President Trump Addresses Insane Wind/Solar Policies for Sparking Mid-Atlantic Power Bill Crisis

The result has been financially crushing for some residents across the Mid-Atlantic. In Maryland, Democrats' approval ratings are already tanking.

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"STUPID AND UGLY WINDMILLS ARE KILLING NEW JERSEY," President Trump wrote on Truth Social moments ago. 

"Energy prices up 28% this year, and not enough electricity to take care of state. STOP THE WINDMILLS!"

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Trump's use of Truth Social to address the unfolding power bill crisis in the Mid-Atlantic comes after our year-long reporting (read) on the emerging crisis, which has been amplified nationally in recent weeks...

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The Trump administration needs to address the power bill crisis by showing voters in both states that a common denominator of destructive policies is driving the crisis: A disastrous green energy agenda, pushed by radical leftist lawmakers, is dismantling reliable and affordable fossil fuel power generation in favor of unstable solar and wind.

This has unleashed a power bill armageddon on working-class and middle-class households, as well as mom-and-pop businesses, all while baseload power demand surges in the era of AI data centers.

Fox News jumped on the power bill crisis story last week...

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's decision to shutter the state's nuclear and coal plants, without a one-to-one replacement for lost capacity on the grid, was a catastrophic error.

His administration's prioritization of offshore windmill farms and other green energy projects has left the grid more fragile than ever. 

In Maryland, the power bill crisis seems much more severe than in New Jersey!

Failed green policies are crushing the very working poor and middle class that Democrats have promised to protect. Yet the green utopia that was pitched was always a lie.  

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According to Change Annapolis, a bipartisan group of taxpayers, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore's ratings plunged over a multitude of issues, including power bills: "Marylanders are tired of his presidential vanity tour, crushing tax hikes, and an energy crisis of his own making," adding, "He's polling worse than O'Malley and Glendening at this point in their terms."

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The power bill crisis is still in its early stages. Goldman analyst Hongcen Wei wrote an alarming note to clients last week, warning that a majority of U.S. power grids "have already reached dangerously low spare capacity levels that are at or below the critical reliability threshold. This raises blackout threats and results in power price spikes during high-demand usage hours."

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In other words, the power crisis has arrived, and it's only going to get worse from here. The Trump administration needs to effectively communicate to voters that skyrocketing power bills are the direct result of failed green policies in the age of AI data centers.

HIGH COST/kWh OF W/S SYSTEMS FOISTED ONTO A BRAINWASHED PUBLIC 

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/high-cost-kwh-of-w-s-s...

By Willem Post

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What is generally not known, the more weather-dependent W/S systems, the less efficient the traditional generators, as they inefficiently counteract the increasingly larger ups and downs of W/S output. See URL

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/fuel-and-co2-reduction...

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W/S systems add great cost to the overall delivery of electricity to users; the more W/S systems, the higher the cost/kWh, as proven by the UK and Germany, with the highest electricity rates in Europe, and near-zero, real-growth GDP.

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At about 30% W/S, the entire system hits an increasingly thicker concrete wall, operationally and cost wise.

The UK and Germany are hitting the wall, more and more hours each day.
The cost of electricity delivered to users increased with each additional W/S/B system

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Nuclear, gas, coal and reservoir hydro plants are the only rational way forward.

Ignore CO2, because greater CO2 ppm in atmosphere is essential for: 1) increased green flora to increase fauna all over the world, and 2) increased crop yields to better feed 8 billion people.

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Net-zero by 2050 to-reduce CO2 is a super-expensive suicide pact, to increase command/control by governments, and enable the moneyed elites to get richer, at the expense of all others, by using the foghorn of the government-subsidized/controlled Corporate Media to spread scare-mongering slogans and brainwash people.

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Subsidies shift costs from project Owners to ratepayers, taxpayers, government debt:

1) Federal and state tax credits, up to 50% (Community tax credit of 10 percent – Federal tax credit of 30 percent - State tax credit and other incentives of up to 10%);

2) 5-y Accelerated Depreciation write off of the entire project;

3) Loan interest deduction

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Utilities pay 15 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from fixedoffshore wind systems

Utilities pay 18 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from floating offshore wind

Utilities pay 12 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from larger solar systems

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Excluded costs, at a future 30% W/S annual penetration on the grid, based on UK and German experience: 

- Onshore grid expansion/reinforcement to connect distributed W/S systems, about 2 c/kWh

- A fleet of traditional power plants to quickly counteract W/S variable output, on a less than minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365, which leads to more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh

- A fleet of traditional power plants to provide electricity during 1) low-wind periods, 2) high-wind periods, when rotors are locked in place, and 3) low solar periods during mornings, evenings, at night, snow/ice on panels, which leads to more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh

- Pay W/S system Owners for electricity they could have produced, if not curtailed, about 1 c/kWh

- Importing electricity at high prices, when W/S output is low, 1 c/kWh

- Exporting electricity at low prices, when W/S output is high, 1 c/kWh

- Disassembly on land and at sea, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites, about 2 c/kWh

Total ADDER 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 11 c/kWh

Some of these values exponentially increase as more W/S systems are added to the grid
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The economic/financial insanity and environmental damage of it all is off the charts.
No wonder Europe’s near-zero, real-growth GDP is in de-growth mode.

That economy has been tied into knots by inane people.

YOUR tax dollars are building these projects so YOU will have much higher electric bills.

Remove YOUR tax dollars using your vote, and none of these projects would be built, and YOUR electric bills would be lower.

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Europe in Big Do-Do, Due to Excessive Wind/Solar/Batteries; High Cost of Imported Energy and Materials

https://willempost.substack.com/p/europe-in-big-do-do?r=1n3sit&...

By Willem Post

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Europe is in poor shape. It has a decreasing/stagnant GDP, stagnant real wages, major civil unrest, and tens of millions of incompatible, subversive, walk-ins, who will undermine, instead of fight for traditional European values and culture.
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Euro elites, having lost the wind/solar “climate war”, need a new enemy to distract and unify the people.

Euro elites doing Russo-phobic, saber rattling to aid Ukraine is empty posturing, without the US “backstop”

Russia, with a growing GDP, despite sanctions, a unified people, gaining on the battlefield, would just roll over and play dead?

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Trump would be an idiot to agree to prolonging the Russia-Ukraine conflict with the US “backstop”, as demanded by the UK, because it would be a major drain on US finances for years, and a huge distraction regarding MAGA.

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However, the Deep State and in Congress, most Democrats and some Republicans would love it. 
Musk is getting close to divulge how many of these Members of Congress are outperforming investment professionals on Wall Street. They have no problem defending/financing corrupt Ukraine, an undemocratic state, where:

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1) Elections were canceled (also in Rumania), or stolen (also in Moldova), and Le Pen was sidelined in France

2) The Russian Orthodox Church was banned,

3) Political opponents were silenced/tortured/killed,

4) The USAID-subsidized pro-Ukraine media were put under total government control, “because of martial law”

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Germany, the UK, France, etc., are in Chaotic De-growth Mode

https://willempost.substack.com/p/germany-the-uk-france-etc-are-in?...

By Willem Post

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Europe is in deep trouble because of:

 

1) Uncontrolled immigration,

2) Economic stagnation, due to excessive-reliance on wind and solar, and expensive energy and materials imports

3) Rising government and personal debt,

4) Increased defense spending, due to a gross lack of defense capability against “enemies”,

5) High youth unemployment, due to a lack of suitable skills, especially among immigrants.

6) Increased spending on expensive household and industrial/commercial electricity and

7) Society-destabilizing, undemocratic censorship.

 

The Euro elites have forced populations to put up with, and pay for, tens of millions of unvetted walks-ins, who make minimal contributions, cause maximal trouble, crime and chaos, all while sucking from the government tit.

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The woke elites in Europe and the US are pre-maturely closing, already-paid-for, in-good-working-order, nuclear plants.

The woke elites have banned:

1) Oil and gas fracking projects,

2) Gas/oil pipelines,

3) Gas/oil storage systems near power plants, and

4) New energy exploration projects, as part of "leaving it in the ground"

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The US should not bail out Europe by exporting its valuable coal, oil and LNG.

The US should use them to make more products and services for domestic use and exports.

That way the US would reduce imports and increase exports, which would rapidly decrease our decades of wealth/job-sucking trade deficits, and would employ tens of millions of additional US workers, which would strengthen families and communities.

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The very important results of DOGE are not reported by the leftist, USAID-subsidized, Corporate US Media, but the criticisms of DOGE are reported 24/7/365.

The people in New England, the US and Europe are permanently kept in the dark, already for at least 5 decades, or more.

The Social-Media, by gaining eyeballs, is quickly ending the Corporate-Media monopoly, which is losing eyeballs. 

But the Euro elites are hell-bent to put social media in straight-jackets ASAP, because they provide a public forum for free speech.

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Trade Deficits, Balance-of-Payment Deficits, Debt

Trump is trying to reduce 50 years of trade deficits and balance-of-payment deficits.
Trump is trying to reduce decades of waste fraud and abuse in the federal government, which leads to deficit spending, due to no controls, computers not talking to each other, ancient software systems.
Trump is trying to undo the open border bull crap, DEI bull crap, gender bull crap, etc.

Without a doubt, this means stepping on many people’s toes.
Would you rather have 10 years of 1930s-style depression?

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Deficit spending and printing Treasury bonds to “paper” the deficit is inflationary, because that “out-of-thin-air money” comes with an interest rate and a national debt.
Right now, the interest on the national debt is more than ONE $TRILLION PER YEAR.
That interest is “paid for” with printing more Treasury bonds to “paper” the interest.
On and on it goes, whistling past the graveyard, stretching the rubber band.
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Very often, many of our wealth/job-sucking trading “partners” use the money of their trade surpluses to: 1) buy Treasury bonds, 2) buy US companies, 3) invest in their own export industries to increase exports, 4) pay benefits to retirees, etc.
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Example of “Rules-Based” Rip-Off
Trading partners charge high prices for auto parts sent to Mexico, then assemble these “expensive” parts in their Mexico assembly plants, then ship whole cars to their dealerships into the US, DUTY FREE.
That way minimal tax is paid on near-zero profits reported in the US, maximum profits are reported in home countries, and maximum taxes are paid on these profits to home governments. Our trading “partners” love this racket.
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All of that has nothing to do with “quantitative easing”, i.e., the Federal Reserve declaring it has money, which it loans to banks and other financial entities that over-extended themselves on issuing dubious loans, such as MBOs, etc.
The US is in very deep debt-do-do. Trading “partners” aim to keep the US in its do-do, while professing “to be helpful”.

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PEACE WOULD BE A BLESSING FOR UKRAINE                                                      

https://willempost.substack.com/p/peace-would-be-a-blessing-for-ukr...

By Willem Post

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COAL ELECTRICITY LESS COSTLY, AVAILABLE NOW, NOT PIE IN THE SKY, LIKE EXPENSIVE FUSION AND SMALL MODULAR NUCLEAR 

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/coal-electricity-less-...

By Willem Post

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Coal gets very little direct subsidies in the US.

Here is an example of the lifetime cost of a coal plant.

The key is running steadily at 90% output for 50 years, on average

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Assume mine-mouth coal plant in Wyoming; 1800 MW (three x 600 MW); turnkey-cost $10 b; life 50 y; CF 0.9; no direct subsidies.

Payments to bank, $5 b at 6% for 50 y; $316 million/y x 50 = $15.8 b

Payments to Owner, $5 b at 10% for 50 y; $504 million/y x 50 = $21.2 b

Lifetime production, base-loaded, 1800 x 8766 x 0.9 x 50 = 710,046,000 MWh

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Wyoming coal, at mine-mouth $15/US ton, 8600 Btu/lb, plant efficiency 40%, Btu/ton = 2000 x 8600 = 17.2 million

Lifetime coal use = 710,046,000,000 kWh/y x (3412 Btu/kWh/0.4)/17,200,000 Btu/US ton = 353 million US ton 

Lifetime coal cost = $5.3 billion

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The Owner can deduct interest on borrowed money, and can depreciate the entire plant over 50 y, or less, which helps him achieve his 10% return on investment.

Those are general government subsidies, indirectly charged to taxpayers and/or added to government debt.

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Other costs:

Fixed O&M (labor, maintenance, insurance, taxes, land lease)

Variable O&M (water, chemicals, lubricants, waste disposal)

Fixed + Variable, newer plants 2 c/kWh, older plants up to 4 c/kWh

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Year 1 O&M cost = $0.02/kWh x 710,046,000 MWh/50 y x 1000 kWh/MWh = $0.284 b

Year I Coal cost = $15/US ton x 353 million US ton/50 y = 0.106 b

Year 1 Bank/Owner cost = (15.8, Bank + 21.2, Owner)/50 y= 0.740 b

Year 1 Total cost = 1.130 b   

Year 1 Revenue = $0.08/kWh x 710,046,000 MWh/50 x 1000 kWh/MWh = $1.136 b

For on-land wind and solar to cost 8 cents/kWh, about 50% of federal and state tax credits are needed.   

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For lower electricity cost/kWh, borrow more money, say 70%

Traditional Nuclear has similar economics; life 60 to 80 y; CF 0.9 in the US.

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For perspective, China used 2204.62/2000 x 4300 = 4740 million US ton in 2024.

China and Germany have multiple ultra-super-critical, USC, coal plants with efficiencies of 45% (LHV), 42% (HHV)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/ultrasupercritical...

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THE IMPOVERISHED, DYSFUNCTIONAL STATE OF MAINE

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-dysfunctional-stat...

By Willem Post
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The over-taxed, over-regulated, already-impoverished Maine people are super-screwed, trying to make ends meet in a near-zero, real growth Maine economy
The Maine economy has lots of low-tech/low-pay/low-benefit, bs jobs
The Maine economy has lots of woke, leftist bureaucrats
Screwed-over Mainers also have to pay for poverty-stricken, aliens of different cultures from all over, who illegally enter the US, a federal felony
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Those unvetted, illegal, often voting aliens from all-over:
- are the dregs of Third World countries, sent to Maine by their US-hating, leftist, woke governments, in cahoots with Soros/Biden-financed NGOs
- are getting free housing, free food, a never-empty credit card, free phones, free healthcare, free education/job training and whatever other goodies they want.

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They mainly suck from the government tit:
- have no skills, no training, no education, no modern industrial experience.
- will take low-tech/low-pay/low-benefit jobs at 30% less than screwed-over Mainers.
- are often good at crime, murder, rape, drug and human trafficking, and driving vehicles into native merrymakers.

- the tens of millions of incompatible, subversive, walk-ins would rather undermine, instead of fight for traditional European and US values and culture. 
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Many millions of illegal aliens have to be shipped back where they came from, before they forever ruin the US, as they ruined Europe, France ,the UK, Ireland, Spain, etc.
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Down-trodden Mainers often have to put up with the visual ugliness and noise of hundreds of windmills, that are often idle, because of too little wind year-round, and many thousands of acres of solar panels, that are often covered with snow and ice in winter; there is no solar at night.
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Down-trodden Maine families also have to endure the insults of government-imposed mandates of having their girls compete with “boys” on girls’ teams, and “sharing” girl bathrooms and locker rooms, and “losing” their matches to the “boys”, all as mandated by woke Governor Mills, surrounded by her cabal of idiots and her ingrown clique of bureaucrats sucking from the government tit.
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Net-zero by 2050 to-reduce CO2 is a super-expensive suicide pact, to increase command/control by governments, and enable the moneyed elites to get richer, at the expense of all others, by using the foghorn of the government-subsidized/controlled Corporate Media to spread scare-mongering slogans and brainwash people.

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Ignore CO2, because greater CO2 ppm in atmosphere is an absolutely essential ingredient for: 1) increased green flora to increase fauna all over the world, and 2) increased crop yields to feed 8 billion people.

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EXPENSIVE FLOATING OFFSHORE WINDMILLS IN IMPOVERISHED STATE OF MAINE

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/floating-offshore-wind...

By Willem Post

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Despite the meager floating offshore MW in the world, pro-wind politicians, bureaucrats, etc., aided and abetted by the lapdog Main Media and "academia/think tanks", in the impoverished State of Maine, continue to fantasize about building 850-ft-tall floating offshore windmills, each mounted on a 50% submerged, steel platform at least 250 ft x 250 ft x 75 ft tall to maintain the windmill in upright position in all conditions.

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Maine government bureaucrats, etc., in a world of their own climate-fighting fantasies, want to have about 3,000 MW of floating wind turbines by 2040; a most expensive, totally unrealistic goal, that would further impoverish the already-poor State of Maine for many decades.

Those bureaucrats, etc., would help fatten the lucrative, 20-y, tax-shelters of mostly out-of-state, multi-millionaire, wind-subsidy chasers, who likely have minimal regard for: 1) Impacts on the environment and the fishing and tourist industries of Maine, and 2) Already-overstressed, over-taxed, over-regulated Maine ratepayers and taxpayers, who are trying to make ends meet in a near-zero, real-growth economy.

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Those fishery-destroying, 850-ft-tall floaters, with 24/7/365 strobe lights, visible 30 miles from any shore, would cost at least $7,500/ installed kW, or at least $22.5 billion, if built in 2023 (more after 2023)

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Almost the entire supply of the Maine projects would be designed and made in Europe, then transported across the Atlantic Ocean, in European specialized ships, then unloaded at a new, $500-million Maine storage/pre-assembly/staging/barge-loading area, then barged to European specialized erection ships for erection of the floating turbines. The financing will be mostly by European pension funds.

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About 500 Maine people would have jobs during the erection phase

The other erection jobs would be by specialized European people, mostly on cranes and ships

About 200 Maine people would have long-term O&M jobs, using European spare parts, during the 20-y electricity production phase.

https://www.maine.gov/governor/mills/news/governor-mills-signs-bill...

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The Maine people have much greater burdens to look forward to for the next 20 years, courtesy of the Governor Mills incompetent, woke bureaucracy that has infested the state government 

The Maine people need to finally wake up, and put an end to the climate scare-mongering, which aims to subjugate and further impoverish them, by voting the entire Democrat woke cabal out and replace it with rational Republicans in 2024

The present course leads to financial disaster for the impoverished State of Maine and its people.

The purposely-kept-ignorant Maine people do not deserve such maltreatment

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Electricity Cost 

Assume a $750 million, 100 MW project consists of foundations, wind turbines, cabling to shore, and installation at $7,500/kW.

Production 100 MW x 8766 h/y x 0.40, CF = 350,640,000 kWh/y

Amortize bank loan for $375 million, 50% of project, at 6.0%/y for 20 years, 9.194 c/kWh.

Owner return on $375 million, 50% of project, at 10%/y for 20 years, 12.385 c/kWh

Offshore O&M, about 30 miles out to sea, 8 c/kWh.

Supply chain, special ships, and ocean transport, 3 c/kWh

All other items, 4 c/kWh 

Total cost 9.194 + 12.385 + 8 + 3 + 4 = 36.579 c/kWh

Less 50% subsidies (ITC, 5-y depreciation, interest deduction on borrowed funds) 18.290 c/kWh

Owner sells to utility at 18.290 c/kWh

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Excluded costs, at a future 30% W/S annual penetration on the grid, based on UK and German experience: 

- Onshore grid expansion/reinforcement to connect distributed W/S systems, about 2 c/kWh

- A fleet of traditional power plants to quickly counteract W/S variable output, on a less than minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365, which leads to more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh

- A fleet of traditional power plants to provide electricity during 1) low-wind periods, 2) high-wind periods, when rotors are locked in place, and 3) low solar periods during mornings, evenings, at night, snow/ice on panels, which leads to more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh

- Pay W/S system Owners for electricity they could have produced, if not curtailed, about 1 c/kWh

- Importing electricity at high prices, when W/S output is low, 1 c/kWh

- Exporting electricity at low prices, when W/S output is high, 1 c/kWh

- Disassembly on land and at sea, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites, about 2 c/kWh

Total ADDER 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 11 c/kWh

Some of these values exponentially increase as more W/S systems are added to the grid
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NOTE: The above prices compare with the average New England wholesale price of about 5 c/kWh, during the 2009 - 2022 period, 13 years, courtesy of:

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Gas-fueled CCGT plants, with low-cost, very-low particulate/kWh

Nuclear plants, with low-cost, zero particulate/kWh

Hydro plants, with low-cost, zero particulate/kWh

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Cabling to Shore Plus $Billions for Grid Expansion on Shore 

A high voltage cable would be hanging from each unit, until it reaches bottom, say about 200 to 500 feet. 
The cables would need some type of flexible support system

There would be about 5 cables, each connected to sixty, 10 MW wind turbines, making landfall on the Maine shore, for connection to 5 substations (each having a 600 MW capacity, requiring several acres of equipment), then to connect to the New England HV grid, which will need $billions for expansion/reinforcement to transmit electricity to load centers, mostly in southern New England.

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The whole set-up is s super-expensive nightmare, the extent of which has been clear in Germany for the past 10 years and the UK for the past 5 years.

Both have “achieved” near-zero, real- growth GDP, the highest electricity prices in Europe, and stagnant real wages.

The W/S variable output, or too-little output, or too-much output, creates operational difficulties that become increasingly more challenging and expensive to counteract.

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Maine Folks Need Lower Energy Bills, Not Higher Energy Bills

The over-taxed, over-regulated, impoverished Maine people would buckle under such a heavy burden, while trying to make ends meet in the near-zero, real-growth Maine economy. 

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BATTERY SYSTEM CAPITAL COSTS, OPERATING COSTS, ENERGY LOSSES, AND AGING
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/battery-system-capital...

by Willem Post

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Utility-scale, battery system pricing usually is not made public, but for this system it was.

Neoen, in western Australia, has just turned on its 219 MW/ 877 MWh Tesla Megapack battery, the largest in western Australia.

Ultimately, it will be a 560 MW/2,240 MWh battery system, $1,100,000,000/2,240,000 kWh = $491/kWh, delivered as AC, late 2024 pricing. Smaller capacity systems will cost much more than $500/kWh

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Annual Cost of Megapack Battery Systems; 2023 pricing
Assume a system rated 45.3 MW/181.9 MWh, and an all-in turnkey cost of $104.5 million, per Example 2
Amortize bank loan for 50% of $104.5 million at 6.5%/y for 15 years, $5.484 million/y
Pay Owner return of 50% of $104.5 million at 10%/y for 15 years, $6.765 million/y (10% due to high inflation)
Lifetime (Bank + Owner) payments 15 x (5.484 + 6.765) = $183.7 million
Assume battery daily usage for 15 years at 10%, and loss factor = 1/(0.9 *0.9)
Battery lifetime output = 15 y x 365 d/y x 181.9 MWh x 0.1, usage x 1000 kWh/MWh = 99,590,250 kWh to HV grid; 122,950,926 kWh from HV grid; 233,606,676 kWh loss
(Bank + Owner) payments, $183.7 million / 99,590,250 kWh = 184.5 c/kWh
Less 50% subsidies (tax credits, 5-y depreciation, loan interest deduction) is 92.3c/kWh

Subsidies shift costs from project Owners to ratepayers, taxpayers, government debt
At 10% throughput, (Bank + Owner) cost, 92.3 c/kWh
At 40% throughput, (Bank + Owner) cost, 23.1 c/kWh
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Excluded costs/kWh: 1) O&M; 2) system aging, 1.5%/y, 3) 20% HV grid-to-HV grid loss, 4) grid extension/reinforcement to connect battery systems, 5) downtime of parts of the system, 6) decommissioning in year 15, i.e., disassembly, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites. Excluded costs would add at least 15 c/kWh
 

COMMENTS ON CALCULATION

Almost all existing battery systems operate at less than 10%, per EIA annual reports i.e., new systems would operate at about 92.4 + 15 = 107.4 c/kWh. They are used to stabilize the grid, i.e., frequency control and counteracting up/down W/S outputs. If 40% throughput, 23.1 + 15 = 38.1 c/kWh. 

A 4-h battery system costs 38.1 c/kWh of throughput, if operated at a duty factor of 40%.

That is on top of the cost/kWh of the electricity taken from the HV grid to feed the batteries

Up to 40% could occur by absorbing midday solar peaks and discharging during late-afternoon/early-evening, which occur every day in California and other sunny states. The more solar systems, the greater the peaks.

See URL for Megapacks required for a one-day wind lull in New England

40% throughput is close to Tesla’s recommendation of 60% maximum throughput, i.e., not charge above 80% and not discharge below 20%, to perform 24/7/365 service for 15 y, with normal aging.

Owners of battery systems with fires, likely charged above 80% and discharged below 20% to maximize profits.

Tesla’s recommendation was not heeded by the Owners of the Hornsdale Power Reserve in Australia. They excessively charged/discharged the system. After a few years, they added Megapacks to offset rapid aging of the original system, and added more Megapacks to increase the rating of the expanded system.

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-hornsdale-power-res...

Regarding any project, the bank and Owner have to be paid, no matter what. I amortized the bank loan and Owner’s investment

Divide total payments over 15 years by the throughput during 15 years, you get c/kWh, as shown.

There is about a 20% round-trip loss, from HV grid to 1) step-down transformer, 2) front-end power electronics, 3) into battery, 4) out of battery, 5) back-end power electronics, 6) step-up transformer, to HV grid, i.e., you draw about 50 units from the HV grid to deliver about 40 units to the HV grid, because of A-to-Z system losses. That gets worse with aging.

A lot of people do not like these c/kWh numbers, because they have been repeatedly told by self-serving folks, battery Nirvana is just around the corner.

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NOTE: EV battery packs, at say 135/kWh, is before it is installed in the car. Such packs are good for 6 to 8 years, used about 2 h/d, at an average speed of 30 mph. Utility battery systems are used 24/7/365 for 15 years

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NOTE: Aerial photos of large-scale battery systems with many Megapacks, show many items of equipment, other than the Tesla supply, such as step-down/step-up transformers, switchgear, connections to the grid, land, access roads, fencing, security, site lighting, i.e., the cost of the Tesla supply is only one part of the battery system cost at a site.

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NOTE: Battery system turnkey capital costs and electricity storage costs likely will be much higher in 2023 and future years, than in 2021 and earlier years, due to: 1) increased inflation rates, 2) increased interest rates, 3) supply chain disruptions, which delay projects and increase costs, 4) increased energy prices, such as of oil, gas, coal, electricity, etc., 5) increased materials prices, such as of tungsten, cobalt, lithium, copper, manganese, etc., 6) increased labor rates.