. That part abt. the “moats and alligators,” really shows you what a rabid race baiter he is. And the lies abt. how the border is now better protected than ever.
He needs to go to Arizona and tell them how well their border is being protected.
@ Flyovercountry:
@ chickadee:
Rasmussen had O-dawg at -11 on Sunday, May 1 when they announced that UBL was wacked. Today he’s -12. Wow! what a bounce!
Navy Halts Move to Allow Gay Marriages by Chaplains After Complaints From Lawmakers
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/11/navy-halts-allow-gay-unions-chaplains-complaints-lawmakers/#ixzz1M3Lxw4dm
The idiots in the Navy who approved this in the first place should have their heads examined
doriangrey wrote:
Also, something about rearranging his sock drawer.
@ Rodan:
Yeah, the underemployement problem is a whole other thing. People have lost good, decent paying jobs, and if they can find work it is temporary or part-time, and it pays less. This lowers the general standard of living in this country and drags down our GDP. As the Democrats want. A prosperous and free America doesn’t need a big government.
Nevergiveup wrote:
They should be tied across a gun and given a traditional naval flogging.
Nevergiveup wrote:
Actually, I’m thinking Adm. Mullen is in serious need of a good old fashioned Keelhauling. It would be a fitting final act for the USS Enterprise.
@ huckfunn:
Yeah, Haslem was asked to go to the thing at Ft.Campbell the other day and he had an important strawberry festival to be at instead!
@ huckfunn:
Rick didn’t go because Obama would Demagogue him right to his face.
@ Nevergiveup:
They are trying to get back to the Old British Navy way of things: rum, sodomy, and the Lash! The San Franscisco Democrats will be beside themselves in extacy!
20. huckfunn
CNN International was beeming the same thing-- “60% approval rating.” Made me ask which poll, but they never mentioned that.
President to Renew Muslim Outreach
Talk about being willfully blind.
@ huckfunn:
Dead cat bounce.
(Poor kitteh)
Iron Fist wrote:
I am sure the world will now be quaking in their boots at the prospect of being opposed by the Village People.
/
@ huckfunn:
That’s what I’m talking abt.
He is not getting a bounce at all from the Navy Seals heroic action.
In fact it is working against him because of the way he is trying to take credit for the mission.
It is so vulgar the way he has tried to turn himself into a hero.
So un-America, so unbecoming, so cowardly, so desperate.
He is a valor thief.
People are shaking their heads in disbelief at this crazy buffoon.
I gotta go earn my keep.
Later…
@ citizen_q:
Although I very little good to say about the despots who are being swept from power in the Middle East, the one thing I can say is that they were/are responsible for denying certain extremest groups like Al Quada and Hamas and Hexbellah from taking over power. Now that they are being removed, be careful what you wished for, because the Dam is breaking and it will sweep away all before it. To bad we have a moron and history idiot in the White House during these monumental days.
Obama sure is pissed at Paki-land:
Putting our best foot forward. Not!
Nevergiveup wrote:
Exactly.
Look how wonderfully things are going in egypt for example. Increased muslim attacks on Christians. The unity of the slow and fast jihadists, hamass and fat-ah. Talk of ignoring the “peace” treaty with Israel, if Israel dares to defend itself.
Everything is rosy if you are willfully blind.
citizen_q wrote:
Yup. Just like it was in Nazi Germany in the 1930s
@ citizen_q:
The Muslim Brotherhood, AL-Qaeda’s daddy is behind this.
citizen_q wrote:
Or if you are an enemy of Israel and the United States. I don’t think Obama is willfully blind.
@ Nevergiveup:
The same clowns were singing the praises of a Socialist named Adolph Hitler.
@ Iron Fist:
Obama is 3rd World Liberation. He wants Islam to rise. It’s his ally.
Rodan wrote:
I was NOT trying to compare obama to hitler, just that people see what they want to see in the international arena
Rodan wrote:
Obama is such a moron, he does not even understand the consequences of the rise of islam
@ Iron Fist:
I guess that I was being too kind. Still mellow after my long weekend getaway.
@ citizen_q:
I was talking to some ‘willfully blind’ fools yesterday.
They have so much vested in believing that the m.e. uprisings are abt. Freedom and Democracy. They must be so petrified of the alternative possibility they can’t even consider it.
I told them to look at Iran. The strongest evil took over there. All the people were crushed who wanted any kind of freedom that didn’t entail being dominated by islam.
Imagine all the m.e ruled by mad mullahs. Right now, they are ascending to power and in Libya we are arming them in their struggle to take over.
@ chickadee:
Anyone who thinks that the “uprisings” are about democracy is willfully blind and/or ignorant. Those uprisings are for the freedom to choose the tyranny that they want to live under.
Nevergiveup wrote:
Dontcha know he’s the smartest guy in the room? Chwissy Matthews and Sgt. Schultz told me so.
@ Iron Fist:
I guess Kerry will make a stop over in Damascus to pay homage to his favorite Arab thug, Bashar Assad the head of the Assad Crime Family.
Rodan wrote:
It is Adolf not Adolph.
BTW Huck, I don’t know if anybody else stated this yet, but great post! Every time I listen to some boob parrot the green economy meme talking points it fills me with the urge to vommit. If there were even the slightest glimmerings of truth to it, the free market system would have made it happen long ago. Central Planning has never succeeded at anything other than the mass starvation of the citizenry involved. That Barack Obama tried to tie this in with our Sputnik moment would be hillarious were he not our President. Scary is the appropriate adjective now.
@ chickadee:
I think there is a toxic mix at play.
As IF noted, there are those, I would say most who know what is going on and approve. Then there are the useful idiots, willfully blind idealogues, and the lazy who believe and take at face value what they are spoon-fed by the MFM.
Speranza wrote:
I can’t tell you how bursting with pride as an American I am that such an august personage as jfk is giving this matter his personal attention.
We need not waste another thought on our friends the pock-e-stanians.
/
@ Nevergiveup:
No, I was talking about how the Left was fawning over the rise of Hitler. The Left is fawning over teh rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s what I was getting at.
Rodan wrote:
I have a new scathing blog post on this…
Associated Press Release: Hey, we’re big fat liars, and we can prove it.
New Thread!
@ chickadee:
He didn’t randomly choose El Paso as the location for that speech, either.
Not only is it a major Dem stronghold, despite the lies put forth by the MSM, but it’s also one of the places where the border actually is under control.
If you go down there at night, it looks like what the border between East and West Germany looked like at the height of the Cold War. There’s a huge fence, it’s lit up like a prison, and there’s a Border Patrol SUV parked about every 100 yards.
Nobody crosses the border in El Paso anymore.
A lot of the border in southern California is similar.
That’s why so many people cross in Arizona these days. It’s the only place they can easily get across.