Comments on: A tale of two solar energy reports

By: Dean Boe

Dean Boe — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:18:17 +0000

There is room for some middle ground reporting on this subject. Canceling some of the federal subsidies which may not be fair when considering other industries you could argue, in some cases, are better supported. Putting that argument aside for the moment, we have driven the costs down by investment in research and creating a competitive marketplace. Again please put aside the obvious point of a particular country dumping PV product on European and North American markets. In the end after all of that is sorted out the price per Watt of PV cells and modules has fallen and expect the price for PV Inverters to follow suit. More investment in that area may be required however energy storage should be the next global big play. The price of regulation and permitting you might expect will rise in America and the EU, but in the end we are now at a reasonable price to go to market. Yes, some companies will fail, some will move to more suitable manufacturing locales due to taxes, business climate, labor availability and price. That is all a very natural progression of a market getting on its feet and moving forward. Now if you show real value and finance incentives to the consumer they will get involved in the market and the next step in market growth can be achieved. I am not arguing a need to cancel all subsidies however we must look across the range of tax dollars spent in all areas and spend in the right places that make benefit to consumers and attract consumer spending.

Dean Boe

By: James Christopher Desmond

James Christopher Desmond — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 03:00:13 +0000

Well said, Andrew West. Your and Shah’s analyses, and the renewable power industry itself, sea-changes in a heartbeat once cost-feasible electricity storage is found. Then my own grid-tied, 10KW Solar PV system (installed at $1.40/watt) will make both economic and ecologic sense (right now it’s making/saving me $1000 year, fetching me a 14-year payback cycle, but 65% of it was subsidized, and my local utility was not chafing at the bit to buy my variable power).

At $1.00/watt unsubsidized installed price — a not unrealistic probability by 2015 — 100 million such arrays will spring up across the North American continent because Joe Six Pack will jump on it as money-maker (own a 30-year system paid back in 10, plus immediately increase your home’s value/equity just by installing it).

But that still results in variable power, the ugly duckling of “grid politics.” Cost-feasible electricity storage solves that problem. With it Joe can self-consume and feed any of his excess power in a steady, more base-load-like manner via electricity storage.

Hence, if liberal greenies (if Obama gets re-elected) can’t resist distributing government largesse, then we can at least urge them to do it by X-prizing for cost-effective electrical storage.

More of that concept here: https://sites.google.com/site/freemarketsolarpower/home/electricity-storage

My other work on Solar PV is here: JamesChristopherDesmond.com

By: Andrew West

Andrew West — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:36:45 +0000

Depending on what data you choose to believe, the US government (taxpayers) have invested more than $150 billion in the last few years on wind and solar schemes. This may have leveraged about $300 billion in total investment. It’s fair to ask what we have to show for it?

Nothing.

Numerous studies have confirmed the fact that we haven’t reduced CO2 at all. After subsidies run out, as your analysis shows, there will be no additional deployment.

Why are we pretending that wind and solar make sense? This false hope prevents us from seeking a real solution.

To further prove this reality, Washington and Oregon are gearing up to export massive amounts of coal to China, where it will be used to generate electricity and to make wind turbines and solar panels… then ship them back to us. Can’t you see the lunacy?

Instead of continuing to waste billions on clean-tech subsidies, how about we find a solution first? DOE does not have a Plan – nobody does. If we simply posted a $1 billion reward (yes, prize money) to find a solution, we just might find it. Dr. Chu’s repeated assertion that “there is no silver bullet” has no foundation. We should find out.

Wind and solar will never be a significant part of our electricity generation mix. They are simply unreliable and expensive “supplements.”

Find a solution, then spend money on deployment.

My work is here: http://www.Solutioneur.com

By: Jigar Shah

Jigar Shah — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:23:02 +0000

Absolutely, we have to end all subsidies for mature technologies: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jigar-shah/super-committee-energy-subsidies_b_1064648.html

By: W. Brown

W. Brown — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:01:28 +0000

i must conclude the author would argue for an end to subsidies to fossil fuel.