Where are those green collar jobs the stimulus money was supposed to create? If you are a unemployed San Franciscan waiting for the trillion dollar stimulus money to trickle down, you may have to wait a while longer.
Here is the sad story from the San Francisco Examiner:
Financing issues emerged Wednesday that may threaten a proposed solar-power plant in The City that could become California's largest.
The City had identified the Sunset Reservoir as the installation site for a shimmering stretch of solar panels to be installed next year. The panels would be used to help power municipal buildings and services, such as Muni.
Under the proposal backed by Mayor Gavin Newsom, the land would be leased to San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy, which would install 25,000 solar panels at the site. The 4.97 megawatts of power produced by the panels would be sold exclusively to The City for 30 years under a so-called power-purchase agreement.
Here it comes, the always predictable and ill-informed mainstream media has to take a shot at natural gas. Isn't this reporter aware that natural gas is one of the cleanest fuels available and Nancy Pelosi and T. Boone Pickens have been promoting it as a clean alternative to 'dirty' oil and coal. By contrast, a billowing waterfront smokestack in Potrero Hill is connected to a 147-megawatt gas-fired generator that powers businesses and homes. Sprawling solar-power plants being built elsewhere in the state are expected to produce hundreds of megawatts apiece in coming years.
But problems arose when Recurrent Energy asked The City to exempt the 30-year Sunset Reservoir project from the Board of Supervisors' regular annual appropriations and spending oversight procedures. [....]
Some city supervisors have said they would prefer to see The City own and operate the power plant.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission staff, however, said The City's overall cost to buy bonds needed to build the plant would be substantially higher than it would pay Recurrent Energy in purchasing fees because the company can take advantage of federal tax incentives and purchasing might.
Why the hesitation San Francisco? Build it yourself, here is your chance to own the means of production and stick it to big oil. Just imagine a sunny day when "California's largest" solar power plant cranks out an amazing 4.97 megawatts of energy! We might actually be able to turn the gas down at the other power plant by 3% or thereabouts. Whew! we saved the planet. Oops, lookout!Here come some clouds.
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