The carbon footprint of the round the world solar flight should include its support planes
18 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, global warming, technological progress, transport economics Tags: carbon footprint, climate alarmism, expressive voting, global warming, solar flight, solar power
Maybe the future is not solar and wind, so those mass layoffs of climate alarmists are cancelled
16 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Big Solar, Big Wind, climate alarmists, green rentseeking, solar power, wind power
via eia.gov
The relationship between energy use & GDP
Technology is getting much more efficient
(Source bit.ly/1Anl8AJ) http://t.co/7zYDhXv2lu—
Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) March 15, 2015
Many more birds to be incinerated as solar energy becomes cost competitive; climate alarmists face mass layoffs
13 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate alarmism, creative destruction, global warming, killer green technologies, solar power
Unsubsidized rooftop solar electricity costs anywhere between $0.13 and $0.23/kWh today, well below retail price of electricity in many markets globally.
The economics of solar have improved significantly due to the reduction in solar panel costs, financing costs and balance of system costs. We expect solar system costs to decrease 5-15% annually over the next 3+ years which could result in grid parity within ~50% of the target markets.
If global electricity prices were to increase at 3% per year and cost reduction occurred at 5-15% CAGR, solar would achieve grid parity in an additional ~30% of target markets globally. We believe the cumulative incremental total available market for solar is currently around ~140GW/year and could potentially increase to ~260GW/year over the next 5 years as solar achieves grid parity in more markets globally and electric capacity needs increase…
solar system costs have declined at ~15% CAGR over the past 8 years and we expect 40% cost reduction over the next 4-5 years as a solar module costs continue to decline, panel efficiencies gradually improve, balance of system costs decline due to scale and competition, global financing costs decline due to development of new business models and customer acquisition costs decline as a result of increasing customer awareness and more seamless technology adoption enabled by storage solutions…
oil represents only about 5% of global electricity production and in some of the important solar markets such as US, China, oil based electricity generation is less than 5% of the total. Moreover, the cost of oil based electricity generation even at $50 oil prices is the 7-9c/kWh range and as shown in the note, the marginal cost is higher than solar in many regions worldwide. Bottom line is that oil prices do not have a material impact on solar demand.
About the only losers from this creative destruction in energy production, aside from the tens of thousands of public officials, academics and NGO employees who jobs and research grants depend up climate alarmism, are the birds that happen to fly past these solar power stations and are incinerated.
via Deutsche Bank’s 2015 solar outlook: accelerating investment and cost competitiveness – Deutsche Bank Responsibility and Deutsche Bank report: Solar grid parity in a low oil price era – Deutsche Bank Responsibility.
The price of energy sources since the late 1940s
10 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in energy economics Tags: Oil prices, solar power
HT: Bloomberg.com
Solar and wind are a minuscule portion of world energy use.
30 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in energy economics Tags: renewable energy, solar power
HT: alexepstein
Equal protection of birds under environmental law?
12 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, environmentalism Tags: green hypocrisy, killer green technologies, solar power, wind farms
Exxon Mobil agreed to pay $600,000 in penalties after 85 migratory birds died of exposure to hydrocarbons at its natural gas facilities.
A common sight above the world’s largest solar thermal power plant is a streamer: a small plume of smoke that occurs without warning. The source is a bird that has inadvertently strayed into the white-hot heat above the plant’s many reflecting mirrors. No fines for the 28,000 birds killed in this way.
More than 573,000 birds are killed by U.S. wind farms each year. No fine.
the Obama administration issued an exemption in 2013 to allow wind power companies to kill or injure eagles without the fear of prosecution for up to three decades. The new rule is designed to address environmental consequences that stand in the way of the nation’s wind energy rush.
The poor carbon footprint of wind and solar
01 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: bootleggers and baptists, global warming, green rent seeking, solar power, wind power
Paul Joskow pointed out that these costs do not take account of the costs of intermittency: wind power is not generated on a calm day, nor solar power at night. Conventional power plants must be kept on standby. Electricity demand also varies during the day in ways that the supply from wind and solar generation may not match.
HT: The Economist via Sinclair Davidson
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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