5 ms·
Yeah see this isn't going to work. Currently, something tiny like 20% of the price of coal and non renewable base power comes from the cost of the actual fuel.
by mrjangles 5y ago
Yeah see this isn't going to work. Currently, something tiny like 20% of the price of coal and non renewable base power comes from the cost of the actual fuel. The rest is just base costs (the price of the wires, infrastructure and the actual coal plant itself).
The government charging by KWh is a market distortion that only works when everyone is paying. As long as people want power all the time, including at night and when it is cloudy or not windy, those fixed costs will need to be paid. Currently, those costs are being paid by the poor who can't afford solar panels. They are subsidizing the base power for the rich who do have solar panels but also have access to base power without actually paying for it.
What is going to happen once everyone owns solar panels and there is no one left to subsidize base power? Well prices will keep going up and up until they reach a singularity and the whole system will collapse. Then prices will have to be recalibrated to fit the actual market price. Which means people will no longer pay for base power by the KWh but instead by fixed costs no matter how much they use....
Then everyone will find they have these useless solar panels that offer no real cost advantages. Everyone will stop using them, and we will be back at square one with everyone preferring cheap, non renewable power....
Of course there is a supply of renewable, clean, cheap base power that everyone could use that would totally remove the need for destructive wind turbines or poisonous solar panels... but no one seems interested.
- DoingIsLearning 5y ago> What is going to happen once everyone owns solar panels and there is no one left to subsidize base power? Well prices will keep going up and up until they reach a singularity and the whole system will collapse. Then prices will have to be recalibrated to fit the actual market price. Which means people will no longer pay for base power by the KWh but instead by fixed costs no matter how much they use.... I know the discussion is specifically US centric but in many markets you already have a fixed cost/fee/tax on electricity as a base cost and on top of this an electricity usage cost. In these cases the Micro-generation offsets a usage cost not the base cost (but in a lot of places micro-generation is still heavily subsidized on the purchase of solar panels). So as with many other things YMMV.
- mrjangles 5y agoAs far as I'm aware, in places with fixed costs, the fixed costs simply pay for the infrastructure, whereas the usage costs go towards running the base power station. However my point is that the base power station costs the same to run regardless of usage. If some places already do have a properly priced power system then what I described wouldn't happen, but I also have trouble understanding how intermittent power could compete in a system where base power is essentially free.
- ZeroGravitas 5y agoDo you consider yourself a climate change denier? Or is it just coincidence that all your opinions about "destructive" wind turbines and "poisonous" solar are indistinguishable? If you want to be an effective climate change denier/whatever it is you think you are doing, then you'd be better of if you didn't signal so clearly that you've adopted climate change denial talking points. You could much more subtly inspire Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt in renewables if you just kept it a bit more vague.