by Karl Denninger
Market-Ticker.org
We keep hearing about carbon taxes, “renewable” or “green” energy and similar.
Folks, it’s time to cut the crap — well, actually, it’s far beyond that point.
Let’s take a base cost, which is reasonably conservative (in other words, too low) of about 8 cents/kwh for wind power. Costs vary widely at the consumer level across the country, but that starting figure sounds pretty reasonable from the published data when it comes to actual cost of wind generation.
The problem is that it is a false paradigm unless you are willing to accept limitations nobody will in today’s world.
A fossil fuel or nuclear plant will produce power except during either (1) planned shutdowns for maintenance or (2) unplanned shutdowns (e.g. emergencies, unanticipated failures requiring a shutdown to correct them, etc) during its design life. There is no such guarantee for either solar or wind because both rely on something you cannot control.