So, Got Coal? How's That Solar Working Out, Abe? -- July 20, 2017

Updates

February 11, 2018: the biggest risk to coral reefs and Hawaii's tourism is not acid rain or global warming -- it's the cesspools of Hawaii.

Sewage from cesspools is seeping into some of Hawaii’s ocean waters, where it has been blamed for infections suffered by surfers and snorkelers. It is also entering the drinking water in part of the state, pushing nitrate levels close to the legal limit.

Hawaii has 88,000 cesspools across its eight major islands, more than any other state. Collectively, they deposit 53 million gallons of raw sewage into the ground every day.

More than 90% of the state’s drinking water comes from groundwater wells.

State lawmakers, who outlawed new cesspools in 2016, are scrambling to find a solution to the thousands that exist.

Replacing all of the state’s cesspools with alternate sewage systems would cost at least $1.75 billion, according to the health department.

Original Post 

From joannenova.com: fifty solar PV companies in Japan are already gone in 2017 as subsidies end. Coal is soaring. Actually, the story is even worse than the headline:

One hundred solar PV companies are forecast to collapse in Japan this year alone.

Up to 100 solar PV firms in Japan could face bankruptcy this year, with more than double the number of firms going bust in the first half of this year than the same period in 2016.

According to corporate credit research company Teikoku Databank, which surveys companies across various industries and has produced its third report on solar PV company bankruptcies, 50 companies in Japan’s solar sector have already gone out of business in the first six months of 2017.

While the market overall has rapidly expanded from the launch of the feed-in tariff (FiT) in July 2012, Teikoku Databank acknowledged that there has been a slowdown in deployment in the past couple of years as the government successively made cuts of 10% or more on an annual basis to the premium prices paid for solar energy fed into the grid.

This comes just days after another "green blog" noted that solar was  dying in Hawaii, also. This is the problem:

• solar needs huge subsidies to compete with coal
• subsidies cost governments money
• coal / natural gas utilities make profits without resorting to subsidies
• governments tax profits
• this is not rocket science

Even Jerry Brown's successor will figure this out.

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Speaking of Japanese Coal

Japan plans to build at least 45 new coal plants. From joannenova (same link as above):

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