You Can’t Subsidize It Enough

 by John Hinderaker

Wind and solar energy are both unreliable and ridiculously expensive, a fatal combination. They exist only because of government subsidies and mandates, without which they couldn’t begin to compete with real–i.e., reliable and affordable–sources of energy. But no matter how hard governments try, they can never subsidize waste enough money on “green” energy.

This is from the London Times: “Far more funding needed if UK is to decarbonise grid by 2030.”

Hitting a central target to decarbonise Britain’s electricity system by the end of the decade is “increasingly looking out of reach” without a dramatic increase in the financial support given to green projects, in addition to planning and grid reforms.

The value of subsidies handed to the developers of wind and solar farms over the next two years needs to be at least double this year’s record level, according to an analysis by Cornwall Insight, the energy consultancy, if the government is to reach its clean power goal by the end of the decade.

The cost of wind and solar energy will continue to rise, as reality, in the form of construction and transmission costs, replaces rosy projections. Current estimates are no doubt vastly too low.

The problem, of course, is that the consumer has to pay:

A move to dramatically increase the amount of support given to renewable energy schemes may be controversial, given the increased scrutiny on the affordability of energy bills, which remain hundreds of pounds higher than before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

So, what is needed to actually bring about the “green” transformation?

[O]ffshore wind would need to quadruple to up to 50GW, onshore wind double to potentially 27GW and solar triple to up to 47GW to achieve a target of 95 per cent of the UK’s electricity from green sources alongside a “strategic reserve” of gas.

This is all sheer fantasy, with one exception: the need for a “strategic reserve” of natural gas, although five percent is no doubt much too low. Why is that “strategic reserve” necessary? Because, no matter how much you spend, there will always be times–frequent times, in fact–when the wind doesn’t blow and the Sun doesn’t shine. So a reliable energy source will always be needed.

The financial numbers currently being bandied about in Great Britain are scarcely more realistic than the fantasy calculations upon which the “green revolution” was launched, years ago. The brutal reality is that no government can subsidize lousy sources of energy like wind and solar enough to make them viable.

If so much wealth were not being destroyed, it would be rather entertaining to see the entire “green” energy enterprise collapse before our eyes.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/12/you-cant-subsidize-it-enough.php