Posted on 09/08/2009 6:50:49 AM PDT by 2banana
In 2008, Spain accounted for half the world's new solar-power installations in terms of wattage, thanks to government subsidies to promote clean energy. But late last year, as the global economic crisis worsened, the government dramatically scaled back those subsidies and capped the amount of subsidized solar power that could be installed.
Factories world-wide that had ramped up production of solar-power components found that demand for solar panels was plummeting, leaving a glut in supply and pushing prices down. Job cuts followed.
"The solar industry in 2009 has been undermined by [a] collapse in demand due to the decision by Spain," says Henning Wicht, a solar-power analyst at research group iSuppli.
...
As a result, Spain's solar capacity last year increased to 3,342 megawatts from 695 megawatts, the size of a coal plant, a year earlier. Government subsidies for solar power jumped to €1.1 billion ($1.6 billion) in 2008 from €214 million in 2007.
Solar power "was a financial product, not an energy solution," says Ignacio Sánchez Galán, chairman of Iberdrola, the world's biggest renewable-energy company. Iberdrola has largely shunned solar because wind power is cheaper and requires less land.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Isn’t it wonderful?
Right. That evil Spanish government has single-handedly caused the collapse of the solar industry. It has nothing to do with the fact that it fails in a free-market economy and is uneconomic without continual and eternal price supports by governments.
and a coal plant can produce energy 24/7
That $1.6 billion was the government subsidy, NOT what the solar plant cost. If the government subsidized half of it, the cost was north of $3 billion.
Without massive subsidies, neither solar nor wind can replace coal or nuclear power for generating electricity.
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
Never, ever, underestimate the damage that can be done when a politician dabbles in science.
There’s a reason they went into politics - and it ain’t public service.
It’s the fact that there is NOTHING ELSE THEY CAN DO.
The Spanish produced electricity for, IIRC, $615 a megawatt, as opposed to 95 cents per megawatt for Coal.
The company that I used to work for had many eggs in one basket with a solar producer in Michigan.
Two months after I saved their butts in troubleshooting and fixing a major production problem, (Which cost nothing to repair) they eliminated my job and let me go after 18 years.
I just checked the stock price of the solar company and see that is is swirling down the toilet.
Yeehah!
Imagine if U.S. government projects that compete with commercial providers had to meet some profit target, even just 0.5%, in order to continue.
amen.....
“A little nookie never hurt anybody” Bumper sticker purchased from a Larouche airport table
Wind power is “MUCH CHEAPER” and requires less land???????!!
It takes 1350 wind turbines to equal one coal fired plant, each occupying 5 acres of land, plus all the spider web of extremely UGLY transmission lines that are required to move this stupidity to any nearby grid. The Coal Plant occupies about 20 acres, while the extremely inefficient and costly wind farm occupies 6,700 acres of land to do the same thing. (Not including the transmission lines)
Not only that, but the long term maintenance costs and difficulties of these systems will force electrical costs to more than double due to that aspect alone.
But these people know this and will lie cheat and steal to have their way, simply because they believe they are moraly correct and are above logical scrutiny.
Its about the money.
What does a coal plant cost? At least, one that generates as much electricity as these solar installations collectively do? And what of the cost of fueling and operations over, say, 20 years?
;^)
And that's very confusing syntax. Is the size of a coal plant a) 695 MW, b) 3,342 MW, or c) (3,342-695) MW?
True, but there are various mechanisms to store the energy and release it later. You pay a price for that, but they do exist.
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