Delingpole: Epic Renewables Fail as Solar Crashes and Wind Refuses to Blow

breitbart.com ^ | 6/10/2018 | James Delingpole

[mrsmith]

“pays for itself after several years”...
Thanks to US taxpayers- and Chinese too!

I don’t blame anyone for taking advantage though.

[DouglasKC]

I’ll bet a million dollars that Donald Trump had a hand in China reigning in subsidies.

[JAKraig]

Vague... vague... vague...
But that’s understandable, because not even rich suckers enjoy being “taken.”

What’s “expensive?” Does your amortization figures (or cash payment) allow for interest paid? Over what time?

Smug generalities won’t cut it among informed citizens.

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I certainly didn’t mean to hide any “facts” about my system. I am not a rich sucker but I have saved well over the years. I bought 36, 325 Watt 9.5 amp American made PV panels. I have a total of about 12KW. The simple cost of my system works out to about $1.00 per watt, or a few cents less. I wanted more than the simple system so I also got battery backup. I did a little more than most people in that I got a battery that would last me at least 15 days with no sun and no grid during worst case summer loads. I went even further than that, although if I had it to do over again I don’t think I would, I bought a generator that would charge the battery in 4 hours to run for two days.

My house was pointed in the right direction for solar and I did have to remove one very large tree.

Pay back is really hard to calculate. I like my electricity, I don’t like to conserve. I have 3 freezers full of food and I don’t want to lose it because of a power outage. I have electric (heat pump) heat and enjoy my
A/C. I dry my clothes with electricity and cook my food with electricity and this year will buy and install a heat pump hot water heater which will get rid of nearly all my gas usage.

I use about $300.00 a month average worth of electricity, but I don’t use any from the grid any more, although I still have to pay $12 a month to stay hooked up. I stay hooked up to avoid using the battery. Using the battery would start cutting into it’s life of 7-10 years of use. Sitting idle it may last for 30 years. The battery and charge controllers to go with it are pretty expensive. I’m in Kentucky where the utility company has to take any extra electricity I produce and give it back to me for free at night or any other time if I need it. I went a little overboard with inverter capacity at 16Kw but, I have no problem running the clothes dryer, heat pump or A/C while using the electric cook stove, 3 freezers and refrigerator and an assortment of much smaller loads. I live in a fairly large one story house of about 4000sqft.

The cost of electricity has been increasing every year, perhaps now it will slow down but I doubt it. If there is no change I will have paid for my system in 7-10 years, likely it will be faster than that because the increase in rates. When I ordered my system components our electricity was $.07, now it is $.15.

PV’s don’t mind hail, the Federal government in most countries specifies just how large and fast a hail stone they must survive, the US has good hail standards.

I did not amortize, I don’t borrow money, and saving pays almost nothing. I do have real estate investments but I had money sitting around not doing anything anyway and this is something I always wanted to do. I’m not a tree hugger or climate change freak but I do like security and now I have a little more than I did before.

Some people like to buy expensive cars, I’m not smug about their decisions, but I don’t buy expensive cars, our mini-vans go just as fast and as far as the Escalades but I certainly don’t begrudge anyone their Escalade.

People over time will pay enough through electric rates to have purchased solar electric but most wouldn’t want to fool with it, there is some care and attention involved. I would love to own a 64 or 66 Vette but I wouldn’t want to have to take care of it, I don’t have one.

I thoroughly enjoy my system, sometimes I will just go downstairs and listen to the inverters humm. It is fun when neighborhood lights go out and I don’t hear about it until the next day. I had a generator that I used to use in the event of a storm, I still have the little 5.5KW portable that goes through about 15 gallons of fuel per day of use. During one ice storm my generator blew itself apart after a few days of use, I was out of town, trying to get a replacement was impossible locally. I was in
Chicago I bought one there and had it shipped overnight and had one of the kids hook it up for us, it was a pain in the butt. When the neighborhood lights go out now my lights don’t even flicker.

Solar may not be for everybody but it does pay for itself if you are willing to do without your money for a while. It does provide some real security.

Not everybody can afford to do solar, not everybody has a house that will support enough panels but then again not everybody can afford a 64 Vette or Escalade, sone that can’t afford them get them anyway.