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.
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.
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?
Just think:
1. Ethanol--heavily subsidized and most Major Players in US now Bankrupt or shutting down.
2. Spain proves that even heavily subsidized solar will fall.
3. Wind--most major wind projects now being opposed by the same Gang Green armies that oppose Oil, Gas, Coal & Nukes.
Back to ethanol--What major SA country ethanol producer is now, with massive loan guarantees from US & China, developing and TRUMPETING a major, world class offshore OIL FIELD.
That way I know that it will start right up and ignite that powerful gasoline.
I haven’t noticed anyone posting it yet, and maybe most folks are not aware of it, but our Obama government is in the process of planning for a solar powered generation system here in the desert of Southern California. It is to be located along the Interstate 10 corridor between Indio and the state line at Blythe. The proposed project is HUGE.
Thanks for posting this.
Those of us who have been on this globe for many decades have seen/heard the bs stories of the wonders of solar/wind power and alternate fuel sources for most of those decades.
The only way they can even come close to existing is via massive govermental subsidies.
If we had invested the money wasted on those so called green sources into searching and drilling for oil in the states and off our shores and building new oil/gasoline refineries, the middle east would be begging us to buy their oil at very cheap prices.
Of course neglecting nuclear power and clean coal power has been a disaster for us, also.
