This USAian is envious ... (Score: 1) by fnj@pipedot.org on 2015-04-22 08:16 (#7JH1) ... of both India and Canada. Re: This USAian is envious ... (Score: 1) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-04-22 21:00 (#7M1T) The US is easily the best-position country for renewable power. It has some of the best locations for solar, wind, hydro, biomass & geothermal. Plenty of other resources, too. Canada isn't so lucky when it comes to solar and needs much more power for heating, while India has far too many people on too little land-area. Thermal-storage solar power plants are being developed and deployed in the US, as is pumped-hydro and wind. There are federal (and most states) tax incentives, as well as feed-in tariffs and other regulatory preferential treatment for those who wish to install their own roof-top small-scale solar power. At least two cities require them on all new homes. California is deploying solar as fast as possible with a mandate for 33 percent renewables by 2020, and is second only to Texas in wind power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_California If you want renewables, now, you just need to move to WA, where they have more hydro power than people. California got 30% of its electricity from hydro a few years back, but growing demand (and drought) keeps making that an ever-smaller fraction of the energy mix, while wind and solar deployments expand rapidly.
Re: This USAian is envious ... (Score: 1) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-04-22 21:00 (#7M1T) The US is easily the best-position country for renewable power. It has some of the best locations for solar, wind, hydro, biomass & geothermal. Plenty of other resources, too. Canada isn't so lucky when it comes to solar and needs much more power for heating, while India has far too many people on too little land-area. Thermal-storage solar power plants are being developed and deployed in the US, as is pumped-hydro and wind. There are federal (and most states) tax incentives, as well as feed-in tariffs and other regulatory preferential treatment for those who wish to install their own roof-top small-scale solar power. At least two cities require them on all new homes. California is deploying solar as fast as possible with a mandate for 33 percent renewables by 2020, and is second only to Texas in wind power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_California If you want renewables, now, you just need to move to WA, where they have more hydro power than people. California got 30% of its electricity from hydro a few years back, but growing demand (and drought) keeps making that an ever-smaller fraction of the energy mix, while wind and solar deployments expand rapidly.