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Re: Every Dollar Spent on Solar Energy is Wasted 

By: micro in GRITZ | Recommend this post (1)
Fri, 21 Mar 25 2:59 PM | 11 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Grits Breakfast of Champeens! 		Msg. 05797 of 06225
(This msg. is a reply to 05789 by De_Composed)
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what was wrong with COAL fired plants that was used to produce electricity.

They had scrubbers to keep things reasonably clean and coal is plentiful and inexpensive.
Hydro power is or can be fairly good source for turning turbines for little to nothing especially if ya happen to have a nice river next to the electric plant.

We have that in greater Cincinnati with a fairly large river.

I think our electric rates are still outrageous even with the nuclear power.

Solar is a joke. I did a study of cost/benefit ratio of solar panels for my house some years ago. There was no benefit other than feeling good about yerself thinking ya wuz somehow helping the "environment".
Another hoax.

So I proceeded to make my home as leak free as I could and keep the heat inside the house and no cold air or any other air inside. I have accomplished that..

I can bring fresh air in, controlled thru the HVAC system, but am fairly energy efficient and my home is totally electric. No natural gas.

My electric bills in wnter are about $100-$140 for a very cold month. A mild winter month they are about $85. The $140 was a month we had when temps were at freezing or below for most of the entire month.

When the temps are normal for winter our bills are about $100,, in dead of winter for all of our household needs. My home is very well insulated everywhere including the windows which are triple pane and the top rated by government testing of all the window companies for letting the least amount of air penetration 7 times lower than the second place window.. So keeping the warm air in and no outside coming thru those window openings or the doors, keeps the well insulated home very comfy at a very reasonable cost.

Solar is a JOKE and imo a hoax . Kinda like a carnival barker or old time medicine show thru the wild west.

I did the mathematics on these solar windows. Per their ratings.

They weren't good.

Anyway, that is my one cent's worth today.
We are going to go watch our granddaughter plat softball today at her brother's university he graduated from.

She is recognized as the best catcher in D2 in the state. And in the league.

She's amaazing. Nobody steals on her. A CANNON for an arm. Lot of POP in her bat too. Leads the team in homers and RBI's.

And yet, she has such a sweet disposition and is softly spoken. She just brightens a room when she enters. Am really proud of her as a person turning into a young woman. Proud grandfather..

Got to go now and get ready for the day.

I am close to retiring. My energy level has waned and I am not able to drive to clients as often as I normally do.

So that day is coming quickly..
I am training my nephew. Hopefully he will be as active and customer centric and be a help to the clients.

Got to go.

Have a great day everyone!

I value all of your opinions and experiences as they help to complete mine!

THANK YOU!


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The above is a reply to the following message:
Every Dollar Spent on Solar Energy is Wasted
By: De_Composed in GRITZ
Fri, 21 Mar 25 7:03 AM 		Msg. 05789 of 06225

March 20, 2025

Every Dollar Spent on Solar Energy is Wasted

by Norman Rogers
AmericanThinker.com

Solar electricity has big problems. Solar is intermittent. It stops working if clouds obscure the sun. It does not work at night. Solar works much better in the summer than in the winter. Solar is peaky. Electricity delivery peaks in the middle of the day and is weaker in the early morning or late afternoon.

Solar electricity is very expensive compared to electricity generated by natural gas or coal. Unsubsidized solar electricity costs about $150 per megawatt hour. Using natural gas, one can generate electricity for as little as $20 per megawatt hour -- over seven times less. The high cost of solar is hidden by an extensive system of subsidies.

The intermittent delivery of electricity could be smoothed if it were possible to store the electricity for use when solar is not working. But it’s not possible. Bridging the times and seasons when solar is not working by means of storage is not remotely possible because the amount of storage needed would cost ten or even a hundred times more than the solar farms generating the electricity.

There is a demand for electricity storage. Storage can solve the peakiness problem that plagues solar. Because solar output surges in the middle of the day It will often overtax the ability of the local electrical grid to accept the electricity. The solution is time-shiftng batteries that store excessive midday power and release it later in the day or in the early evening. New solar plants in solar-heavy states are equipped with time-shifting batteries. Time-shifting batteries increase the cost of solar electricity by about a third.

The U.S. is spending about $50 billion per year on new solar electricity plants. The money comes from government subsidies and increased electricity rates. New solar plants with a capacity, or peak output, of 27 terrawatts were built in 2023. The solar plants are backed up by fossil-fuel plants capable of stepping in when solar is not working. If existing solar plants were razed, the electric grid would continue to work smoothly using the fossil-fuel plants that would otherwise be on backup duty for solar.

When solar electricity is generated, the backup plants are throttled back and cheap fossil-fuel electricity is replaced with expensive solar electricity. The result is that in solar-heavy states like California residential electrical rates often exceed 50 cents per kilowatt hour or about four times as much compared to states that are not buying into the solar mythology.

Solar electricity is justified by claiming that we may run out of fossil fuels. Another major justification is that using solar will help prevent a climate catastrophe because solar does not emit CO2.

Solar is also promoted by claiming that solar electricity is cheaper than using fossil fuels.

We might run out of fossil fuels someday. But the U.S. has enough coal and natural gas to last for hundreds of years. No matter what the Sierra Club says, modern fossil-fuel generating plants are not giant air polluters. Insisting that we plan for the hypothetical exhaustion of fossil fuels in the future is like demanding that Columbus devise a plan for interstate horse trails to be built 500 years after his discovery of America.

The climate crisis is widely recognized as being junk science that showers career benefits on climate scientists. Predicting a future catastrophe is a wonderful way to attract attention and finance. Scientists who criticize the catastrophe theory are routinely persecuted, clear evidence that something is amiss in the world of climate science. Close examination of this so-called science, in the British government Stern Review, reveals that the catastrophe at most is a mild shift in the climate. Even that mild shift is probably an exaggeration.

Using solar electricity instead of natural gas electricity, to reduce CO2 emissions is very expensive, costing about $400 for each metric ton of CO2 not emitted. Nuclear energy reduces CO2 emissions for three times less cost per metric ton. There is enough uranium and thorium to provide nuclear energy for thousands of years. Nuclear electricity is not intermittent and does not require backup plants. Roughly, a single truck can carry nuclear fuel that can supply as much energy as 5000 railroad cars full of coal. Nuclear fuel is much cheaper than any fossil fuel. There are clear paths to make nuclear energy safer and cheaper such as modular reactors or liquid salt thorium reactors.

The current adoption of solar energy on a mass scale is difficult to explain. It is too simple to blame it on collective insanity. The technical and financial analysis is not difficult. Many critics have written articles and books pointing out the fallacies. Somehow, the critics are ignored. Politicians, media, and academics are driving the solar bandwagon full speed ahead.

My best explanation for the survival of the solar hoax is that when the CO2-driven global warming theory gained popularity there was a need for a method of generating electricity without CO2 emissions. The obvious solution, nuclear energy, was rejected because the environmental lobby had previously demonized nuclear energy so much that it would be difficult to rehabilitate it -- that left hydro and various marginal energy sources. Hydro was rejected because the environmental lobby previously demonized dams. Hydro also lacks scalability, because there is a limited supply of suitable sites. The most practical remaining technologies that are scalable are wind and solar. Generous government subsidies hide the high cost of wind and solar. Although wind energy is not discussed here, it has problems similar to solar energy problems.

The solar electricity industry depends on government subsidies and mandates. It is not surprising that a $50 billion a year industry is able to influence the government to protect its franchise. Many other industries of dubious value are protected by government favors. For example, half the corn crop is turned into ethanol and burned up in gasoline. That activity is supported because Republican farming states need places to sell their corn.

The media rarely critically examines the solar industry. I mark that up to scientific ignorance. Very few media types have any understanding of engineering or science. They can’t independently examine the issues because to them it is all a mystery.

The professors that support solar energy are very dependent on government grants that are heavily influenced by politics. Supporting uneconomic but politically popular energy solutions is a matter of career survival. Principled critics risk cancellation.

Solar energy survives due to a web of ignorance, financial opportunism, and promotion by interested parties. Killing the industry will save $50 billion per year and be a victory for rational policy.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/every_dollar_spent_on_solar_energy_is_wasted.html

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