Add ANOTHER Problem and Cost to Wind and Solar Power

In recent days, I was shivering as my electric power was cut-off and the temperature in my apartment dropped to about 45 F after 1 1/2 days of NO POWER as outside temperatures dropped to 14 F.   

It turns out some 4 million persons were affected by rolling power cuts due to inadequate generating capability here in Texas.  Some conventional plants had problems starting with the cold weather. Some natural gas production was shut-in due to extreme freezing conditions which affected power generation.  

In west Texas, wind turbine blades failed as wet snow coated the blades and stopped production. 

The tweet below covers the ironic situation: "A helicopter running on fossil fuel spraying a chemical made from fossil fuels onto a wind turbine made with fossil fuels during an ice storm.."

Add this as another real world problem to wind power generation. In my post More Analyses Confirm (Largescale) Solar and Wind is More Problem Than Solution, I say that there are higher maintenance costs for these (wind) generators. You will often see many idle windmills in wind farms. They aren't very durable and require frequent repair.  Now add blade de-icing operations from $500 per hour helicopter rentals to the already high maintenance costs.

The cost of solar panels has come down in cost in recent years, and I have no idea of the cost trends in wind turbines, but the cost of the panels/turbines alone are only THE START of the total installed and maintained cost of delivered energy. 

From my post Large Scale Solar & Wind Power Not The Solution: Too Many Problems and Costs: Wind and solar's inefficiency extends BEYOND the cost to manufacture and install wind and solar power generating equipment. So quit looking at the price of solar panels alone. That's just the start of the costs.  It takes a lot of land, steel, concrete, transmission lines, engineering and labor to build these facilities all requiring fossil fuels to design, produce, install and maintain. The cost of the panels or turbine might be 20 to 40% of the total installed cost.  THIS IS REAL WORLD STUFF, NOT BULLSHYTE THAT YOU GET FROM ACADEMICS.

If you add the cost of Lithium Ion batteries to any solar installation, say if you have large power needs at night, you're in uncharted territory in terms of cost! Oh, and forget electric ranges, central air conditioning, and electric clothes dryers powered on batteries!!  Fugetaboutit! It becomes a joke when you can buy power at $0.09 per Kw-hr at any hour of the day.

Wind and solar are so unreliable that they require nearly 100% backup by convention fossil fuel power plants which AGAIN doubles the capital investment (going forward). No "experts" will tell you about this. The cost of grid modifications are also never included in any solar or wind energy analyses either. 

 

The only way these facilities are built is through various subsidies from various governments. And once subsidies are provided to solar and wind producers, subsidies are also required by the conventional power producers.  Wind and Solar power isn't economic on a large scale (>10% of the total electric power) and they probably fail to reduce carbon emissions as well.

 

GET THIS:  Electricity is merely 20% of our total energy needs. (The other 80% is transportation, heavy industry, etc.)  So even we achieve 10% of our electricity from wind or solar, it's only 2% of our overall energy: an expensive pittance!  Biden, AOC or anyone else in Gov't doesn't understand ANYTHING about this because they are some of the dumbest, foolish people alive.