John Droz, Jr: Energy & Environmental Newsletter: January 6, 2020
The President recently signed into law a spending and tax bill that includes an extension of the wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) for one year. The bill also raises the value of the PTC to 1.5 cents/kilowatt hour.
Some of the more important articles in this issue are:
AWEA Applauds Another PTC Extension
I thought the wind industry didn’t need subsidies any more?
The world is investing less in renewable energy
A rough road ahead for electric cars
Climate alarmist banks go carbon-colonialist
Watch 30 seconds of this video re wind turbine blade toxicity
How The U.S. Navy Remains The Masters Of Modular Nuclear Reactors
Big Green Lobbies to Steal from the Poor and Give to the Rich
Russia’s New Floating Nuclear Power Plant Begins Delivering Electricity
Mosquitoes and Climate Change (and Turbines)
The Green Road to Serfdom
The decade that blew up energy predictions
China Adding New Coal Power Plants Equivalent to Entire European Union Capacity
Short Video: What I Wasn’t Told About Climate Change (from IPA)
Short Video: The Top Climate Crisis Scam of 2019
The End of a Decade When Climate Change Alarmism Tipped Into Climate Change Hysteria
How Billionaires Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg Corrupted Climate Science
Prager Video: Should Decent People Support Trump?
Powerful video: Spygate One Year Later
Tomorrow’s Gods: What is the future of religion?
The Religion of Climatism
Read these articles and more at:
https://www.masterresource.org/alliance-for-wise-energy-decisions/e...
Views: 92
Comment
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Comment by Willem Post on January 6, 2020 at 10:44am
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http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/wind-and-solar-conditio...
Wind and Solar Conditions in New England: New England has highly variable weather and low-medium quality wind and solar conditions. See NREL wind map and NREL solar map.
https://www.nrel.gov/gis/images/100m_wind/awstwspd100onoff3-1.jpg
https://www.nrel.gov/gis/images/solar/national_photovoltaic_2009-01...
Wind:
- Wind electricity is zero about 30% of the hours of the year (it takes a wind speed of about 7 mph to start the rotors)
- Wind is minimal most early mornings and most late afternoons/early evenings (peak demand hours), especially during summer
- Wind often is minimal 5 - 7 days in a row in summer and winter, as proven by ISO-NE real-time generation data.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/daily-shifting-of-wind-...
- About 60% is generated at night, when demand is much less than during the late afternoons/early evenings
- About 60% is generated in winter.
- During winter, the best wind month is up to 2.5 times the worst summer month
- New England has the lowest capacity factor (about 0.262) of any US region, except the US South. See URL.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=20112
Solar:
- Solar electricity is strictly a midday affair.
- It is zero about 65% of the hours of the year, mostly at night.
- It often is minimal 5 - 7 days in a row in summer and in winter, as proven by ISO-NE real-time generation data.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/daily-shifting-of-wind-...
- It is minimal early mornings and late afternoons/early evenings
- It is minimal much of the winter months
- It is minimal for several days with snow and ice on most of the panels.
- It varies with variable cloudiness, which would excessively disturb distribution grids with many solar systems, as happens in southern California and southern Germany on a daily basis. Utilities use batteries to stabilize their grids.
- During summer, the best solar month is up to 4 times the worst winter month; that ratio is 6 in Germany.
- New England has the lowest capacity factor (about 0.145, under ideal conditions) of any region in the US, except some parts of the US Northwest.
NOTE: Even if the NE grid had large capacity connections with Canada and New York, any major NE wind lull and any major NE snowfall likely would affect the entire US northeast, i.e., relying on neighboring grids to "help-out" likely would not be prudent strategy.
Wind Plus Solar:
ISO-NE publishes the minute-by-minute outputs off various energy sources contributing their electricity to the grid.
All one has to do is add the wind and solar and one comes rapidly to the conclusion both are minimal many hours of the year, at any time during the year.
Wind plus solar production could be minimal for 5 - 7 days in summer and in winter, especially with snow and ice on most of the panels, as frequently happens during December, January and February, as proven by ISO-NE real-time generation data.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/daily-shifting-of-wind-...
If we were to rely on wind and solar for most of our electricity, massive energy storage systems (a few hundred GWh-scale for Vermont, multiple TWh-scale for NE) would be required to cover multi-day wind lulls, multi-day overcast/snowy periods, and seasonal variations. See URLs.
Wind and solar cannot ever be expected to charge New England’s EVs, so people can get to work the next day, unless backed up by several TWh of storage, because wind/solar lulls can occur for 5 - 7 days in a row, in summer and in winter. BTW, the turnkey capital cost of one TWH of storage (delivered as AC to the grid) is about $400 billion.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/wind-and-solar-energy-l...
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/vermont-example-of-elec...
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/seasonal-pumped-hydro-s...
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/electricity-storage-to-...
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/pumped-storage-hydro-in...
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/wind-and-solar-hype-ver...
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Here are the federal subsidies for various electricity sources.
Wind and solar are coddled to the nth degree.
This does not include state and local subsidies.
NOTE: The DOE loan guarantee program was discontinued in 2016
https://www.eia.gov/analysis/requests/subsidy/pdf/subsidy.pdf
2016
To Grid
Direct
Tax
R&D
DOE loan
Total
Generation
Subsidy
Subsidy
Share
Share
TWh
$million
$million
$million
$million
$million
%
%
c/kWh
Coal
1208
NG
1431
Nuclear
799
Other
21
Total
3459
8302
84.8
55.4
2.40
RE
Biomass
63
18
34
27
79
1.25
Geothermal
16
41
34
10
85
5.31
Hydro
268
2
34
2
38
0.14
Solar
51
771
1251
209
2231
43.75
Wind
220
4
1239
24
1267
5.76
Other
41
34
95
170
Subtotal
618
877
2626
367
3870
15.2
25.8
6.26
Biofuels*
33
2690
90
2813
18.8
Total RE
4077
909
5316
456
6681
100.0
Total
14983
* Mostly ethanol from corn
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Wind and Solar Subsidies Provide a Bonanza for Wall Street
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-more-wind-and-solar...
This URL shows wind and solar prices per kWh would be at least 50% higher without direct and indirect subsidies. They would be even higher, if the costs of other items were properly allocated to the owners of wind and solar projects, instead of shifted elsewhere. See below section High Levels of Wind and Solar Require Energy Storage.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/economics-of-tesla-powe...
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/large-scale-solar-plant...
http://www.usu.edu/ipe/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/UnseenWindFull.pdf
This URL shows about 2/3 of the financial value of a wind project is due to direct and indirect subsidies, and the other 1/3 is due to electricity sales.
http://johnrsweet.com/Personal/Wind/PDF/Schleede-BigMoney-20050414.pdf
- Indirect subsidies are due to federal and state tax rebates due to loan interest deductions from taxable income, and federal and state MARCS depreciation deductions from taxable income.
- Direct subsidies are up-front federal and state cash grants, the partial waiving of state sales taxes, the partial waiving of local property, municipal and school taxes. See URLs.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/excessive-subsidies-for...
https://www.eia.gov/analysis/requests/subsidy/pdf/subsidy.pdf
Any owner, foreign or domestic, of a wind and/or solar project, looking to shelter taxable income from their other US businesses, is allowed to depreciate in 6 years almost the entire cost of a wind and solar project under the IRS scheme called Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System, MARCS. The normal period for other forms of utility depreciation is about 20 years.
Then, with help of Wall Street financial wizardry from financial tax shelter advisers, such as BNEF*, JPMorgan, Lazard, etc., the owner sells the project to a new owner who is allowed to depreciate, according to MARCS, almost his entire cost all over again. Over the past 20 years, there now are many thousands of owners of RE projects who are cashing in on that bonanza.
Loss of Federal and State Tax Revenues: The loss of tax revenues to federal and state governments due to MARCS was estimated by the IRS at $266 billion for the 5y period of 2017 - 2021, or about $53.2 billion/y.
The IRS is required to annually provide a 5y-running estimate to Congress, by law.
The next report would be for the 2018 - 2022 period
The indirect largesse of about $53.2 billion/y, mostly for wind and solar plants^ that produce expensive, variable/intermittent electricity, does not show up in electric rates. It likely is added to federal and state debts.
Most of the direct federal subsidies to all energy projects of about $25 billion/y also do not show up in electric rates. They likely were also added to the federal debt.
Most of the direct state subsidies to RE projects likely were added to state debts.
The additional costs of state-mandated RPS requirements likely were added to the utility rate base for electric rates.
* BNEF is Bloomberg New Energy Finance, owned by the pro-RE former Mayor Bloomberg of New York, which provides financial services to the wealthy of the world, including providing them with tax avoidance schemes.
^ In New England, wind is near zero for about 30% of the hours of the year, and solar is minimal or zero for about 70% of the hours of the year. Often these hours coincide for multi-day periods, which happen at random throughout the year, per ISO-NE real-time, minute-by-minute generation data posted on its website. Where would the electricity come from during these hours; $multi-billion battery storage, insufficient capacity hydro storage?
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/68227.pdf
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/tax-equity-investors-b...
Warren Buffett Quote: "I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire's tax rate," Buffet told an audience in Omaha, Nebraska recently. "For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit."
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/nancy-pfotenhauer/2014/05/12/e...
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Comments on Below Table
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/cost-shifting-is-the-na...
Indirect subsidies are due to loan interest deduction and depreciation deductions from taxable incomes.
Direct subsidies are due to up front grants, waiving of state sales taxes, and/or local property (municipal and school) taxes. See URL.
An owner of ridgeline wind would have to sell his output at 18.8 c/kWh, if the owner were not getting the benefits of cost shifting and upfront cash grants and subsidies.
That owner could sell his output at 16.4 c/kWh, if his costs were reduced due to cost shifting.
He could sell his output at 9 c/kWh, if on top of the cost shifting he also received various subsidies. The same rationale holds for solar. See table.
In NE construction costs of ridgeline wind and offshore wind are high/MW, and the capacity factor of wind is about 0.285 and of solar about 0.14. Thus, NE wind and solar have high prices/MWh. See table.
In US areas, such as the Great Plains, Texas Panhandle and Southwest, with much lower construction costs/MW and much better sun and wind conditions than New England, wind and solar electricity prices/MWh are less.
Those lower prices often are mentioned, without mentioning other factors, by the pro-RE media and financial consultants, such as Bloomberg, etc., which surely deceives the lay public
Future electricity cost/MWh, due to the planned build-out of NE offshore wind added to the planned build-out of NE onshore wind, likely would not significantly change, because of the high costs of grid extensions and upgrades to connect the wind plants and to provide significantly increased connections to the New York and Canadian grids.
NOTE: For the past 20 years, Germany and Denmark have been increasing their connections to nearby grids, because of their increased wind and solar.
The subsidy percentages in below table are from a cost analysis of NE wind and solar in this article. See URL.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/excessive-subsidies-for...
Values for 2018 are represented in below table.
NE Wind/Solar
NE Wind
%
NE Solar
%
Ridgeline
Large-scale
c/kWh
c/kWh
Price to utility
No direct/indirect subsidies
No cost shifting
18.8
100
23.5
100
Less cost shifting
2.4
13
2.1
9
Price to utility
No direct/indirect subsidies
With cost shifting
16.4
87
21.4
91
Less subsidy, wind
45% of 16.4
7.4
39
Less subsidy, solar
45% of 21.4
9.6
41
Price to utility*
With direct/indirect subsidies
With cost shifting
9.0
48
11.8
50
* Owner prices to utilities are based on recent 20-year electricity supply contracts awarded by competitive bidding in New England. These prices would have been about 48% to 50% higher without the direct and indirect subsidies and the cost shifting. Similar percentages apply in areas with better wind and solar conditions, and lower construction costs/MW, than New England. The prices, c/MWh, in those areas are lower than New England.
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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