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Freezing in the dark. It's what's for supper.

WestlinnDuck
WestlinnDuck Member Posts: 17,914 Standard Supporter
Toss in the fact that solar gets subsidized with a 30% federal energy credit. They also suck at energy production on an overcast day in the northern late fall and winter as the sun is low on the horizon. However, solar is a fraction of the potential energy production if the wind is blowing. But when the wind doesn’t blow, AOC and the rest of the green gaia religionists freaks in 12 years don’t want any natural gas electrical plants, no coal plants and no nuke plants. Freezing in the dark will be a truly religious experience.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/03/the-folly-of-solar-energy.php

The Folly of Solar Energy
The late January brownout in central Minnesota, during a time of Arctic cold, showed that reliance on “green” energy can be life-threatening. Xcel Energy instructed customers to turn thermostats down to 60 degrees and refrain from using hot water. Xcel went so far as to put some customers up in hotels.
Investigation of the brownout has been informative. The principal problem, given that Minnesota has invested massively in wind energy, was that the wind wasn’t blowing. But there was another problem, too, which came out in testimony before the state’s Public Utilities Commission by an Xcel official. My colleague Isaac Orr explains:
During their testimony, Xcel Energy representatives stated that the company’s solar panels only produced 8 to 10 percent of their potential output because of snow cover.
Everyone understands, I suppose, that solar panels can’t produce electricity at night–which, coincidentally, is when we need to turn lights on. It is less well recognized that in the North, solar panels are also more or less useless during the Winter. But, you may ask, can’t they be cleared off and thus made functional?
Xcel Energy posted a profit of $1.1 billion in 2017, and you’re telling me they can’t pay a high-schooler to scrape off their solar panels for a little extra cash?***To me, the fact Xcel didn’t bother to clear the snow off their solar panels suggests they didn’t think it was worth it, from a cost/benefit standpoint.
I suspect that is exactly right. Utilities know that solar energy is a joke. So, why do they lobby for legislation requiring them to build ever more solar farms?
Yet, Xcel wants to build more solar because they get a guaranteed 7.5 percent profit on every dollar they spend on power plants, including solar panels, whether they produce electricity or not.
Some naive observers assume that the fact that utilities lobby to be required to build wind and solar facilities means they must be a good idea. On the contrary: if they were a good idea, utilities wouldn’t have to lobby to be forced to construct them.
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Comments

  • MikeDamone
    MikeDamone Member Posts: 37,781
    Can we just burn wood? Because people will be burning wood.
  • WestlinnDuck
    WestlinnDuck Member Posts: 17,914 Standard Supporter
    You will be shot for religious apostasy. Killing trees and burning wood to release CO2 will be verboten.
  • PurpleThrobber
    PurpleThrobber Member Posts: 48,545 Standard Supporter
    The problem with solar and wind is storage. Production is fine - but it gets sold out onto the grid during non-peak usage times - so power produced is never going to bring top dollar on the market. In the case of residences or office buildings, the power generated needs to be stored for later use at the same site.

    There's some technology coming down the pike for static storage facilities where the batteries are similar to, like, server racks. For a single family home, the racks approximately 10 feet high by maybe 3 feet square. My understanding is that stores about 40 hours of typical use.

  • MikeDamone
    MikeDamone Member Posts: 37,781

    The problem with solar and wind is storage. Production is fine - but it gets sold out onto the grid during non-peak usage times - so power produced is never going to bring top dollar on the market. In the case of residences or office buildings, the power generated needs to be stored for later use at the same site.

    There's some technology coming down the pike for static storage facilities where the batteries are similar to, like, server racks. For a single family home, the racks approximately 10 feet high by maybe 3 feet square. My understanding is that stores about 40 hours of typical use.

    What do you think of this? http://energystorage.org/compressed-air-energy-storage-caes
  • dflea
    dflea Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 7,287 Swaye's Wigwam
    I like nuclear power.
  • PurpleThrobber
    PurpleThrobber Member Posts: 48,545 Standard Supporter

    The problem with solar and wind is storage. Production is fine - but it gets sold out onto the grid during non-peak usage times - so power produced is never going to bring top dollar on the market. In the case of residences or office buildings, the power generated needs to be stored for later use at the same site.

    There's some technology coming down the pike for static storage facilities where the batteries are similar to, like, server racks. For a single family home, the racks approximately 10 feet high by maybe 3 feet square. My understanding is that stores about 40 hours of typical use.

    What do you think of this? http://energystorage.org/compressed-air-energy-storage-caes
    Haven't seen that. Just looked at a lithium battery based solution. Chinese technology.

  • dflea
    dflea Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 7,287 Swaye's Wigwam

    dflea said:

    I like nuclear power.

    #metoo. But AOC has taken that off the table. She’s in charge.
    Bitch.

    She should stop being in charge of whatever she's in charge of.
  • jecornel
    jecornel Member Posts: 9,737

    You will be shot for religious apostasy. Killing trees and burning wood to release CO2 will be verboten.

    If I like my wood I can’t keep it?
    Hell no!! Smoke from a wood fire pollutes the atmosphere. You crazy bro?