There are lots of dirty little secrets (though they're increasingly widely known!) about wind and solar power, the two darlings of "Green energy" lovers: high cost for low output, intermittency, production far below nameplate capacity, heavy dependence on subsidies, tendency for installations to lose efficient productive capacity long before they pay for themselves, chopped or incinerated birds, enormous waste of land, eyesores. But here's one about solar power I … [Read more...]
The Gory Facts about Solar vs. Coal Energy Employment
On Fox News Sunday with Mike Wallace June 4, former Vice President Al Gore said solar energy has created jobs 17 times faster than the U.S. economy as a whole. He also pointed out that solar now employs more people than coal. He saw those both as reasons to celebrate. The truth is the opposite. Why? Because solar jobs are a tragic waste of human labor. Gore's right that solar employs more than coal now---roughly twice as many. At the end of 2016, solar employed about 374,000, while … [Read more...]
Solar Impulse: Poster Child for the Impracticality of Solar Power
Solar energy has some legitimate uses in isolated cases, such as providing electricity where there is no other source available, and when you need it so badly you are willing to pay a premium, say, for use on your sailboat. But the inherent physics limitation to solar energy is that it is so diffuse (so little solar energy falls on each square meter of ground), the efficiency of conversion to electricity is so low (typically 15% or so), and it is so expensive to convert it to electricity with … [Read more...]
Did You Want Electricity with Your Fried Eagle?
Let's see now. The controversial Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, financed with $1.5 billion in federal loans, using sunlight reflected from 170,000 mirrors to heat boilers atop 450-foot-high towers, received on average $200 per megawatt-hour during summer months and $135 for the rest of the year but is likely to go bust. Meanwhile, PG&E pays $57 per megawatt-hour for power generated by more conventional solar plants, and $35 per megawatt-hour for power generated by natural gas … [Read more...]
Bill Gates Gets It on Wind and Solar
In an interview published in The Atlantic, billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates had two very astute observations about wind and solar energy: On the limits of wind power and solar photovoltaic cells: Wind has grown super-fast, on a very subsidized basis. Solar, off a smaller base, has been growing even faster—again on a highly subsidized basis. But it’s absolutely fair to say that even the modest R&D that’s been done, and the various deployment incentives that are there, have worked … [Read more...]
India Dances toward Paris
India last week announced its "climate action plan" in preparation for December's climate summit in Paris, and the featured points grabbed the world's attention: 40% increase of "clean [i.e., CO2-free] energy" by 2030; reduced CO2 "emission intensity" by 33% from 2005 levels by 2030; calling for wealth countries of the West to help it meet the costs of these efforts. That last point is the one to be taken most seriously. As for the first two, well, there's lots of smoke and mirrors, but … [Read more...]
Let the Sun Shine on Sunshine Energy
Florida Power and Light, the regulated electric utility for almost all Floridians, has offered its customers an opportunity to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions. By signing up for the Sunshine Energy program, they can ensure that 1,000 kWh of electricity from cleaner sources than fossil fuels will be produced in Florida and other states, allegedly reducing the customer's carbon emissions by 10,800 pounds per year, the amount the average car emits in 12,000 miles of driving. Naturally, of … [Read more...]
