Amazon Announces New Renewable Energy Project in Virginia

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Amazon Web Services, Inc., an Amazon.com company, today announced that it has teamed with Community Energy, Inc. to support the construction and operation of an 80 megawatt (MW) solar farm in Accomack County, Virginia, called Amazon Solar Farm US East. This new solar farm is expected to start generating approximately 170,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of solar power annually as early as October 2016 – or the equivalent of that used by approximately 15,000 US homes1 in a year. Amazon Solar Farm US East will be the largest solar farm in the state of Virginia, with all energy generated delivered into the electrical grids that supply both current and future AWS Cloud datacenters.
 
Solar again..........
About every account I read of homeowner investing in solar comes back with 10 years to recoup the investment. The average home owner only stays in a house 8 years.
Unless solar panels vastly improve their efficiency it will remain a loser for average homeowners.
 
Why is it that greenies seem to push hardest for tech that only work in a limited % of the planet? They must not have the capacity to think beyond where they live. So you only get ~90 days of sunlight during the year?...GO SOLAR! So you live in an area where air currents are pretty stagnant? GO WIND! I wish these idiots would just GO AWAY! At least until they have something that doesn't cost equal if not more harm than good in the long run.
I'm not a believer in the whole "man made climate change" thing, but I do believe that we should do what we can to help keep things clean. I'm all for cheap, reliable, renewable, region agnostic energy sources, but these people have their heads so far up their asses they can't see how bad their strategies fail. Not to mention that there are downsides to every energy source that have to be carefully considered.

I say GO MOLTEN SALT! A reactor in every home, a reactor in every car!
Sadly, we all know how well that'd go over with energy companies of every kind. :(
 
Do VA residents currently pay Amazon tax, or is this going to establish a "physical presence" in the state (and basis for collecting sales tax)?
 
Solar again..........
About every account I read of homeowner investing in solar comes back with 10 years to recoup the investment. The average home owner only stays in a house 8 years.
Unless solar panels vastly improve their efficiency it will remain a loser for average homeowners.

Are you familiar with solar community gardens?
Home owners can contract to lease panels in a local solar garden, the panels are located in a near-optimal location within the region and the homeowner gets a credit on their electric bill for the kWh generated. Depending on where you move, you can keep your solar garden contract if you're still in a region serviced by your solar garden provider or sell the contract with the house.
 
Why is it that greenies seem to push hardest for tech that only work in a limited % of the planet? They must not have the capacity to think beyond where they live. So you only get ~90 days of sunlight during the year?...GO SOLAR! So you live in an area where air currents are pretty stagnant? GO WIND! I wish these idiots would just GO AWAY! At least until they have something that doesn't cost equal if not more harm than good in the long run.
I'm not a believer in the whole "man made climate change" thing, but I do believe that we should do what we can to help keep things clean. I'm all for cheap, reliable, renewable, region agnostic energy sources, but these people have their heads so far up their asses they can't see how bad their strategies fail. Not to mention that there are downsides to every energy source that have to be carefully considered.

I say GO MOLTEN SALT! A reactor in every home, a reactor in every car!
Sadly, we all know how well that'd go over with energy companies of every kind. :(
90 days of sunlight a year?

I really don't know what's worse those that throw around the term "greenies" whenever any sort of solar and/or wind project is announced even though it affects them for fuck-all zero amount, or they throw around these exotic technologies as the best way and then throw on the tinfoil hat of blaming energy companies as the real reason we don't have it.
 
Solar again..........
About every account I read of homeowner investing in solar comes back with 10 years to recoup the investment. The average home owner only stays in a house 8 years.
Unless solar panels vastly improve their efficiency it will remain a loser for average homeowners.

1) Where is your data coming from? A quick google I did showed the average home owner stays 13 years not 8, of course it was a 2013 report, but whatever.

2) You don't think solar panels will add to the value of the house at all? If on average they leave 2 years before they recouped their investment I'd say 20% of that cost probably can be rolled into the selling price of the home, which would be a few thousand dollars.
 
Do VA residents currently pay Amazon tax, or is this going to establish a "physical presence" in the state (and basis for collecting sales tax)?

Amazon operates its datacenters under the operating corp "VA Data", with the original intent being to circumvent sales taxes. That said, just about every time a state comes to them demanding tax money, they have been forced to comply. Even though "VA Data" is the operating company, all of the employees of those sites identify as Amazon employees, to the point of wearing Amazon swag like t-shirts and custom made jackets.

So, in short, yes. Amazon is required to collect sales tax in Virginia because they maintain a physical presence there.
 
Solar again..........
About every account I read of homeowner investing in solar comes back with 10 years to recoup the investment. The average home owner only stays in a house 8 years.
Unless solar panels vastly improve their efficiency it will remain a loser for average homeowners.

I guess you have to start somewhere. I am not really a fan of solar in terms of cost/benefit analysis, but its just a start. Eventually solar/wind will reach a point where its actually viable, but without early adaptation of current technology there is no way to get to that point.

Now if only Thorium took off, that would be something.
 
90 days of sunlight a year?

I really don't know what's worse those that throw around the term "greenies" whenever any sort of solar and/or wind project is announced even though it affects them for fuck-all zero amount, or they throw around these exotic technologies as the best way and then throw on the tinfoil hat of blaming energy companies as the real reason we don't have it.
Michigan has 59% cloud cover which is an oversimplification. Winter, the sky is essentially a Gray Diffuse Haze for about 4-5 months. Also anything solar would need to have the snow cleaned off it periodically.

Don't you think its strange all the experimental solar whatever is always in the Southwest likely in a near desert environment?
 
Michigan has 59% cloud cover which is an oversimplification. Winter, the sky is essentially a Gray Diffuse Haze for about 4-5 months. Also anything solar would need to have the snow cleaned off it periodically.

Don't you think its strange all the experimental solar whatever is always in the Southwest likely in a near desert environment?
Strange no, it's a wise choice to maximize the solar output since the cost of materials is going to be the same there or in Canada. However I'm wondering what the cloud cover in Michigan has to do with a solar plant built in Virginia.

Also here's a map of power for a fixed solar array that's tilted for the latitude it is, for a yearly average. Michigan really isn't that bad compared to other places that have historically been thought of as "sunny"
208.GIF
 
I guess you have to start somewhere. I am not really a fan of solar in terms of cost/benefit analysis, but its just a start. Eventually solar/wind will reach a point where its actually viable, but without early adaptation of current technology there is no way to get to that point.

Now if only Thorium took off, that would be something.

this....its not like you can start at the finish line.
 
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