General Category > Energy
DOE grid study has wind and solar lobbyists spooked — rightly so
EC:
When Energy Secretary Rick Perry requested a study of electric grid reliability, wind and solar energy lobbyists were predictably alarmed. Perry wanted to know how federal policies were shaping wholesale electricity markets and whether public policies were responsible for forcing the premature retirement of baseload power plants.
The government has long had a role in the electric power industry, so asking for a survey of its effects should not be controversial.
The reason for the alarm? The request mentioned government mandates and subsidies, which have driven wind and solar energy's growth, as possible drivers of reliability concerns. The industry lobbyists are right to be sensitive. Despite constantly touting the rapidly falling cost of wind and solar, industry growth over the next decade depends on mandates and subsidies.
The lobbyists are not wrong about falling costs. The most recent Wind Technologies Market Report, a Department of Energy (DOE) study, highlights the up to 40 percent drop in wind turbine costs since 2008. Over the same period, solar PV costs have fallen by as much as 70 percent.
Are policies supporting wind and solar energy responsible for the premature retirement of baseload power? In some sense, the answer is obvious. Without wind and solar energy, sales to existing resources would have been higher and most of these resources are only on the grid because of government subsidies and mandates.
While low natural gas prices due to fracking have figured into the closure of coal fired power plants, a rise in regulatory compliance costs is playing a prominent role according to a 2013 study in Environmental Science & Technology. From the consumer’s view, coal power’s loss to natural gas is mostly market-driven and produces lower electricity prices, but coal’s loss to wind and solar has been driven by government mandates and subsidies that drive costs higher.
More: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/339365-doe-grid-study-has-wind-and-solar-lobbyists-spooked
Joe Wooten:
I would love to see the operations subsidies for wind suddenly eliminated, along with the proviso the companies operating the windmills cannot walk away from them without a plan to take them down.
EC:
--- Quote from: Joe Wooten on June 26, 2017, 01:23:27 pm ---I would love to see the operations subsidies for wind suddenly eliminated, along with the proviso the companies operating the windmills cannot walk away from them without a plan to take them down.
--- End quote ---
Hey, you're being green!!!! Returning the land to the state from whence it came. :tongue2:
Not a bad idea at all, to my mind. We're stewards of the land. Not owners.
Smokin Joe:
--- Quote from: Joe Wooten on June 26, 2017, 01:23:27 pm ---I would love to see the operations subsidies for wind suddenly eliminated, along with the proviso the companies operating the windmills cannot walk away from them without a plan to take them down.
--- End quote ---
Consider (at least here, and on Federal Land) Oil and Gas companies are required to post reclamation bonds to reclaim wellsites, access roads, and production facilities, it is only environmental justice that those same regulations exist for wind and solar power generation facilities and the reclamation of sites and access roads to restore the natural landscape.
Any less would be to force taxpayers to subsidize long-term environmental degradation.
post 1-2-3-4-5!
Weird Tolkienish Figure:
Nothing against small scale solar, but if wind and solar are so great (as we are repeatedly told by those on the left) why do they need subsidies?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version