Wind and Solar Require Massive Subsidies

June 30, 2018 By Norman Rogers

It is difficult to fully itemize the subsidies provided for wind and solar energy. Many subsidies are hidden in the tax code or are an indirect consequence of the privileged treatment given these sources of electricity.

A fundamental difference between wind and solar and traditional energy sources is that wind and solar are intermittent and erratic. The weather affects both wind and cloud cover. The sun sets every night, turning off solar generation, often just when demand peaks. In winter, solar generation drops -- dramatically in areas with heavy winter cloud cover.

Wind and solar are dumb electricity.

It would be helpful if the erratic electricity flow could be smoothed out by means of electricity storage. But all methods of storing electricity are too limited or too expensive. Batteries are flexible but wildly expensive for anything beyond very short term storage. Pumped storage is the most realistic method of storing electricity. Pumped storage requires reservoirs and reversible hydroelectric plants, rendering it impracticable except where natural reservoirs and abundant water are present. Even under the best conditions, pumped storage would greatly increase cost of the wind or solar electricity.......... under near ideal circumstances, costs about seven cents per kilowatt hour........five cents per kilowatt hour is the subsidy that society pays for generating electricity in this fashion.........We are constantly treated to disinformation claiming that wind or solar is competitive with fossil fuels.....................Read more