Private company is pushing some interesting community design ideas. Solar panels are great, but actually the water management here could be the most significant piece.
Yeah, I get it, – expensive luxury homes for rich white people. But well-to-do early adopters have always driven technological change.
The hydrological management here could be adapted to other areas – so valuable test bed.
But is Florida so vulnerable this dream is impossible?
Meanwhile, Trump’s interior secretary has been remaking the agency charged with protecting public lands as an ally of big energy, e-mails and records reveal…
=> The Zinke effect: how the US interior department became a tool of big business
Right now, the least expensive bids for wind & storage are $21 per MWh. That is 2.1 cents per KWh, which is about 1/6th of what I pay for retail electricity from my municipal utility.
The least expensive solar & storage is $36 per MWh. Let’s assume that is where insolation is ideal. My understanding is that, in the lower 48 of the U.S., the ideal insolation is twice as good as the worst.
That implies that, even in Maine or Oregon, a community could make their own power for about 7.2 cents per KWh. I believe these numbers already include debt financing. Not sure what the lifespan of solar storage is, but we seem to be getting to the point where solar/wind & storage is feasible almost everywhere.
the logic of solar and storage is making a renewable economy inevitable.
No the dream is not impossible – Quality architects and town planners have been actively proposing ideas along these lines for many, yes many decades. Milton Keynes in the U.K is just one of a planned new towns with advanced ideals. Not just towns but Islands are also changing. Despite depressing pessimism there is much to be hopeful for, just we are so slow in achievements and for ideas to catch on.
“The Cape Verde islands are looking to wind and solar power to bring down their high energy bills, while at the same time doing something positive for the environment. A public-private partnership is helping make this a reality. ”
https://www.dw.com/en/renewable-energy-in-the-cape-verde-islands/av-46319942
Not only Islands, but countries too –
Spain has launched an ambitious plan to switch its electricity system entirely to renewable sources by 2050 and completely decarbonise its economy soon after.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/13/spain-plans-switch-100-renewable-electricity-2050
In an effort to completely decarbonize its economy, Spain will be transferring its entire electricity system to renewable sources over the next 30 years with a goal of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent compared to 1990 levels.
https://inhabitat.com/spain-launches-plan-for-100-renewable-electricity-by-2050/
Babcock Ranch is just a bit more than “expensive luxury homes for rich white people”. It looks like they are trying to add more “affordable” (~$200K) townhomes and condos for the “poor” to the mix. A nice attempt, but we shall see. Except for the solar power and efforts to do some green things, it looks like just more American suburban sprawl—-spread out houses on individual lots. At least it’s on high ground and not likely to flood, but any spot in FL is going to be vulnerable to the wind from the CAT 6 and 7 hurricanes that we will soon be seeing.