Same prediction was made nearly every year for the last 20 years.
Until one is build and is able to prove this through the numbers, I think this is fantasy land.
They always talk peak efficiency, not average efficiency, because the sun doesn’t shine in the night and the wind doesn’t blow all the time. This always cuts their numbers in half right off the bat, if not more.
“They always talk peak efficiency, not average efficiency, because the sun doesn’t shine in the night and the wind doesn’t blow all the time. This always cuts their numbers in half right off the bat, if not more.”
Nice business model when you have the government force your competitor (fossil fuel power generation) to buy your surplus during the day when it may not be needed, and require that competitor to provide power on cloudy days and a night when you can’t deliver.
Imagine farmer X supplying eggs who signs up to deliver 1000 eggs per day to the grocery store. His hens lay between 80 and 120 eggs per day. On the days the hens lay 120 eggs the government forces another farmer to purchase the extra 20 eggs from farmer X at an above market price, whether or not the competing farmer needs the eggs. On days where farmer X can only provide the store with 80 eggs, the competing farmer is compelled to sell farmer X 20 eggs at a price set by the government. This means the competing farmer is forced by government to maintain and feed a flock of hens far larger than he would normally, just so he can compensate for the variation in his competitor’s production.
We tend to focus on the tax credits, low interest loans, and outright grants to “green” energy producers as subsidies. We should not forget the use of government force to compel utilities to subsidize green energy by maintaining capacity to fill in the production gaps when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. It may be the excess capital investment and dictated rates to purchase and sell energy represent subsidies far greater than the actual government spending.