[RE-wrenches] ARCO Solar and Carrizo Plain

[Ray Walters]

Perhaps it was some of the contagious mentality around at the time that 
also killed GM's electric vehicle in favor of the Hummer......Solar 
worked, they feared the end of the oil era, so they had to kill it 
before the rest of the country found out.
Not all bad, as some of those old Trilams and Quad lams are still 
powering places all over the country.
I definitely see cheap surplus PV in the long term future.....

Ray

On 10/31/2011 8:12 PM, Chris Daum wrote:
> Marco:
> Maybe they did it so people who had modest power requirements could 
> meet their needs with the M51s and mmmmm....RC2000s  (is that right 
> folks)?  Buying them in sets of four....  This was some of the first 
> technology that worked, and was rather cheaply available at the time.
> I remember those old acrylic-faced modules well, and shipped quite a 
> few...perhaps hundreds or thousands of them...for the solar company I 
> worked for at the time.
> SO, IN THEORY, if the later technologies are being dismembered (that's 
> so harsh, how about disassembled?) then those modules will be worth 
> something too.
> I do not know why ARCO scrapped what they did, but I suspect a 
> corporate perspective was part of the scene.  At the time, it did me 
> and my then-customers good.  After all, we know what PG & E really 
> stands for.
> Just my 2 cents worth.
>
> Chris Daum
> Oasis Montana Inc.
> 406-777-4309
> 406-777-0830 fax
> www.oasismontana.com <http://www.oasismontana.com>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org 
> [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] *On Behalf Of 
> *Marco Mangelsdorf
> *Sent:* Monday, October 31, 2011 7:55 PM
> *To:* 'RE-wrenches'
> *Subject:* [RE-wrenches] ARCO Solar and Carrizo Plain
>
> Us old-timers remember the dismemberment of the then big ARCO Solar 
> grid-tie project down in So. CAL. In the 1980s and the parting out of 
> that project in dribs and drabs for years.
>
> I was wondering recently with all these ever so big and getting bigger 
> grid-tie projects sprouting like mushrooms across the developed world: 
> why did ARCO Solar and the utility (PG&E?) scrap the whole thing after 
> a relatively short period of time?  Causes me to wonder about the fate 
> of so many of the mammoth projects now going in as far as what's going 
> to happen when the owner-investors likely bail, having made their 
> handsome ROIs, after the tax credits and MACRS depreciation plays out.
>
> Thanks,
>
> marco
>
>
>
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