Apr

9

How Did Renewable Electricity Get So Expensive?

April 9, 2019 | Leave a Comment

Michael Shellenberger wrote about a year ago in Forbes magazine “If Solar And Wind Are So Cheap, Why Are They Making Electricity So Expensive?”

For the past year the article has floated out there as more and more economic agony stacks up. Last week saw the business press reloading it and Anthony Watts WhatsUPWithThat page examine Shellennerger’s work again. As usual the comments on Watts’ page are extraordinary.

But the hard reality isn’t getting dodged. Renewables, particularly intermittent producers like wind and solar are driving business and jobs out of regions where they are subsidized. Denmark, Germany, Australia, California and even Texas are getting hammered.

The media reports have wind and solar installations getting way cheaper, some ideas have them down by 75 percent. But the business press watching electricity prices noted 100 percent increase in Denmark, 51 percent in Germany, 24 percent in California and one Texas town that dived into renewables looking at bankruptcy as a means to renegotiate their contracts.

Ratepaying minds want to know what happened!! Business leaving and jobs lost deserve some truth!!

We were warned. But activists, policy makers and media writers blew right past the hard reality. A young German economist named Leon Hirth explained it all quite succinctly back in 2013. The power companies knew this all along and even the US Rural Electric Cooperatives sued and failed in court to hold back the tide of fools.

Hirth explained, that the economic value of wind and solar would decline significantly as they become a larger part of electricity supply. Its because of their fundamentally unreliable nature. Both solar and wind produce too much energy when societies don’t need it, and not enough when they do.

And the clever power companies have stoked the supply contracts so they get paid for the electricity no matter the source – and folks’ lights stay on. At a terrible price.

The facts are in for central Europe now. German manufacturing is starting the exodus. Middle America is closing in on unsupportable rates quickly now too.

Its going to be a bloodbath across windswept America. And nothing will stop it but bankruptcies. Ratepayers want to know, “Are we gonna get socked over this?”

Its probably going to sock the ratepayers. You can be sure the activists, politicians and water carrying media aren’t going to make it right from their accounts.

Here again is the link to the original story Michael Shellenberger wrote in Forbes.

And the paper written by Leon Hirth.

Its a very good idea to get on with cleaning this mess up right away.


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