Is Negative Coverage Hurting The Economy?
Media coverage of the current economic crisis has been profoundly negative. The media is supposed to cover the facts - which it does quite well. In addition, it covers opinions that simply add to the prevailing doom and gloom.
Just look at the media pundits on the news channels. They are wrong most of the time but this hardly ever stops them. They just thrive on negative news and forget the positive.
To take an example from today’s news, for the third straight day the stock markets have been doing well in Canada, the US and around the world. I searched the CNN website for coverage of this positive story - and found it buried on the inside pages. It should have made it to the front page but that spot was reserved for Madoff and his shennanigans which hardly affect the world economy.
By focussing on the negative, the media could have made the recession a little worse. In fact, the media wants to convert it into a depression and we already have some pundits comparing it to the Great Depression of the thirties. There is, of course, no basis for such a comparison -the two events are totally different.
The Canadian media is marginally better. When a politician says something positive about the economy, the media goes into attack mode. When something positive happens, it is played down.
We need a more responsible media that focusses more on facts and less on “expert” projections of the future. The “experts” are generally wrong; last summer they were predicting gas prices of two dollars a litre and this never came to pass. Now they predict a long recession lasting another two years or more - is there any reason to believe them? The real truth is that no one has yet been able to predict the future correctly and it is a waste of time to try to do so.
The media will do much better by sticking to the facts and by accentuating the positive whenever possible. In fact, by offering more facts and unbiased news coverage, the media might be able to pull itself out of its own recession.
Hi Niraj,
Some very good info on your web page here, but I think that you might be under some false impressions about the payback on solar PV systems under the current pricing. I co-authored the SolarShare report on the economics if PV in Ontario, and at the present 42 cents/kWh, the payback is over 20 years. Under the new Green Energy Act, the proposed residential rate of 80.3 cents will offer paybacks closer to the 10 year mark, but even under the new FITs, even that might be optimistic.
My concern in writing to you is that I don’t want anybody to purchase a PV system under expectations which can’t be met, and they later voice to their friends and neighbours that “solar is a waste of money”, they got hoodwinked, etc. People need to have realistic expectations going in.
If you’d like to take a look at the SolarShare model, it is at http://www.trec.on.ca/projects/solarshare.html.
I’d be happy to answer any of your questions, but basically, residential systems are presently being installed at about $9.25 to $11.50 per watt, if you’d like to enter those in the SolarShare spreadsheet and see the outcomes. the only errors I know of in that spreadsheet, is that the rates of degradation are a bit high for our insolation levels around here, so feel free to reduce them by about 30%.
Hope this is helpful.
Cheers,
Mike Brigham
Toronto
Oops, sorry… my last post related to your article “Seven Great Reasons To Plan Your Rooftop Solar Energy Project Today”.
Mike
Mike,
Thank you for your post; it is always good to hear from a knowledgeable person.
In my article on Feed In Tariffs, I talk about the proposed Green Energy Act with a maximum FIT of about 80 cents/kwh. I looked through your website, and this figure is very close to the FITs you recommend for a reasonable return on investment in solar rooftop panels, at least for large installations.
As you rightly point out, costs for residential panels are a little higher as there is no economy of scale. But even at $9.25 to $11.50 per watt, there should be a reasonable return on investment. Of course, if Ontario offers a still higher FIT for rsidential applications, the program will be so much more effective.
What do you believe should be the FIT for rooftop residential programs? If you have a number, with supporting data, perhaps we can pass it on to OPA during the consultation period.