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Government ‘Solar Decathlon’ requires diesel generators (wait… what?)

The Dept. of Energy’s “Solar Decathlon” kicked off yesterday under cloudy skies in Washington DC. (Who says God doesn’t have a terrific sense of humor?)

Teams of students representing 19 colleges from all over the world are given a $100,000 (Taxpayer dollars from the DOE) and they try to construct energy-neutral buildings for home and work use.

Students on Team Canada were working well into the night under the glare of some pretty bright lights… powered by DIESEL GENERATORS!

Solar Decathlon Uses Diesel Generators

The clever minds over at Thought Nozzle made a terrific point, posting on Yoono.com

The Solar Decathlon: College teams building zero-energy green homes– while lit by a battery of 6kW TEREX Amida diesel generator light towers. Diesel gennies can produce 50 to 60 times the NOx pollution of gas-fired grid plants. No cleaner alternatives?

For continuing coverage on the Solar Decathlon - CNET.com has posted a slide show of the homes and is all over the event;

For the past two Solar Decathlons in D.C., the Technische Universitat team from Darmstadt, Germany, came away with the first prize. But Germany’s high-tech home came in with a price tag of near $800,000, more than three times higher than the $250,000 limit this year.

(That last line sounded a bit like the Solyndra business model – make it for $6 and sell it for $3…)

H/T To Bob West of Thought Nozzle

Comments (5)

  • RightThinking1
    Posted on September 26, 2011 at 1:40pm

    I notice that the “Decathlon” opened under rainy gray skies. I wonder how much energy all of those solar panels were producing? Somehow it seems to me that a snowy, cold day in January would be the right time to take an honest look at this stuff.
    Also, I wonder if any of the ‘houses’ came in under the $250,000 (!) budget. I am confused about the winning house actually costing at least $400,000. All for a commodius 800 sq. ft. or so.
    The ultimate irony for these taxpayer/consumer funded toys, is that Solyndra panels were used by at least one team, perhaps others. All that is green does not glitter. You heard it here first.

    Report Post »  
  • JLGunner
    Posted on September 26, 2011 at 9:57am

    I saw a report last night about how barack use to praise Spain in their “geen” energy programs. Now that it has been proven that green jobs lose more jobs than they create, barack has stopped using them as a selling point in the US. We cannot afford to keep blindly tossing tax revenue into this money pit.

    Report Post » JLGunner  
  • TDOM
    Posted on September 25, 2011 at 10:04pm

    If we dont cancel Obamas green visa card hes going to flush our future down the drain – The whole global warming thing was dreamt up yes after the liberal eggheads were snorting a hybrid of unicorn and pixie dust. But seriously they are spending hundreds of billions on techknowlogy that may not be creadible for fifty years . But tell ya what when someone invents that super battery or solar panel the free market will be tripping over itself to dump money into viable intelligent products – All this is – is subsidising Liberal idological fantasy

    Report Post »  
  • Chief_Cabioch
    Posted on September 25, 2011 at 9:05pm

    Isn’t it funny, how the left is confident the world is ready for “green” energy, yet it cant seem to live up to the lefts claims, and still needs to be subsidized with Diesel Power ?……..and if it isnt one thing with these “Greenies” it’s two, first lets build WIND generators, now lets attack them for killing birds ?….which is it lefties ?………you people cant seem to make up your mind on Anything….ecept Hating Republican’s , and Jews, and forcing the rest of us to accept people who refuse to accept US……Islam.

    Report Post »  
  • tarpon
    Posted on September 24, 2011 at 3:27pm

    Unicorns and pixie dust, their favorite power source.

    Report Post »  

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