'Low-Cost' Renewable Energy Is Breathtakingly Expensive

americanthinker.com ^ | 6/10/2019 | Joseph Toomey

[rktman]

How often do we hear proponents of renewable energy claiming that wind and solar power are the lowest-cost power sources on offer? Hardly a day goes by without these ideological zealots offering one or another discredited argument that their favored sources are not only necessary to save the planet from some existential climate catastrophe, but also lower-cost than conventional power sources. These outlandish claims got a major boost when a freshman House of Representatives member unveiled her "Green New Deal," which absurdly claimed that the world would end in 12 years unless the U.S. made a crash effort to radically transform its economy in the next ten years. That transformation would entail, in addition to a lengthy list of inane ideas, complete elimination of beef and dairy cattle, elimination of air travel in favor of high-speed ground transport options, and complete conversion of all power generation to renewable sources like wind and solar power. The contention, born out of economic illiteracy, is that this transformation was not only necessary for planetary survival, but would be so affordable that we would struggle to know what to do with all the newfound prosperity.

[rktman]

Sad to say, but the ecowanker gangreen gorons managed to sell the lie to enough voters in NV that we now have a mandate(NOT the gay sort) to have 50% of NV energy needs supplied by renewable means by 2030. Or what? And the commentary to the approval by the 'ignos' is as expected. Save the erf. No more pollution. Lower costs. Sure thing buttercup. You keep believing that.

[gaijin]

“Destroy every building, then rebuild it with green tech..!”

Ridiculous.

[Red Badger]

There is no such thing as ‘renewable energy’...................

[Truthoverpower]

OK I’m sorry this writer is a complete moron and I can prove it very easily having been in this business 30 years

Solar panels take your pick there’s hundreds of different ones right now are about $.50 per watt or about $150 for a 300 W solar panel

That’s 300 W solar panel take three of them you have one kilowatt or 1KW

OK now we’re at 500 bucks

Of course you need an inverter and some other parts so let’s say maybe 1000$

1 kW will produce 1500 kWh Per year average in the United States up to 2500 in the desert and is low is 800 and very northern areas

Using the 1500 kWh number let’s use the value of $.15 per kilowatt hour

And that gives you $225 per year in electric cost avoided to the utility

OK genius author - tell me what the return on investment on that please ?

Anybody else want to try to argue with me on this? You’ll lose

[bert]

Well now....... For many years I had a wood burning stove. All the BTU’s generated by this stove were from free wood obtained from mostly other people’s cut down trees.

The trees regrow.

The wood burning stove BTU’s were renewable energy

QED

[Principled]

what is reasonable range for KWH a family of 4 uses up?

[Red Badger]

You converted the sun’s stored energy in the wood (mass) to heat energy for your home. Once it is gone, it’s gone................

[carmen2017]

“Low-Cost’ Renewable Energy Is Breathtakingly Expensive”

ALways has been, Always will be.

[bert]

The energy from the sun is infinite and does not end

[Red Badger]

Nothing physical is ‘infinite’. The sun will end.................

[central_va]

$10/(per day for electricity) divided by $2.40/kw-day = 4 KW /day or 120Kw per month

[Kickass Conservative]

renewable energy = perpetual motion = impossible

[rktman]

For single family applications I'm sure it works. When trying to run everything in the entire state, maybe not so much. 🌞

[Principled]

not sure i understand but it seems like an investment of about $1000 would pay for nearly all electricity in scenario?

My son’s home is family of 4 and they do use $7-$9 per day in electricity.

The purchases described above come to about $1000 and would produce around 1500 kwh per year ?

[itsahoot]

Once it is gone, it’s gone................

Kind of like water huh? Once you drink it disappears from the planet.</s>

[Red Badger]

The Left declares the Second Law of Thermodynamics to be repealed.................

[MileHi]

If it was as great as you say, and you left out plenty, the feds wouldn’t need to subsidize it to get people to use it.

Solar works for small off grid applications. You can’t run a first world economy on it.

[RayChuang88]

We need a power source that can run 24/7 regardless of weather, wind and solar conditions. The only clean one right now are Generation IV nuclear reactors.

[Brian Griffin]

“one kilowatt or 1KW

“OK now we’re at 500 bucks

“Of course you need an inverter and some other parts so let’s say maybe 1000$

Now let’s look at doing cars instead of LED light bulb and small appliance powering.

1hp = 746 watts ~= $746

100hp ~= $74,600

[central_va]

That’s 300 W solar panel take three of them you have one kilowatt or 1KW

Your 9$ a day represents about 4KW/hr at 220VAC that is around 18 amps average. A one Kilowatt panel can put out about 4.5 amps at 220VAC. That is not even 1/4 of the average amperage you will need.