Posted on 01/27/2023 8:20:27 PM PST by SeekAndFind
When enough young people realize their being scammed like this, they’ll change their tune (because it will be their money):
Basically million was spent constructing this nonsense in upstate NY (not very sunny), and it was dismantled years later without ever powering anything - EVER. The money is gone, the business (front) is closed, and everyone is a bit poorer for the experience (except the scammers themselves).
Even if the young people don’t pay for it, they should be upset because rabbits and racoons lost their homes for this farce...
“Green power is neither cheap, nor reliable at this time. It all requires the backup of coal and various forms of gas to back it up and smooth it out.”
Conveniently, the cost of having this backup available is never factored into the cost of solar power. The backup has to be in the form of conventional fossil fuel power plants which have a life expectancy of 30 to 40 years. Each of these plants costs about $1 billion for 1 gigawatt. If the plants are used as backup for solar, they are only running 50 percent of the time or less. So the amount of power they produce over their lifetime is cut in half. So the capital cost per megawatt hour of power produced is doubled. This cost needs to be added to the cost of solar to accurately reflect the total cost of adding solar power to the grid (solar LCOE). Idiots in government just wave their hands, make false promises, and when electricity bills triple they blame it on Putin or greedy companies instead of blaming it on their own manifest stupidity.
Anything that needs a federal subsidy to exist...
I have a medium size solar power system. (4.6KW). A bank of batteries that will carry the house for 18-20 hours. I don't sell back to the grid. They don't need to know what I have out here.
Since my system is a few years old, I don't run it full time any more. Just as a backup.
I like being able to flip a couple of switches when power goes out. I don't try to heat water with it. And I have a propane dryer. Otherwise I can run my dishwasher, washer and dryer, toaster oven and microwave. Though not all at once:)
It's a good feeling that if the grid went down long-term, I can live probably at least 75% of normal.
All that said, I don't think the grid is ready for green energy. We are long past the reasons for subsidies. The industry can't work till battery tech is a lot better than now.
“solar power is the future”
Solar power has great potential to give individual homes self-sufficiency—if there is no requirement to connect them to the grid.
To keep our liberties everyone is going to have to get “off the grid”.
If the plutocrats control your electricity they can control you.
Results may vary.
I live in the north of England; this month has been overcast most days and of course it’s January so I can’t expect my domestic setup to be hugely reliable.
Having said that, 53.76kWh of my consumption for the month has been powered by solar. Right now it’s so dim I need the house lights on and it’s only generating 4% of what it could be generating.
But the plant is set up for 5kWp, with the house only using 2kWp at the most peak of times. So actually it’s covering almost 20% of my current consumption. That alone is ofsetting the bill to the point where my monthly spend is down to where it would’ve been in pre-Ukraine invasion prices if I didn’t have the setup.
Based on those numbers, and knowing I’ll be exporting as much as I use between end of March and beginning of November, my solar setup will have completely paid for itself by the end of next year. (Electricity costs have more than doubled since I had it installed 3 years ago).
While solar provides cheap clean power when the sun is shining the sun doesn’t always shine. I can see how it could be advantageous to use it as a supplement to another source of electricity but that is all it is really good for.
Within a couple decades fusion power will be a reality and then all this green nonsense we have paid through the nose for will simply be abandoned as too expensive.
I am not against solar as a supplement especially for residential use. I have two homes. Both of them are equipped with solar power, that is roof top solar panels. the house in Florida is very useful. As a vacation house I don’t have a lot of long term frozen food storage but I do have a pool and air conditioning, both require a lot of electricity. Most of the time I simply pay the basic $21.00 fee each month to be hooked to the grid. In Kentucky however I have substantial frozen food storage that I would like to have in the event of any long term emergency. I have 9 kids and with their wives and kids in an emergency I may be providing a lot of meals. I have battery backup in Kentucky. The backup will provide weeks of minimal use, I wouldn’t use the air conditioner or the electric dryer but about everything else would be just fine. I should never have to go weeks however without sunshine to recharge the batteries and I do have a couple generators that could supplement the sunshine if necessary and if natural gas or gasoline is available.
I have had the solar long enough that it has more than paid for itself, after all the Federal government paid for a third of it by giving me tax credits. So, while I took no money from the government I did have reduced taxes. I would rather pay for the solar than taxes so it was a good deal for me.
I think the only reason that utility companies are investing in solar is for the same reason as me, in part any way, they would rather take some free money than pay it in taxes, I don’t blame them. I blame our stupid leftist press and representatives. The press misinforms the masses and then the masses elect who the press wants them to elect. Ignorance of the truth is the number one factor destroying this country.
Nobody, as far as I know, has ever claimed that a single source of 'renewable' energy such as solar will be the future. I've never seen any reasoned objection to a diversified energy budget, in which a range of 'renewable' technologies complement, without wholly replacing 'non-renewable' sources. Diversification is prudent in all forms of investment, including this one.
When these hidden expenses are accounted for, it becomes obvious that solar is much more expensive.
I won’t matter the climate control cult that’s selling the idea will have made billions it’s all that matters.
In the 1920’s someone was selling something guarantied to kill fly’s (two bricks) made good money at it too.
I agree. I mean, there's this giant nuclear furnace in the sky putting out untold billions upon billions of watts of energy each second.
However, truly useable solar power will require massive advances in technology that just isn't there yet.
Instead, we're clearcutting acres of forests for solar farms that can barely charge a cell phone.
Let's get the tech first, and then transition.
You are so right! I do think it is very convoluted, and purposely so... So that regular people can’t understand it.
Locally, one of the farmer’s here directly asked one of these solar presidents about the farm land AFTER the solar panels were done and he said something to the tune that it will be fine. SO the farmer asked that president to present evidence of studies showing the land quality and the president said they didn’t have any and he could not present any hard factual evidence!
One of the ladies in my class discussed the water flow disruptions around windturbines and the fact for nearly 60 feet around them, nothing can grow. There is serious disruption to the land!!!
“Locally, one of the farmer’s here directly asked one of these solar presidents about the farm land AFTER the solar panels were done”
Your local farmer was on the right track, but they will never remove those panels. They will grow and grow and grow and grow some more. They are like weeds you cannot eradicate with every one destroying the ability to grow crops.
Maybe he was presuming they would fail and have to be replaced with nuclear or fossil power. But it is naive to think they would ever be removed. They will be a blight on the landscape for eons.
RE: The headline encapsulates an example of the relentless dualism in which FR discussions, such as those on energy policy, often get entrapped. “A is better than B, therefore A is good and B is bad
The headline only tells us how expensive and how inefficient solar energy is in providing electricity to the people. If anyone can provide a solar energy solution that is cheaper and more efficient than conventional energy sources, I don’t think anyone sane will be against it.
Correct. Some day we may get there. Where it is cheaper and more efficient than natural resources. Until then, all this garbage does is harm poor people the world over.
Exactly. It’s always “free wind power”. You never hear about the cost of increased operations and maintenance on units swinging around trying to regulate that “free” stuff.
I agree completely.
“When enough young people realize their being scammed like this, they’ll change their tune (because it will be their money)”
Therein lies a probability I’ve been pondering. The younger generations have the thinking ability in their craniums for logical thought, it’s just that they have been heavily brainwashed since birth.
I see the possibility that a good portion these little lefties will soon wake up and realize they have been scammed and cheated their whole lives. This will create a huge backlash against the elitists.
Speaking of solar...
See the NTSB and NYSP are now involved. The story should finish disappearing down a memory hole shortly.
I see the mass layoffs in the tech sector as one possible way to start that backlash; the entitled yuppies have been cast aside by their employers, and for the first time can see what many other older Americans have been experiencing for decades.
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