Ah yes, the siren call of ‘clean energy’ that will save us all from that scourge called coal. Simply marvy, eh? The promise of "green" energy will…..screetching…..!
As in "halt". The only "green" part of this is the green that, for once, Government is going to save the rate payers (heavens, did I just say that Government did something right? And no, no lame joke about stopped clocks either). From CNSNews comes a report from the Providence Journal:
Too Expensive: Wind Power Contract Rejected by R.I. Public Utilities Commission
The R.I. Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday rejected a contract that would have allowed Rhode Island’s largest electric utility to buy power from a wind farm that’s planned for the waters off the R.I. coast. It would have been the first project of its kind in the United States, the Providence Journal reported.
The three-member commission voted unanimously against the power-purchase agreement, saying the price of power agreed to by the two sides was too high and that the overall deal was not “commercially reasonable.”
According to the Providence Journal, "The crux of the proposed agreement was a sale price of 24.4 cents per kilowatt hour, nearly three times the price National Grid pays for energy from fossil-fuel fired power plants and nuclear facilities. Over the 20-year contract, the price would have escalated by 3.5 percent annually, so, by the final year, it would have been 48.6 cents per kilowatt hour. Combined with a 2.75-percent markup on clean energy that National Grid was allowed by Rhode Island law, it would have meant hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs to the state’s 480,000 ratepayers over two decades."
Without subsidies, and in some cases, MASSIVE subsidies, "green" energy is uncompetitive. Period. There is no arguing about it – and I’ve been using solar for 20 odd years. For passive systems, it’s ok – nothing to maintain and once there, it works. For anything else, or any other reason, it is mere ego stroking (as in "I feel great about myself because I have the green to be green") and snob appeal.
The celebutards (yes, Al, I’m thinking of you….and Cheryl too!) that believe that EVERYONE should be sacrificing (or worse, forced to sacrifice) fall into that category – moralizers all without thinking that most people would rather have the choice of deciding for themselves.
I always posit – if it made sense, and if it was economical, we’d all be doing green already. The marketplace is not going to refuse a profit! However, seeing that Government either has to mandate that you purchase that good ("green") or using your tax money to heavily subsidize it means that it is technology that either the technology is still immature (er, after 60 years??? Think about it.) or will always be an environmentalist’s wet dream.
