Energy Matters

Two items from today’s edition of “Energy Matters” from the American Energy Society with my comments beneath each:

– Solar: The US rooftop solar industry contracted in 2017 – after 16 straight years of gains. Meanwhile, Tesla is now in second place to SunRun as the top installer of residential solar in the US.

Numerous factors are conspiring to create this sad result, one of which was Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity and the troubles it’s encountered since.  Needless to say, the overall success of solar is a battle we can’t afford to lose.  As noted previously, a sane governmental approach to this subject would be to tax energy sources that are harmful to society, and apply those tax dollars to encouraging things that are social goods.  Somehow, we seem to be missing this basic concept.

– Wind: The average wind plant generates between .02 and .04 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced – spread out over the life cycle of a typical turbine. Even at the high end, that’s less than 3% of the emissions from coal-generated electricity and less than 7% of the emissions from natural gas-generated electricity.

When I hear someone criticize wind turbines on the basis that they’re ugly, I ask how attractive they find coal plants, and how much they value lung disease, desertification, super-storms, wild fires, sea-level rise and mass species extinction.