Applying scarce resources so that the benefits always outweigh the costs is rational, but subsidised wind and solar will never fit that bill. Putting aside the minerals and the energy required to convert those minerals that is embodied in solar panels and wind turbines, it’s the fact that – no matter how much wind and solar capacity there might be – there will always be an equivalent, if not greater, installed capacity from instantly available conventional generators – coal, gas, nuclear and, where rainfall and geography permit, hydro.
Where conventional generators just deliver, 24 x 7, whatever the weather, wind and solar deliver nothing but chaos, dictated by the weather and where the sun sits in the sky. Having two systems – one incoherent and chaotic and the other perfectly functional – is about as far from rational as it gets.
Jay Lehr picks up the thread with a succinct…
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