Just another biden boondoggle.
I checked into this a while back. A relative was complaining about a $350 electric bill for a travel trailer in Vegas during spring, when it still hadn’t hit 95 degrees yet. Our typical bill here in east texas, mid july was around $150 with the AC running 24/7.
“Renewable” does not mean cheap. Our local cost then was $.07 per KWh according to our bill. I didn’t see the vegas bill, but both solar and wind averaged $.24 to $.27 per KWh at that time. Typical range of coal and natural gas is $.04 to $.07 per KWh.
WHY?
Both are not reliable at all. In low or no wind, you get no power generated. In high wind the blades have to be stopped and tied down or the turbines can be damaged. No power generated. (I think they probably lock down the gearbox, rather than actually tie down the blades.) Maintenance is 4 times that of coal and natural gas. Or more.
Solar does not provide any power at night or on overcast days, solar panels have a life span of about 10 years, and maintenance is high, 4 times that of coal or natural gas or more. With only about 15 to 20% of their power provided by “renewables”, Nevada bills were 3 times what they were here.
What will the bill be on nothing but solar and wind?
I distinctly remember this winter in Texas, I’ve seen the news stories about rolling blackouts in wackifornia, what’s it going to be like if we allow the liberals’ renewable utopia to take place?
And has anybody even thought about how much coal and natural gas it takes to BUILD those windmills and solar panels? They are nowhere close to self replicating yet. Know how much concrete and steel goes in to ONE windmill? According to an article I read 3 or 4 years ago, about 100 tons of coal, just to produce the concrete and steel to build one. It didn’t say anything about how much energy goes into production of a solar panel.
And that’s before we consider how many birds are killed by both solar farms and windmill farms every year. One type of solar farm creates such a hot spot above it due to the concentrated reflection, birds are literally cooked in midair flying across, and they have to hire people to gather up the carcasses every day. Birds of all descriptions fly into windmill blades and break their necks. Including eagles and every other endangered species that flies by.
Or the noise created by windmills. People residing close to windmill farms are not happy about the nonstop, low pitched noise they hear.
Just a liberal boondoggle.
More like 20-30 and many have 20 year warranties but batteries which cost as much as the panels have a short lifespan. Charge controllers and inverters may last ten years. LED lighting, who knows. We made our golf cart batteries last eight years which is more life than most people get out of them. Golf cart batteries are the cheapest and most readily available true deep cycle. Marine batteries aren't true deep cycle, even if it says deep cycle on the label. Fork lift batteries will last 20 years but are expensive, huge and heavy weighing a few hundred pounds. Batteries made specifically for solar are cost prohibitive as are Tesla made batteries. You never really get a ROI from solar power. We has a small setup because we knew we'd be living off grid for a few years so it was worth it for us. Always had cold milk for the kids and meat and veggies in a 12vdc freezer/fridge that was a true fridge with a compressor and freon, not one of those 12vdc coolers. We ended up being off grid for 5 years and the charge controller crapped out three days before we got electric service installed so I just ran the generator a lot for those three days. Total cost of everything was $1600 which works out to $27/mth for minimal electricity. Electric co-op charges a $25/mth maintenance fee even if zero kwh is used. So $25/mth for a little electricity compared to no electricity was definitely worth it for us. If you live in a place where electricity can't be brought in or would cost a 5-6 digit price tag for installation, like in the mountains, solar is worth having. We had LEDs that I collected in the electric sign business and they're still going strong after 12 years. Batteries, fridge(china), charge controller, inverter(china) all failed at around 7-8 years. Solar panels are still good but I'd have to spend $500 on batteries and $200 for a charge controller to get the system back up and running. The LED lights are running off an RV converter/charger right now and even just a couple of golf cart batteries would give us lighting and run/charge electronics during short term power outages. Might do it someday because it is nice to have modem/router, cordless phone, TV, streaming, DVD and lighting and keep our laptops, cell phones charged when the power goes out. Where it really gets stupid is; I'd have to have a $40k system to be able to run my small, 220 volt mig welder and/or 220 volt table saw. Same with our electric range, electric dryer, electric water heater. I could swap those to propane appliances and use a generator to run the welder and table saw if I really wanted to be off grid but I kind of like having electric service. The only cost effective way to do wind power is to build your own turbine from scratch because the retail ones are either too small to do much of anything or cost a 5 digit price tag. Only about 10% of the USA is worthwhile for wind power to get a ROI or make a good amount of electricity. When/if they can make affordable batteries and charge controllers and inverters that last 30 years, then alt energy might be worthwhile.