
Jimmy Carter Builds 1.3MW Solar Farm For His Hometown Of Plains, Georgia - Jaruzel
https://cleantechnica.com/2017/02/14/jimmy-carter-builds-1-3-megawatt-solar-farm-hometown-plains-georgia/
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make3
"Shortly after Reagan occupied the White House, he had the solar panels ripped
out and thrown in the trash. You can watch a short video about one of
America’s first solar initiatives below."

sigh

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toomuchtodo
Reagan is gone, Carter is still doing good, and solar costs are falling at an
incredible rate. No sigh necessary!

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scotch_drinker
Agree. Carter is the last President who asked his countrymen to actually
sacrifice for the good of the country instead of just offering to give them a
bunch of free stuff. We didn't want to listen then but someday, we'll probably
regret it.

[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=32596](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=32596)

~~~
ams6110
I remember him offering double-digit mortgages, hostages, failed rescues,
overall "malaise". The Carter era was a disaster. I respect his charity work
and his service in the Navy but he was a _terrible_ president.

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scotch_drinker
He had little impact on mortgages or inflation. Nixon drove most of the
stagflation of the 70s with his wage and price controls not to mention taking
us off the gold standard. Failed monetary policies exacerbated the problems.
Carter inherited all of that and it took the fist of Volcker to fix it.

If a failed rescue of some hostages is what you gauge your views of Presidents
on, you must be particularly low on the Bush and Obama war torn years.

[http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/1970s-grea...](http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/1970s-great-
inflation.asp)

~~~
blackflame7000
Fiat currency has little to do with the eventual housing crisis that resulted.
It would be exceedingly rare to find a democrat these days who would prefer
the gold standard since it would limit the ability of public bonds to raise
money for public works. On the other hand, as noble as the intent might have
been, the Community Reinvestment Act had a detrimental effect. It's the same
thing that's wrong with student loans today. If you promise Bank's low risk
loans, they're naturally going to continue to lend more and more until they
end up with bundles of underwater mortgages. If we foolishly bail them out
each time, why would they stop?

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francisofascii
"Sometimes it take history a while to fully appreciate the depth of character
of those who helped make it." Especially if solar continues it growth. Being
the first president to install rooftop solar on the White House will certainly
help his legacy.

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masonic
I don't think _anybody_ questions his character (aside from the BCCI scandal
and the Bert Lance appointment), just his competence in that particular role.

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arethuza
Carter was a US Navy nuclear engineer in the Rickover era - that's a pretty
strong indication of the man's qualities!

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delinka
Qualities or qualifications? Quite the difference ;-)

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rjsw
Read a bit about Rickover, he required both.

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dennyabraham
What does the wattage of a solar farm represent? The article says it's
expected to produce 55 million kwh per year, but doesn't that imply 6.3MW ((55
000 000 / (365 * 24)) / 1000) of constant production?

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dredmorbius
The capacity and total generation numbers do strike me as odd. OK, the
reporting is _wrong_ , and I made an error in my initial response.

Capacity: 1.3 MW

Output: 55 GWh _over 25 years_ , or 2.2 GWh/yr, or 0.25 MW sustained.

19% capacity factor.

Thanks, dennyabraham.

________________________________

The rated output is the _nameplate capacity_ of a facility. That is the
_maximum_ power it's capable of delivering under ideal conditions. This
applies to any generating plant: coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, solar, wind,
tidal.

[https://energymag.net/nameplate-capacity-or-rated-
output/](https://energymag.net/nameplate-capacity-or-rated-output/)

That's reduced by the _capacity factor_ of an installation. A key difference
between different generating modes is what their capacity factor is. Nuclear
may run as high as 95%, whilst solar is typically rated as 20-30%. This means
that the _mean_ output, over a year, is, say, 20% of the nameplate rating.

The US EIA (Energy Information Administration) publishes data on actual
achieved capacity factor for different modes:

[https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=14611](https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=14611)

There are other aspects of generating which also vary by source:

Dispatchability: can the source be turned off, or better, on?

Response time: Nuclear and coal generation take hours to adjust output to
capacity. Natural gas turbines, diesel generators, and hydroelectric turbines
can respond in minutes or seconds.

Total energy delivery. A high-output, fast-reacting mode may only be able to
deliver energy in short bursts, or for a short period before recharging. This
is the case for virtually all energy storage modes: hydroelectric, batteries,
flywheel kinetic storage. It also applies to some fuel-based methods: diesel
generators and gas turbines used for peaking power may not be able to run for
more than a few hours before fuel reserves are exhausted.

Maintenance and downtime: How long to scheduled (or unsheduled) maintanance
tasks take? How much capacity is involved in such tasks?

Regular vs. irregular variability. Solar tends not to produce high output at
night. Wind power is variable, but may provide energy at any hour. Tidal power
is governed by tide tables. Any or all of these might be moderated by storage
mechanisms (e.g., solar thermal energy storage, which can bank heat for hours,
possibly days, and hence, "deliver solar power at night").

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maxerickson
55 million kwh is 55 GWh, not 55 MWh. Hence the GPs implied question about a
500% capacity factor.

The answer lies in the press release, the 55 GWh is over the 25 year PPA:

[http://www.solamericaenergy.com/news/carter-
farms/](http://www.solamericaenergy.com/news/carter-farms/)

Implying a 25% capacity factor.

edit: more like a 19% capacity factor. Whatever, something sensible, the
reporter screwed up calling the output annual.

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dredmorbius
Thank you. My error on million kW (I should have caught that), and _very_ poor
reporting.

~~~
dennyabraham
This makes so much more sense now, thanks!

~~~
dredmorbius
Team effort :)

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justin66
It's amazing that you can get that kind of power from a low-impact
installation on 10 acres of land. Modern, large wind turbines are more
impressive in terms of output but putting them in is quite a chore.

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billsmithaustin
It's unfortunate that most of the article is a political story about President
Carter's reputation. That part should have been about three sentences.

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frinks2000
thats right, our delicate, virgin ears cant take any of this "political" talk
about a former president. Truth be damned, keep out hurtful "politics"!

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MrZongle2
It's not a matter of political talk being "hurtful" or not.

It's that _every damn thing these days has a political angle._ And most people
are sick of it.

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frinks2000
Oh I know - I tried so hard not to read it because I hate opinion so much. But
I couldn't! I just kept reading and reading. Then I thought, Damnit! fuck you
politics. Thats it, I'm never reading again

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billsmithaustin
I wasn't offended by the political content. I was just more interested in
reading about the solar farm because of the article title. If the title had
been, "Jimmy Carter was unfairly persecuted, and by the way he built a solar
farm", I would have expected the political content.

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gjem97
Does anyone have good resources (or can provide a good estimate) for the cost
of a moderate sized photovoltaic solar plant like this? Both up front capital,
and ongoing maintenance?

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cwal37
What you want is NREL's Annual Technology Baseline
spreadsheet/presentation/scenario viewer[1]. Plenty of fun numbers and
formulas to look at there (Disclaimer: I worked on the hydro section, so I'm a
bit biased to think it's useful).

[1]
[http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/data_tech_baseline.html](http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/data_tech_baseline.html)

