How to Destroy The Myth of Cheap Wind and Solar - Highlighted Article

From: Energy Bad Boys - Substack

By: Isaac Orr and Mitch Rolling

Date: March 30, 2024

How to Destroy The Myth of Cheap Wind and Solar

If Wind and Solar Are So Cheap, Why Do They Make Electricity So Expensive?

Have you ever wanted to destroy the arguments claiming that wind and solar are the cheapest forms of energy, but you weren’t sure how to do it? Fear not, dear reader; the Energy Bad Boys have you covered!

The Myth of Cheap Wind and Solar

Wind and solar advocates often cite a metric called the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) to claim that these energy sources are cheaper than coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants.

However, these claims, which are already tenuous due to rising wind and solar costs, ignore virtually all of the hidden real-world costs associated with building and operating wind turbines and solar panels while also keeping the grid reliable, including:

• Additional transmission expenses to connect wind and solar to the grid;
• Additional costs associated with Green Plating the grid;
• Additional property taxes because there is more property to tax;
• “Load balancing costs,” which include the cost of backup generators and batteries;
• Overbuilding and curtailment costs incurred when wind and solar are overbuilt to meet demand during periods of low wind and solar generation and are turned off during periods of higher output to avoid overloading the grid;
• These comparisons also ignore the cost differential between low-cost, existing power plants and new power plants.

Add all of these factors together, and you have a recipe for soaring electricity prices due to the addition of new wind, solar, and battery storage on the electric grid.

To remedy this situation, we developed a model to calculate the levelized cost of intermittency (LCOI), which is the additional costs borne by the entire electric system as ever-growing levels of intermittent wind and solar generation are incorporated onto the electric grid. (continue reading)

How to Destroy The Myth of Cheap Wind and Solar