A Free-Market Energy Blog

Thomas Edison: John Kerry Gets It Wrong (speechwriter fantasy?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 11, 2016

“Citing the iconic U.S. inventor and businessman Thomas Edison, who is credited for building the first modern power station on lower Manhattan’s Pearl Street in 1892, [Secretary of State John] Kerry said Edison would view today’s deployment of clean energy technology as evidence that ‘an energy revolution that he dreamt about is actually underway’.”

Daniel Cusick, “Kerry Decries ‘Politics, Sheer Politics’ of Climate Denial,” ClimateWire, 

John Kerry probably has a speechwriter. And that speechwriter is no doubt trying to come up with some new angle to make an energy/climate point for the boss.

But if Kerry thinks that Edison was dreaming about wind and solar to generate (intermittent) electricity, I would at least like to know about the source. The dreaming might have been speechwriter/Kerry for Thomas Edison, not Thomas Edison for speechwriter/Kerry.…

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Model Wind Ordinance: Leveling the Playing Field

By -- April 7, 2016

“The [Large Wind Energy Facility] Applicant shall assure the Town that there will be no loss in real property value within two miles of each wind turbine within their LWEF. To legally support this claim, the Applicant shall consent in writing to a Real Property Value Protection Agreement as a condition of approval for the LWEF. This Agreement shall provide assurance to non-participating real property owners (i.e. those with no turbines on their property) near the LWEF, that they have some protection from LWEF-related real property values losses.”

As Master Resource readers know, the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) promotes sound scientific solutions. One of our main interests is to provide communities encountering proposals for industrial wind-energy installations reliable, up-to-date information (see WiseEnergy.org) and protection.

Based on our recent work with some New York communities, a model wind ordinance law has been devised for use in other locals.…

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Central Station Solar: Ivanpah Fail ($2.2 billion bust)

By Stanislav Jakuba -- April 6, 2016

“The 2200 million dollars per 120 million watts represents an 18 dollars per watt ($/W) investment. By way of comparison, another nonpolluting source of electricity, nuclear power plant, the Millstone reactor No. 2 in Connecticut, operating at 880 MW since 1975, cost 0.5 $/W, making Ivanpah 36 times more expensive (inflation excluded).”

The newest and largest solar power plant in Mojave Desert has completed its second year of operation. The news is not good–and, in fact, very bad.

Technology

This type of power plant generates electricity by concentrating sun rays on a “boiler” making high pressure, high temperature steam that drives a turbine generator. The generator machinery is identical to that common in the fossil-fuel and nuclear plants, except that it has provisions for the every-day shut-down at dusk and restart with the rising sun.

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High Temperatures: Temper Alarmism (El Nino … La Nina)

By James Rust -- April 5, 2016
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Ted Cruz on Energy and Climate: Free Market Directions

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 4, 2016
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The Left’s Assault on Free Climate Speech: A Libertarian Protest

By Jerry Taylor -- April 1, 2016
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Trump on Energy: Promising Free Market Directions

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 31, 2016
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Renewable Energies: The Mirage of Mass

By Stanislav Jakuba -- March 30, 2016
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Public Utility Regulation 201: The Rate Case

By Jim Clarkson -- March 29, 2016
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AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: March 28, 2016

By -- March 28, 2016
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