“Open-cycle (peak) gas plants are the most common asset used to backstop wind and solar intermittency. However, as the wind and solar capacity increases, the incentive for a private company to invest in such assets declines to the point where the operator of the electric system must provide a subsidy to the construction of gas plants capable of providing electricity on very short notice.”
A number of utilities are trying to become 100% carbon free in their production of electricity by relying on renewable sources of energy.
I am not at all certain what this means. Often the only sources of renewable electricity are wind turbines and solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, and, to a much lesser extent, geothermal. (Iceland is the only country relying on geothermal.)
Both wind and solar energy suffer from what is known as intermittency, because winds have a nasty habit of suddenly dying or springing up, while the sun will disappear behind clouds and provides no power at night.…
Continue ReadingThe Alliance for Wise Energy
Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested
in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise
is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please
consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).
A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three
weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media
about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance
in publishing this information.
Some of the more important articles in this issue are:
Renewables Can’t Power Modern Civilization — Because They Were Never Meant To
IEA Report: Worldwide Renewable Growth is Stalling
Europe’s Dramatic Decline Of Renewable Energy Uptake
Oklahoma passes new bill to protect military airspace from wind turbine encroachment
Is Noise Pollution the Next Big Public-Health Crisis?…
Continue Reading“Jerry Taylor, in effect, faked his intellectual death to collect the insurance money. He founded a ‘libertarian’ think tank advocating open-ended climate/energy statism…. For his deceit, Taylor has gained power, attention, and pecuniary reward. And he has exacted his revenge on the Kochs (really classical liberalism) for their reform effort at Cato.”
[NOTE: This completes my two-part series on the fake conversion of Jerry Taylor. Part I was yesterday.]
Despite decades in the intellectual trenches, he is the author of no books and few scholarly articles. He holds no academic degree, having left college after some controversy, never to return. [1] He did his analysis on the fly (board game design was a competing passion, unlike the off-the-clock policy wonk).
But with beaucoup smarts, fire, superior articulation (written and verbal), a reliable worldview, and access to top thinkers and researchers, he became a first-rate public-policy intellectual and a sort of a Mr.…
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