The cat is out of the bag, says Diana Furchtgott-Roth in the Telegraph. The vitriolic reaction to Congress’s plans to cut tax credits for renewables lays bare how ‘cheap’ wind and solar really are, and how the endless subsidies are never enough. Here’s an excerpt.
Electricity made from renewable sources is not as ‘cheap’ as its advocates sometimes claim. It evidently cannot survive without billions annually in tax credits.
That’s the message from the latest skirmish over America’s renewable energy future, where the House and Senate have unveiled duelling visions for the rollback of energy tax credits – each with its own tempo and tone. The vitriolic reaction from the green lobby, and the predictions of disaster for renewables should any of these changes be passed into law, have exposed just how economically unsustainable even the fiercest backers of these energy sources clearly accept them to be.
Supporters of renewable energy have assured us for years that the wind blows and the sun shines free of charge. But although these technologies have received hundreds of billions in subsidies globally over the past 20 years, proponents still demand more – for a few years, we’re told, until renewables can stand on their own feet.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “Eliminating these tax credits radically and irresponsibly rolls back all the progress we have made in recent years. It turns America’s clean energy boom into a bust.”
But the boom was always something of an illusion. It is often asserted that electricity in the United States made with wind and solar is less expensive than electricity made by natural gas and coal. But rather than declining, average American electricity prices have risen considerably over the past 20 years as wind and solar have entered the electricity mix.
One dirty little secret is that, on a state-by-state basis, nine out of the top 10 states in electricity prices in the United States in 2024 required renewable energy as part of their electricity mix. The bottom 10 states generally did not require renewable energy.
It can cost utility companies more to provide people with electricity using intermittent sources than continuous sources such as natural gas, coal and nuclear power. The utility company is likely to need to put other energy sources in place, to provide back-up should demand not be met when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. …
Taxpayers are paying multiple times for renewables. In their electricity bills, they pay not only for wind and solar, but for the backups to the wind and solar. In their tax bills, they pay for the energy tax credits. They also give up faster economic growth when electricity prices rise.
Another dirty secret is that renewable energy is often neither green nor clean. About 70% of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and their components are made in China, which remains reliant on coal-fired power plants to fuel its industries. Wind turbines kill birds, and, when offshore, can harm sea mammals. Solar power can take over agricultural land, which is likely to drive up the price of food. ‘Green’ and ‘clean’ are marketing hype used to push renewables onto unsuspecting consumers.
Worth reading in full.
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“… the wind blows and the sun shines free of charge.”
Fossil fuels are free of charge too. The charge comes just like with wind and solar, or any resource, with the processes involved in turning them into a usable form and delivering them profitably to the consumer.
No activity producing goods for consumption is economically viable if it cannot match supply with variable market demand, which operates sporadically, and whose output cannot be planned. A non-continuous revenue stream cannot cover cost of operations and yield a return on investment.
It’s not a business, it’s a hobby.
Any activity that is only viable with taxpayer money until it can “stand on its own two feet” is not viable at all. It means that capitalisation of the the project is considered too risky for investors and/or banks with rates of return too low or uncertain.
“It can cost utility companies more to provide people with electricity using intermittent sources than continuous sources such as natural gas, coal and nuclear power. The utility company is likely to need to put other energy sources in place, to provide back-up should demand not be met when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. …”
They are getting there, but very slowly (the MSM with the scam/idiocy, I mean). It WILL cost utility companies more because they DEFINITELY need to put backups in place because demand WILL NOT BE MET because the SUN DOESN’T SHINE AT NIGHT and the WIND DOES NOT ALWAYS BLOW. There is no “can” or “likely” about it.
There is no ‘can’ about it – unreliable wind and solar is always going to be more expensive unless you just expect to have electricity when the weather suits. I recall the head of Ofgem said that is exactly what we should expect proving that being a moron is no hinderance to running Ofgem.
I think it was the then chief of National Grid PLC, Steve something, around 2013 who said “we are going to have to get used to using electricity as and when it’s available.
Far from being a moron, I think he actually understood how disastrous this insane plan will be.
Another problem is that apparently turbine blades only last maximum 20 years and they are not recyclable.
It is, to a large extent, a scam.
Of course if you are at the receiving end of generous government subsidies, then you will be a vocal supporter of the green initiatives.
I wonder why windmill accidents are not more often reported. Ten years ago when there were few of them on land I visited one and met the manager of a local out of town carpet warehouse. he reported that alump of ice the size of a wheelbarrow had come through his roof narrowly missing a customer.
That cannot have been the only similar case.
BTW we found the gate to the area around the windmill tower was unlocked so access would ot have been difficult.
Windmill sounds so quaint and rustic. Actually they don’t mill anything. They are industrial wind turbines.
Coal under the ground, gas and oil are free in place but its the cost of getting them out. Fish in the sea are free so perhaps the French might like to give them to us instead of selling them back.
If an energy producing system, of whatever kind, cannot replace or maintain itself then it will never be viable.
Fossil fuels can be used to mine and build more power stations,steelworks,mining equipment etc, windmills and solar panels cannot produce the energy to make more of themselves so they are and will always be dependent on Fossil fuel.
Think of it this way, if we ended all Fossil fuel production today how could we build more turbines?
Absolutely not, a wind turbine does not produce sufficient energy in its lifetime to replace itself. That means it is on a shallow energy gradient, those are not viable.
Excellent point, I now have another way of explaining the lunacy!
So the big question for me is… why are the likes of the Telegraph printing articles like this now? It’s not bothered them over the last 10-15 years?
[1] ‘Renewables’ require subsidies from economies that are driven by oil, coal and gas.
[2] Wind turbine blades are predominantly made from composite materials, specifically fiberglass-reinforced polyester or epoxy, and sometimes carbon fiber or aramid (Kevlar). Most common epoxy resins are produced from a reaction between epichlorohydrin (ECH) and bisphenol-A (BPA), though the latter may be replaced by other raw materials (such as aliphatic glycols, phenol and o-cresol novolacs). Both epichlorohydrin (ECH) and bisphenol-A (BPA) are primarily derived from petroleum-based sources, making them ultimately products of oil. ECH is often produced from propylene, a byproduct of oil refining, while BPA is derived from phenol and acetone, which are also products of petroleum refining.
We are being made fools of.
No one ever mentions the vast amounts of fossil fuels required to power and lubricate these behemoths. The leakage attributed to the off-shore beasties is also overlooked. When coupled with the cement, steel rebar, and unrecyclable blades, they are an ecological disaster.
This is no secret, we have known this for years.
The world has completely lost its marbles. Honestly. We’ve reached the point where people genuinely believe that shipping their pollution to someone else’s backyard somehow makes them “green”. I mean… what?
Let’s take a minute to appreciate the staggering hypocrisy here. Some bloke in Surrey, clutching his organic soy latte in his solar-powered garden shed, thinks he’s saving the planet — because he’s just bought a shiny new electric car. Lovely. Except — and here’s the bit he seems to have missed — that very car was built in a coal-belching Chinese factory that makes Mordor look like a yoga retreat.
And the batteries? Ah yes, those glorious lithium-filled, rare-earth-guzzling batteries. Dug up in vast open mines, smelted in furnaces powered by fossil fuels, and then strapped into your smugmobile so you can whizz down to Waitrose feeling morally superior. Bravo.
And don’t get me started on hydrogen. Oh yes, hydrogen! The fuel of the future! Except… where exactly do you think it comes from? The Hydrogen Fairy? No. It comes from fossil fuels. A whopping 15 tonnes of the stuff burned into oblivion just to make a single ton of hydrogen. That’s not saving the planet — that’s setting it on fire with extra steps.
And then there’s China — the unsung hero of this green delusion. They produce the solar panels, the wind turbines, the EVs — and they do it by paying workers a pittance, housing them in dormitories that would make a prison look cosy, and working them to the bone under state control. It’s not “green” — it’s eco-slavery.
But hey — as long as you can show off your “net zero” sticker on Instagram, none of that matters, right?
Wake up! You’ve not saved the planet. You’ve just outsourced the mess and slapped a smug label on the box. Miliband knows all this, so why doesn’t he come clean?
Reading all this makes me wonder how the grandchildren are going to survive when all the fossil fuels are exhausted