Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 01/21/2011 10:52:42 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Shale gas supplies may last 250 years and make renewables uneconomic
China reportedly has some two-thirds of the US$39-billion global market for solar panels, but it doesn’t use them very much. Why? Because they’re uneconomic.
The Chinese subsidize their manufacturers to take advantage of the ultra-expensive alternative energy forced on western consumers via feed-in tariffs. Smart for them, dumb for us, but since everybody is subsidizing renewables, it’s hard to condemn the Chinese. Indeed, the terms “solar panels” and “free trade” don’t belong in the same conceptual time zone, even if they are reportedly an issue at this week’s meetings in Washington between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
There are far bigger issues here than policy hypocrisy. What happens to renewable energy when alarmist climate science collapses? And even if the ideological rearguard action drags on for years, what about the fact that shale gas is about to make renewables look even more ridiculous in terms of both economics and emissions?
The feed-in tariffs that the Chinese are so assiduously avoiding at home are analogous to the medieval scam of coin-clipping, only in reverse. Governments hope that if a small amount of ludicrously expensive renewable electricity is loaded onto consumers’ bills, they might not notice. The grand policy rationale behind this piece of economic self-mutilation is that alternatives will eventually yield a market bonanza, and any nation that has successfully promoted solar and wind “champions” will mop up all the business, as in the monopoly fantasies of Karl Marx.
This policy is nonsensical at many levels. Even if climate science is not entirely bogus, the costs of renewables are likely to do far more damage than bad weather. One of the biggest promoters of solar power, Spain, has already seen its subsidy system collapse.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinion.financialpost.com ...
I don’t see where it would hurt to have the capability to self generate ~4kWh on a good day.
Heh...Sundanzer 8.1 cu. ft. freezer — up to about $4 per month in very sunny areas at most for golf cart batteries (based on only 5-year battery life, can go to about 10 years for one who thinks). The freezer’s the big energy consumer in a properly built house with the best choices in appliances. Microwaves, washers, etc., don’t run long enough in a day to consume much. And no dryers, of course.
But that kind of low energy usage only happens in off-grid systems in very sunny, high altitude places, self-built by nerds like myself—not grid-tied systems for government welfare for politically correct, suburban, government-job-dependent fat cats (way too expensive and improperly designed).
...same with wind turbines. Those work in places that are downright scary with high winds, and only homebuilt monsters with large alternators on trailer hubs are tough enough to last.
Verdict: government-funded, corporate-government heads are retarded. Rejected, impoverished techies do rule.
quite a guy, Mr. Mitchell...loved his boats, particularly an old 31 Bertram with no flybridge...he wanted a newer boat in the early 80s, and Blackfin was his choice, but Blackfin didn't have a model that didn't have a flybridge.....in short, Blackfin made a boat without a flybridge...the owner?..one George Mitchell, Galveston, Texas
Yep, heating with wood this year. You have to burn a _lot_ of it. I'm benefiting from the Emerald Ash Borer. However, lots of people seem to thing that just because their tree had been dead for a couple of years that the wood does not have to be seasoned.
Shucks
I guess solar cannot compete on its own.
Hello!
They already ARE!!!
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