Links tagged “solar”

"It lacks sufficient capacity to keep the lights on this summer and beyond..."

Robert Bryce: California residential users now pay about 66 percent more for electricity than homeowners in the rest of the U.S. ... The ongoing price hikes are terrible news for low- and middle-income consumers in California, which has the highest poverty rate in the country. At a time of skyrocketing inflation and gasoline prices, many just can't afford to pay; last month, several news outlets reported that more than a quarter of residential customers in San Diego County are behind on their utility payments. 

There's a lesson here for the rest of the United States, not just about how not to run an electric grid, but about who bears the cost of some of the most extreme measures to combat climate change. ... Promoters of renewable energy never tire of claiming that weather-dependent renewables are cheaper than conventional forms of producing electricity. But the ongoing price increases prove those claims are hogwash. ... California should not be attempting to solve the climate change challenge on the backs of the poor.

“We have to put the industry on notice: You’ve got six years, eight years, no more than 10 years or so, within which you’ve got to come up with a means by which you’re going to capture [emissions], and if you’re not capturing, then we have to deploy alternative sources of energy,” he told Bloomberg TV.

Kerry declared that he was only giving the gas industry “no more than ten years” to find a way to capture and eliminate carbon emissions or we’re going to “deploy alternative sources of energy.”

Of California’s 23 vulnerable bird species studied (barn owls, golden eagles, road runners, yellow-billed cuckoos…), scientists have found 11 are now experiencing at least a 20% decline in their population growth rates because wind turbines and solar panels are killing them and/or destroying their limited-range habitat.

Epstein: "Fossil fuels are making Earth a better and better place by providing uniquely low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people--and are needed by billions more."

Fossil fuels have actually made us far safer from climate by providing low-cost energy for the amazing machines that protect us against storms, protect us against extreme temperatures, and alleviate drought. Climate disaster deaths have decreased *98%* over the last century.

Solar and wind only provide electricity (20% of energy use)—and they don't even do that well. Because solar and wind are unreliable, they don't replace reliable power plants—they add to the cost of reliable power plants.

3 billion people use less electricity than a typical American refrigerator. 1/3 of the world uses wood and dung for heating and cooking.

The world needs to continue and expand its massive use of fossil fuels, while ensuring we have the freedom necessary for truly cost-effective alternatives to emerge. E.g., we need to decriminalize reliable, non-carbon nuclear energy."

Renewable energy is a fundamental element of future energy supply and solar energy is an important element within this. Solar farms use land. The right place for solar is poor grade land of low environmental value, commercial roof space and brownfield sites.