World Council for Nature

California’s renewables headed for the cliff

Read this excellent article, in which a real-life example explains why intermittent wind and solar energies are causing CO2 emissions to rise, wholesale electricity prices to fall, yet costs to consumers to keep climbing.
Bloomberg’s New Energy Study




Editor’s notes: to better understand the contradiction between lower wholesale prices and climbing costs being charged to consumers, one must factor in:

• The huge subsidies to renewables (e.g. € 15 billion a year in Germany alone).
• “Capacity payments” now being paid almost everywhere to fossil fuel power plants to compensate for low production levels (imposed) and depressed wholesale prices for their product. Otherwise, they’d lose money and have to close shop, condemning their country to blackouts every time the wind abates or clouds block solar radiation.
• In some countries, e.g. France, nimble power plants must be built altogether to balance the uncontrollable production of wind and solar.
• Subsidies to electricity-intensive industries that would otherwise relocate to countries enjoying affordable energy prices.