Wind and solar lobbyists like to claim that their industry is “sustainable.”
They couldn’t sustain them long without taxpayer subsidies and “feed-in tariffs” that guarantee them high prices for any electricity they produce whether power companies want it or not.
Now Elon Musk’s solar power company is in hot water with the feds.
The Wall Street Journal reports that “SolarCity, a Tesla subsidiary, agreed to pay about $30 million to settle alleged violations of the False Claims Act. The government alleged that SolarCity inflated its solar-installation costs in government reports to secure larger government payments than it was entitled to earn.”
We posted a report from Chris White at CFACT.org which explains that, “The Justice Department’s probe targeted a program enacted during the Obama administration seeking to subsidize panel installations to encourage solar panel adoption. Solar companies received federal grants equal to 30 percent of the full cost of a solar system.”
Wind and solar are in the subsidy business, not the electricity business.
Warren Buffet famously conceded, “on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.”
In 2015 Congress gave the solar industry a gift when it extended its 30% tax credit until 2019. It tapers down to 10% by 2022.
Watch for an intense lobbying campaign to convince Congress to ramp them back up when the tax credits begin to wane in two years.
The climate carpetbaggers making fortunes off these subsidies wear all political stripes and enjoy cozy relationships with their elected representatives.
Wind and solar should compete in a free and fair market.
Will Congress roll over and let them loot the treasury again?
Of course they will!
During early years nuclear development a different kind of nuclear energy in 1970s was proven by Fed Gov R&D. This is called Thorium Nuclear Energy; its safe to run and can not have a nuclear meltdown or explosion ~its safe by default. It’s 2000x more efficient than uranium energy. It’s waste cannot make nuclear bombs and it manageable and safe in few hundred years verse uranium waste is dangerous 100,000s years. A GREAT YouTube video of this technology is by called
“Peak Prosperity Thorium” or ” Kirk Sorensen: The Future Of Energy?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGihQYk1aRw
Every new strategic technology gets subsidised in its infancy. It the US doesn’t do it, then you can just look forward to buying German wind farms and Chinese solar panels once these become cheaper than fossil fuels.
Look at the figures.
Onshore wind is cheaper than Natural Gas
Solar and offshore wind are cheaper than nuclear
Both are on steep downward cost trajectories as volumes and experience ramp up.
Fossil fuels still get billions in subsidies every year – $3.2 Billion a year in the US alone, and that is just direct payments from government. What’s the excuse for that?
And that figure is dwarfed by the external implicit subsidies in terms of costs for pollution, public health, securing supply, etc. The US paid over $1trillion dollars on the Iraq war. That was to secure cheap oil. US taxpayers paid that so you can add your share of that to the cost of your next fill up at the gas station.