I work in the electrical utility industry, although its way up here in Alaska, I’d like to think I know a little bit about so-called renewables.
I have never spoke to a single person, even a few old-school curmudgeons, that are for “clean, renewable” energy. The problem is the cost and reliability. 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.
Some day we may be able to figure out a way to make green power cost effective and reliable. We are no where close to that point.
The main problem with solar seems to be storage/batteries.
And yes, we are nowhere close to that point.
“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.