July 28th, 2014 | 
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NOTICE: THE HIGHLANDS TEA PARTY WILL NOT HAVE A MEETING JULY 29, 2014 – WILL BE AT TOWN HALL MEETING
THE HIGHLANDS TEA PARTY 2014
We Meet Weekly on Tuesday Evenings
LOCATION: Homers Smorgasbord.
Meetings time 6:00 pm -8:00PM
Come early enjoy a great dinner and join us,
we are non-partisan
Meeting schedule’s are subject to change please watch the
web page for changes
Tuesday July 29, 2014
NOTICE
Tonight’s meeting will be held at the Kennilworth Lodge,
Highlands County Commissioner Don Elwell’s
TOWN HALL
Kenilworth Hotel
1610 Lakeview Dr
Sebring, FL
Pizza and Beverages will be served
FOR DETAILED MEETING INFORMATION AND GUEST SPEAKERS PLEASE CLICK HERE
HEADLINE NEWS
HEADLINE NEWS
week of July 27 – August 2, 2014
Stay current with the latest News around the Nation and the World
Click on Blue Headline for the story
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WND- INVASION USA FEDS TO ILLEGALS: COME BACK TO COURT IN 2020 07/29
WASHINGTON – The U.S. congressman said his trip to the border showed him the mind-boggling nature of the problem in a nutshell. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, described to a hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday morning how he saw illegal immigrants arrive on the border, claim asylum, and then be given a court date as far in the future as 2020.“Meanwhile they get a work permit to compete against those legally and lawfully here.”Chaffetz said there is a proper place for asylum but the current system is being abused in great numbers, and it’s all the fault of President Obama for not enforcing the immigration laws.“The president owns this issue,” declared the congressman.
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GOPUSA – Obama readies plan to defy law and legalize millions of aliens 07/29
WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as they grapple with an immigration crisis at the border, White House officials are making plans to act before November’s mid-term elections to grant work permits to potentially millions of immigrants who are in this country illegally, allowing them to stay in the United States without threat of deportation, according to advocates and lawmakers in touch with the administration. Such a large-scale move on immigration could scramble election-year politics and lead some conservative Republicans to push for impeachment proceedings against President Barack Obama, a prospect White House officials have openly discussed. -
Ben Carson on Running for President: ‘It Is a Step Closer’ 07/29
Dr. Ben Carson told Newsmax TV on Monday that he is getting closer to declaring himself a candidate for president in 2016.”It is a step closer. I have to consider what’s going on, and I have to consider the enormous crowds that I encounter every place I go, and the level of enthusiasm, and what I’m hearing,” Carson told “The Steve Malzberg Show.”
NEWSMAX – Sessions: Obama Move on Illegals Would ‘Alter Constitutional Framework 7/28
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Congress must act immediately to stop President Barack Obama’s proposed use of executive power to help millions of illegal immigrants, Sen. Jeff Sessions says.Sessions, a member of the Senate Budget Committee and Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, fears that without congressional action, the laws set down by the Founding Fathers will be altered forever.”It would be if Congress doesn’t utilize every power it has, particularly the power of the purse to stop it, then it would be an incredible assertion of executive power vis-à-vis Congress,” the Alabama Republican said Monday on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show.”
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PRESS RELEASE: Congresswoman Blackburn Introduces Legislation to Protect Americans from Obama’s Lawless Border Policies 7/28
Congressman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) today introduced a bill to prevent the continuation or expansion of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Blackburn’s legislation will serve as the House companion to a bill recently introduced by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). The legislation proposed by Congressman Blackburn and Senator Cruz would prohibit federal funding from being used to continue or expand DACA. It also prevents aliens from being authorized to work if they are not in a lawful status. “Central American children have fled to the United States based on a false hope that they will be allowed to remain permanently. This false hope created by the Obama Administration is putting children’s lives in danger as they are escorted by individuals who have been known to abuse these children during their journey and even leave some for dead,” Blackburn said. “It is now clear that the Obama Administration saw this problem coming and that children were used as pawns in the President’s political game. President Obama’s failure to act has forced Congress, once again, to lead the effort to address the crisis on our border.” -
$17B deal reached on vets bill 7/28
House and Senate negotiators on Monday announced they have agreed to a $17 billion bill to reform the Veterans Affairs Department. The bill sets aside $10 billion for veterans to seek care at non-VA facilities. Another $5 billion would go toward hiring additional medical staff at Veterans Affairs facilities, and let the department enter into leases to use other medical facilities at 27 sites around the country. -
Canada Free Press – The Road to Hell Obama is taking the world down created by U.S. Catholic Bishops 7/28
The Catholic Church—through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration—both paved the road for Barack Hussein Obama’s ultimate takeover of Free West society and continues to actively enable the Fundamental Transformation of America by sinking the US in a tsunami of illegal aliens. In coming to Obama’s aid in erasing forever America’s borders, the bishops sold the USA out, including its Catholics, for the proverbial 30 pieces of silver.
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WND – CHILDREN CROSSING BORDER: ‘OBAMA WILL TAKE CARE OF US’ 7/28
McALLEN, Texas – In an exclusive interview with WND and Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, a 13-year Border Patrol veteran revealed many in the recent surge of illegal immigrants, including unaccompanied minors, are coming prepared to game the U.S. immigration system, even repeating the mantra, “Obama will take care of us.”
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NEWSMAX – Jeb Bush: US Must Send Border Children Back Home – Last month it was “let them all In” 7/28
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is offering compassion but also tough love on the border crisis that has seen thousands of youth attempt to enter the country in recent months. “Except for those deserving few who may demonstrate true cause for asylum or protection from sex trafficking, these children must be returned to their homes in Central America,” Bush said in a commentary in The Wall Street Journal co-written with the Goldwater Institute’s Clint Bolick. -
NEWSMAX – 07/24/2014Rubio to Newsmax: Immigration Reform Dead Till Border Crisis Addressed- 7/28
The influx of illegal immigrants across the southern United States border has effectively eliminated the possibility of passing any type of immigration reform in Congress until the issue of border security is addressed, said Sen. Marco Rubio.
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Obama Thanks Muslims for ‘Building the Very Fabric of Our Nation’
Obama Thanks Muslims for ‘Building the Very Fabric of Our Nation’
July 28, 2014 – 4:40 PM
By Barbara Boland
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A statement put out today by President Barack Obama on the occasion of a religious holiday is raising some eyebrows.
The holiday is a Muslim one called “Eid-al-Fitr” and the statement says:
This last month has been a time of fasting, reflection, spiritual renewal, and service to the less fortunate. While Eid marks the completion of Ramadan, it also celebrates the common values that unite us in our humanity and reinforces the obligations that people of all faiths have to each other, especially those impacted by poverty, conflict, and disease.
In the United States, Eid also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy. That is why we stand with people of all faiths, here at home and around the world, to protect and advance their rights to prosper, and we welcome their commitment to giving back to their communities.
The word choice here, that anyone built “the very fabric of our nation” would usually sound hackneyed and overplayed – but, in this particular instance, given that the U.S. didn’t even have its first Muslim-American congressman until 2007, the peculiar word choice has left some scratching their heads.
It’s not hard to see why 72% of Muslim-Americans approve of the President, though (the highest percentage out of any religious group.)
Behind All The Scandals Is A Lie So Big That It Could Utterly Destroy Obama
Behind All The Scandals Is A Lie So Big That It Could Utterly Destroy Obama
Posted on July 29, 2014
Obama is immune from scandals and lies don’t matter to liberals.
Check it out:
In addition to the apparent creation of fraudulent documents and the doctoring of computer records by Obama supporters, then- Democratic National Chair Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) prepared two different Certifications of Nomination, an action unprecedented in US history, presumably to hide Obama’s ineligibility for office.
And so committed has the liberal media been to protect their investment in Obama, they continue to dispense with gusto misinformation, disinformation, or no information.
The conspiracy of silence continues out of complicity or fear. The political-media establishment realizes that if the truth is told about Barack Obama, the system from which they accrue enormous personal power and profit will collapse.
Republicans will oppose Obama; but they will not expose him because by doing so, it will reveal their own dereliction of duty. Many believe, and with reasonable cause, that all the hearings and lawsuits conducted by the Republicans are a subterfuge meant to run out the clock.
It doesn’t matter if Obama thinks he is right or if he thinks he is being virtuous. The policies he is pursuing are destroying the country. Even if one rejects treachery or treason as motives, the unrealistic and impractical far-left liberalism promoted by Obama and his acolytes is an inevitable march from altruistic dreams to coercion, oppression, and, ultimately, failure.
CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY
Climate Alarmists Never Quit!
TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014
Climate Alarmists Never Quit!
By Alan Caruba
In the same way Americans are discovering that the Cold War that was waged from the end of World War Two until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 is not over, Americans continue to be subjected to the endless, massive, global campaign to foist the hoax of global warming–now called climate change—on everyone.
The campaign’s purpose to convince everyone that it is humans, not the sun, oceans, and other natural phenomenon, and that requires abandoning fossil fuels in favor of “renewable” wind and solar energy.
“It is not surprising that climate alarmists, who desire above all else blind allegiance to their cause, would demand all school teachers toe the ‘official party line’ and quash any dissent on the subject of man-made global warming in their classroom,” says Craig Rucker, the Executive Director of co-founder of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). “What is absurd is that any teacher or free-thinking person for that matter would listen to them.”
These days when I am challenged regarding my views about global warming, climate change or energy I send the individual to www.climatedepot.com and www.energydepot.us, two constantly updated websites filled with links to information on these topics. Both are maintained by CFACT.
CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY
Boehner: Impeachment a Dem ‘scam’
Boehner: Impeachment a Dem ‘scam’
The idea that Republicans would impeach President Obama is a “scam” perpetuated by Democrats, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday.
He accused Democrats of hyperbolizing talk of impeaching President Obama to boost their fundraising and turn out their base.
“It’s all a scam started by Democrats at the White House,” Boehner said at the weekly House GOP leadership press conference.
“This whole talk about impeachment is coming from the president’s own staff and coming from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Why? Because they’re trying to rally their own people to give money and show up in this year’s elections,” Boehner said.
Boehner said the GOP does not intend to begin impeachment proceedings against Obama.
“We have no plans to impeach the president. We have no future plans,” Boehner said.
The comments went farther that Boehner has previously gone in knocking down an impeachment trial balloon.
Earlier this month, asked about 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s argument that Obama should be impeached, Boehner twice said, “I disagree.”
Several House Republicans, such as Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Steve Stockman (R-Texas) and Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), have suggested that Obama deserves to be impeached.
The House is set to vote later this week on a resolution authorizing the GOP lawsuit against Obama for his use of executive action, primarily on the employer mandate delay.
The Architect of Destruction (Verified as authentic)
March 1, 2013
The Architect of Destruction
By Maureen Scott
“Obama comes from a community organizer background where it’s us against them. But that’s not who we are. And that’s not the position the leader of our Nation should take.” – Dr. Benjamin Carson
Obama appears to be a tormented man who is filled with resentment, anger, and disdain for anyone of an opinion or view other than his. He acts in the most hateful, spiteful, malevolent, vindictive ways in order to manipulate and maintain power and control over others. Perhaps because, as a child, he grew up around family members and mentors who instilled him with an abiding bitterness toward the U.S. That bitterness seems not to have left him.
It is not the color of his skin that is a problem – for anyone in America. Rather it is the blackness that fills his soul and the hollowness in his heart where there should be abiding pride and love for this country.
Think: Have we ever heard Obama speak lovingly of the U.S. or its people, with deep appreciation and genuine respect for our history, our customs, our sufferings and our blessings? Has he ever revealed that, like most patriotic Americans, he gets “goose bumps” when a band plays “The Star Spangled Banner,” or sheds a tear when he hears a beautiful rendition of “America the Beautiful?” Does his heart burst with pride when millions of American flags wave on a National holiday – or is he moved to sadness and reflection when someone plays “taps” on a trumpet? Has he ever felt the depth of our admiration of the military, as lovers of those who keep America free feel when soldiers march by? It is doubtful – because Obama did not grow up sharing our experiences or our values. He did not sit at the knee of a grandfather or uncle who showed his medals and told of the bravery of his fellow troops as they fought and tramped through foreign lands sacrificing for a cause greater than their own lives. He didn’t have grandparents who told stories of suffering and then coming to America, penniless, and the opportunities they had for building a business and life for their children.
Away from this country as a young child, Obama didn’t delight in being part of America and its greatness. He wasn’t singing our patriotic songs in kindergarten, or standing on the roadside for a holiday parade and eating a hot dog, or lighting sparklers around a campfire on July 4th as fireworks exploded over head, or placing flags on the gravesites of fallen and beloved American heroes.
Rather Obama was separated from all of these experiences. He doesn’t really understand us and what it means to be an American. He is void of the basic emotions that most feel regarding this country and is insensitive to the instinctive pride we have in our national heritage. His opinions were formed by those who either envied us or wanted him to devalue the United States and the traditions and patriotism that unite us.
Obama has never given a speech that is filled with calm, reassuring, complimentary, heartfelt statements about all the people in the U.S. Or one that inspires us to be better, grateful, and proud that, in a short time, our country became a leader, and a protector of so many. Quite the contrary, his speeches always degenerate into mocking, ridiculing tirades as he faults our achievements ,along with any of his critics, all for the sake of a laugh, or to bolster his ego. He uses his Office to threaten and create fear while demeaning and degrading anyone who opposes his policies and actions. Unlike a secure leader, who has noble self-esteem and not false confidence, Obama displays a cocky, haughty attitude and a dread of being critiqued.
Mostly, his time seems to be spent causing dissention, unrest, and anxiety among the people rather than uniting us (even though he was presented to us as the “Great Uniter”). He creates chaos for the sake of keeping citizens separated, envious, aggrieved and ready to argue. Under his leadership Americans have been kept on edge, rather than in a state of comfort and security. He incites people to be aggressive toward, disrespectful of, and retaliate against those of differing backgrounds and views. Through such behavior, Obama has lowered the standards for self-control and mature restraint to the level of rowdy, street-fighting gangs. When, instead, he should be raising the bar for people to strive toward becoming more considerate, tolerant, self-disciplined, self-sustaining, and self-assured.
Not a day goes by that he is not attempting to defy our laws, remove our rights, over-ride established procedures, install controversial appointees, enact divisive mandates, and assert a dictatorial form of power.
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Never has there been a leader of this great land who used such tactics to harm and hurt the people and this country.
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Never have we had a President who spoke with a caustic, evil tongue against the citizenry rather than present himself as a soothing, calming, and trustworthy force.
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Never, in this country, have we experienced how much stress one man can cause a nation of people – on a daily basis!
Obama has promoted the degeneration of peace, civility, and quality of cooperation between us. He thrives on tearing us down, rather than building us up. He is the Architect of the decline of America, and the epitome of a Demagogue.
© Maureen Scott
Iron Dome – How ISRAEL intercepts air-to-ground rockets from GAZA STRIP
From a relative of an individual in the Winter Haven 912
THIS IS THE SYSTEM THAT HAS BEEN PROTECTING US FOR OVER TWO YEARS.
NAFTI
ALCaruba – The Next Great War
The Next Great War
Al Qaeda on the march
By Alan Caruba
In the July 24 edition of The Wall Street Journal there was a commentary, “Wanted: Converts to Judaism” by the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Arnold M. Eisen. I thought to myself that this was an extraordinary time to be suggesting conversion to a faith that is literally under attack in Israel and being attacked by the reemergence of anti-Semitism in Europe. Here in America we are witnessing the most pro-Islamic and anti-Semitic administration in the history of nation.
In the wake of the Holocaust following World War Two what anti-Semitism existed in the U.S. gave way to an era of good will toward Jews. In Europe open expressions of anti-Semitism were out of favor. Eisen’s concern is the extensive inter-marriage between Christians and Jews in which Judaism is often abandoned in our historically Christian society. The news about Jews in the post-war years was largely about the nation of Israel and the wars it fought to re-establish and maintain the Jewish state.
What those wars should have told us was that Islamic hatred of Judaism extends to Christianity as well.
For Americans that lesson was driven home on September 11, 2001, but even the memory of that event has begun to fade to such an extent that Americans have twice elected a President who has never hidden his admiration for Islam, whose father was a Muslim, and who spent part of his youth in the Islamic nation of Indonesia. In office, his antipathy to Israel has been in stark contrast to the decades of support for Israel that presidents since Harry Truman have demonstrated.
A curious trend has emerged in America that runs counter to its entire history. The celebratory elements of Christian holy days, particularly Christmas, came under attack with demands that holiday scenes of crèches and even crosses be removed from public areas. Being religious was not encouraged and the tradition of starting the school day with a prayer was banned.
It is not too far a reach to say that the West, America and Europe, has been abandoning the depth of faith that distinguished it as church attendance fell off and resistance to attacks on the practice of religion declined. Home to some of the most beautiful churches on Earth, those in Europe are too often virtually empty.
This has not been the case in the Middle East and parts of Africa where Islam has awakened from its passive existence due in part to the colonization that preceded and followed World War One. The riches that oil provided have played a role and today a nation like Qatar is funding the emergence of ISIS, the self-declared caliphate calling itself the Islamic State.
Other oil-rich Middle East nations have supported al Qaeda only to discover that they were among its targets. ISIS has turned on Muslims in the area between Syria and into northern Iraq whom they declare hypocrites and apostates. In Mosul, Christians have been told to convert, pay a tax, or die.
While the rockets that have rained down on Israel are dramatic, the attacks on Christians throughout the Middle East have received less attention, but Christian Arabs have been driven from their homelands in the same way the establishment of Israel saw Jews forced to abandon homes in which they had lived for generations.
While Americans, joined by European negotiators, attempt to get Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program, they remain blind to the role Iran has played for decades, using Hezbollah and Hamas, two Palestinian terrorist organizations, to wage war on Israel and, by extension, the U.S. Not a day goes by without the calls, “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” There is only one way to end Iran’s nuclear program and that is to destroy the facilities that enrich uranium and plutonium. At some point, it will come to that because it must.
Israel is making it clear to the world that there is only one way to rid itself of Hamas and that is a military operation. Its troops are finding an astounding matrix of tunnels whose only purpose is to attack it.
Utterly devoid of any moral standards, Hamas uses homes, schools and hospitals to hide its arsenal of rockets and Palestinian civilians are forced to act as human shields. The world’s media focuses on the deaths of their men, women, and children, but little notice of the rockets and missiles that continue to be fired at Israel. Meanwhile Hamas has been abandoned by Egypt and most other Middle Eastern nations other than Iran and Turkey.
The so-called Palestinians have been led by men like the late Yassir Arafat and currently by Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, Fatah. Abbas has recently moved his family to a home in Jordan in the face of criticism that he has been too “cooperative” with Israel. On Quds Day last week, an event organized throughout the Middle East by Iran, an estimated 10,000 protesters gathered in the West Bank to protest Israel’s control of Jerusalem, a holy city to Jews and Christians, claimed as well by Islam. It was founded by King David.
Even so, the European business sector was quick to engage with Iran following the news of the negotiations which have been extended and which have granted Iran billions in return for sitting at the table to discuss an end to the nuclear program that it will never abandon.
In 1913, no one in Europe or America would have ever predicted the beginning of World War One in 1914. It began on July 28, 1914. As the historian Charles Emmerson said of the unanticipated war, “Humanity looked into the abyss and peering into the depths, found its own dark, disfigured reflection staring back.”
In 2014, a century later, humanity needs to take a look at the fascistic, utterly immoral objectives and practices of Islam, and understand that it is at war with us, with moderate Muslims, and with all other faiths. It’s not “if” will shall have to deal with it militarily as Israel is doing, but “when.” That day is not far off.
© Alan Caruba, 2014
WOW – NEWSMAX POLL on President Obama
Overall, do you approve or disapprove of President Obama’s job performance?
Approve 119,137(26%) Disapprove327,224(73%)
Compared to previous presidents, how would you rate President Obama?
Average 19,565(4%) Better than most104,623(23%) Worse than most 322,855(72%)
Do you approve of his job handling the U.S. economy?
Approve 118,304(26%) Disapprove 326,061(73%)
Do you believe President Obama’s new healthcare law, known as Obamacare, has helped or hurt you?
Helped me 77,263(17%) Hurt me 266,308(59%) No difference102,746(23%)
Do you trust President Obama?
Yes, I trust him 118,789(26%) No, I do not trust him 325,990(73%)
FIVE FATAL FLAWS OF SOLAR ENERGY
By Viv Forbes
July 27, 2014
NewsWithViews.com
The sun is the most important energy source on Earth. It provides our daily warmth and light and the rotation and orbit of the earth turn its steady output into fluctuating day and night, summer and winter. Solar energy powers the growth of all trees, grasses, herbs, crops and algae; it creates the clouds and powers the storms; it is the source of all hydro, photo-voltaic (PV), solar-thermal, bio-mass and wind energy; and, over geological time, it also creates coal.
PV solar panels are useful in remote locations, for some portable applications and, with enough panels and batteries, stand-alone solar can even power homes.
But solar energy has five fatal flaws for supplying 24/7 grid power.
Firstly, sunshine at any spot is always intermittent and often unreliable. Solar panels can only deliver significant energy from 9am to 3pm – a maximum of 25% of each day. Solar can often help supply the hot afternoon demand for air conditioning, but demand for electricity generally peaks at about 6.30pm, when production from solar is usually zero.
Secondly, to be a stand-alone energy supplier, PV solar needs batteries to cover those times when solar is not producing – about 75% of the time under ideal cloudless skies. To charge the batteries for continuous power, while also supplying usable power, a solar plant can only deliver a theoretical maximum of 25% of its day-time capacity. The chance of cloudy days will greatly increase the battery storage needed, and the generating capacity absorbed in charging the batteries. Currently, only pumped hydro storage could possibly supply the storage capacity needed and then only at massive cost, in a few suitable locations.
Thirdly, solar energy is very dilute, so huge areas of land are needed to collect industrial quantities of energy.
If it were possible to anchor a solar collector one meter square at the top of the atmosphere, aligned continuously to face the sun, and never shadowed by the earth or the moon, it would receive solar energy at the rate of 1,366 Watts per square metre (W/m2) – that would power 13 light bulbs each using 100 watts.
If that panel were located on the surface, at the equator, under clear skies, aligned continuously to face the sun, and never shaded by the earth or the moon, solar energy dissipated by the atmosphere would reduce energy received to 1,000 watts.
In the real rotating world, where sunshine only reaches usable intensity for about 25% of the time, the best located panel would have a capacity factor of about 17% – it would receive 170 watts of energy – not quite 2 light bulbs.
PV solar panels convert solar energy to electrical energy at an efficiency factor of about 15%. Thus our panel, at the equator, year round, should deliver 25.5 watts of electrical energy – one very dim light bulb.
Away from the equator, solar energy hits the Earth’s surface at an angle, thus delivering less energy per panel. This useful site shows how solar intensity varies with latitude in Australia.
Shift that panel to Melbourne, add clouds, shading, urban air pollution and dirt on the panels, and fix it to a sloping roof often aligned poorly to collect sunshine, and it is time to start the diesel generator in the car port.
It is sensible to use unused space like roofs for solar collectors but such fragmented facilities will never match a compact well-designed solar plant in construction, maintenance and cleaning costs or go close in achieving the correct panel orientation.
People underestimate the land needed for significant solar collectors. In a learned paper published in 2013, Graham Palmer has produced a credible calculation that it would need a square with 31 km sides, completely filled with PV panels, to collect energy equivalent to Australia’s annual electricity requirements. [Source]
To also charge batteries to maintain steady supply from a stand-alone solar facility would require at least four times this area – imagine 3,844 square kilometres of collectors, even if suitable battery technology was available.
In addition, PV panels start to degrade in rain, hail and sunshine from the day they are installed, some panels losing significant capacity in as little as three years. And unless washed regularly, dust and bird poop degrades their performance even quicker. All those sparkies checking panel performance and all those cleaning ladies with mops need access roads – this greatly increases the area needed for industrial solar installations.
The fourth fatal flaw of solar energy is the pernicious effect of the dramatic fluctuations in supply on the reliable and essential parts of the grid. When solar electricity floods the network around mid-day, the back-up stations have to throttle back, all the stations needed for stability and backup have their profits reduced, and some may be forced to close, making the network even more fragile and prone to blackouts. Then if a cloud floats across the sky, the backups have to re-start swiftly.
Fifthly, large-scale solar power will create environmental damage over large areas of land. Solar collectors may only manage to convert about 10% of the sun’s energy into electricity, the rest being reflected or turned into heat. But the whole solar spectrum is blocked, thus robbing 100% of the life-giving sunshine from the ground underneath, creating a man-made solar desert. For solar thermal, where mirrors focus intense solar heat to generate steam, birds that fly through the heat beams get fried. Why would true environmentalists support industrial-scale solar energy collection?
All consumers should be free to use solar energy in their own way at their own cost. But these five fatal flaws mean that collecting solar energy will never play more than a minor and very expensive role in supplying grid power.
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Desertec, the utopian US$560 billion project designed to cover 16,800 square km of the Sahara Desert with solar panels, and then export electricity 1,600 km to Europe, has collapsed.
A similar fate awaits other attempts to extract 24/7 grid power from intermittent, unpredictable and dilute solar power.
The latest “Desertec Idea” is “solar roads” where highways are paved with solar panels. Imagine the construction and maintenance costs, the length of transmission lines, and the problems of shading and abrasion by traffic, the hazards of cleaning and the random non-ideal orientation of the panels.
Not with my money thanks.
© 2014 Viv Forbes – All Rights Reserved
