And the costs of getting rid of the wind and solar generators, plus the spent batteries, is never included in these comparisons. What do you do with a 90’ blade when it is worn out? What about these thousands of spent blades and solar collectors that are just sitting there, taking up space and looking UGLY? The Government (Meaning us) will have to clean up these messes soon. There is no way solar and wind compete if they don’t have the subsidies.
Well, it looks like what I have long suspected may be true. Someone(s) in the alternate industry energy business may have fudged on the truth just a little. Fortunately I am in a part of the country as shown on the map to be one of the lower energy cost areas and even it is none too cheap. From the map it looks like part of the east coast, Calif., & a couple other areas are getting royally “violated”. Now, considering what we pay & what I have learned about this area, I am not exactly certain that we aren’t paying a little bit of a premium as well, as they do not break down our light bills as to whether part of it is not for “green energy” as well. I do know that if if you must pay for more than one source of electrical energy that it is naturally going to cost more. I also know that if we try to look up our actual prices per KWH, it is deceiving as we pay more than one rate figured into the total. That in itself is deceptive as they will advertise for the consumer only the lowest part of the total rate costs.
Recycle it. Currently, 90% of a wind turbine is recyclable. Shredded blades are fed into cement kilns, where they provide energy and replace raw materials, with some cement production emissions reduced. Blades are used whole or cut into sections for bike sheds, noise barriers, bridges, and other civil engineering projects. Fibers are recovered for use as fillers in other materials, like cement and road materials.
There is no way solar and wind compete if they don’t have the subsidies.
Solar is actually getting more popular as battery technology continues to improve, and energy providers keep increasing their rates.
The article talks about the "intermittent" power of solar and wind. If you want to see intermittent, then connect to my local grid. The power was out a total of 7 hours out of 24 yesterday. We were having nice calm sunshine weather the whole time. The power is cheap, but not dependable. I have a suspicion the outages are because new people are constantly moving into the area, and the co-op is constantly adding on to their infrastructure and having a hard time keeping up. Thank God for solar.