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> propaganda has convinced large numbers of people that solar, wind, efficiency and demand manangement are the domain of idealistic tree huggers and/or parasiti
by 7952 11y ago
> propaganda has convinced large numbers of people that solar, wind, efficiency and demand manangement are the domain of idealistic tree huggers and/or parasitic boondoggles rather than a pragmatic and cost effective solution.
The problem is that renewable energy is very capital intensive. Without some kind of price fixing (thank you tree huggers) it is excessively risky. When you have price fixing it is very attractive to speculators who make unpopular profits from electricity bills.
The best way to make money is to already own a big power station and not bother reinvesting or maintaining existing capacity (coal). You reach a situation where no one has any incentive to build anything unless they are heavily subsidised. The public are stuck renting ever more expensive energy whilst funding massive building projects that they will never own.
- ZeroGravitas 11y agoElectrical grids are capital intensive anyway, one of solar and winds big advantages is how non-capital intensive it is compared with the competition, that's why it's making up such a large share of newly built generation capacity across the globe. As you say in places where demand isn't growing quickly, it's more about shutting down and replacing existing plants, and that's where it can get political, see the "war on coal" in the US. But even there, it's an economic no-brainer to shut the coal plants that are killing people and replace them with gas and renewable, the only thing stopping it from happening is politics, not anything inherent in renewable tech.