RECs: The Hidden Costs of Renewables

In places like New England, where land value makes it expensive to build new facilities, REC sales provide an essential revenue stream for renewable energy developers. Each REC has a price. The price is the additional amount needed per MWh by the renewable energy generator to make post-1997 projects financially feasible. By mandating this type of renewable energy, the law is ensuring increased renewable energy supply in a space where supply would not get built without a mandate


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Comment by Dan McKay on May 14, 2022 at 7:48am

Average peak wholesale price of electricity for the middle of May on a Saturday for the past 7 Years was $28.89 per megawatt hour!

Comment by Dan McKay on May 14, 2022 at 7:03am

WHOLESALE PRICE OF ELECTRICITY HITS $100 PER MEGAWATT-HOUR FOR MAY 14,2022

THIS IS THE PRICE GIVEN ALL RESOURCES GENERATING AT THE HOUR OF 6:00 PM, INCLUDING SOLAR TIED INTO THE TRANSMISSION PORTION OF THE GRID!

Comment by Willem Post on May 13, 2022 at 3:14pm

COST SAVINGS OF AIR SOURCE HEAT PUMPS ARE NEGATIVE IN VERMONT, MAINE, ETC.

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/cost-savings-of-air-sou...

 

Vermont has a Comprehensive Energy Plan, CEP. The capital cost for implementing the CEP would be in excess of $1.0 billion/y for at least 33 years, according to the Energy Action Network annual report. See URLs.

 

http://eanvt.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/EAN-2015-Annual-Report-... 

https://outside.vermont.gov/sov/webservices/Shared%20Documents/2016...

 

Spending on government energy programs, including Efficiency Vermont, has averaged about $210 million/y from 2000 to 2015, but Vermont CO2 emissions increased 18% from1990 to 2015. 

CADMUS SURVEY OF HOUSES WITH ASHPs

 

CADMUS, an energy consultant hired by the Vermont Department of Public Service in 2017, performed a survey of 77 ASHPs at 65 sites in Vermont.

 

It uses a standard HVAC computer program that takes the hourly temperature history of a heating season (obtained from weather data), and allocates the frequency and duration of temperatures to two-degree temperature slots, also called “bins”. See horizontal line of figure 14.

The heat to a site is calculated for each two-degree bin, say 34F - 36F.

The total heat to a site is obtained by adding the heats for all bins.

 

72.4% of Space Heat from Traditional Systems and 27.6% from ASHPs 

 

CADMUS calculated:

 

- Space heat to all sites was 65 sites x 92 million Btu/site = 5,980 million Btu from all fuels. See URL, page 22

- Heat from ASHPs was 77 ASHPs x 21.4 million Btu/ASHP = 1,648 million Btu. See URL, page 21

- Traditional systems provided 5980 – 1648 = 4,332 million Btu, or 4332/5980 = 72.4% of the total space heat.

- ASHPs provided only 100 - 72.4 = 27.6% of the total space heat

 

https://publicservice.vermont.gov/sites/dps/files/documents/2017%20...

 

No wonder the energy cost savings were an average of about $200/ASHP per year, instead of the $1200/y to $1800/y bandied about by GMP, VT-DPS, VPIRG, etc. After the CADMUS report, those estimates disappeared from booster websites. See URLs.

 

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/air-source-heat-pumps-a...

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/fact-checking-regarding...

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/vermont-baseless-claims...

 

NOTE: My three ASHPs displace about 35% of the total space heat, because my house is well-sealed, and well-insulated, and has good solar gain. THE HIGHER THE LEVEL OF SEALING AND INSULATION, THE HIGHER THE PERCENTAGE OF DISPLACED FUEL.

 

Table 4/Space heat, per CADMUS

Sites

Million Btu/site

 Million Btu

%

Heat to sites

65

92.00

5,980

 See URL, page 22

ASHPs

 Million Btu/ASHP

 

Heat from ASHPs

1648/5980

77

21.40

1,648

27.6

See URL, page 21

Heat from traditional

 4332/5980

4,332

72.4

.

Million Btu/site

%

Heat from ASHPs, on average

1648/65

25.35

27.6

Heat from traditional, on average

92.00 – 25.35 = 66.65

66.65

72.4

92.00

 

Capital and Annual Operating Costs Result in an Overall Annual Loss

 

CADMUS/VT-DPS concluded, on average, an owner invested $4500 in an ASHP (less with subsidies), but had average energy cost savings of about $200/y; some had more savings than others.

 

Amortizing $4500/ASHP at 5%/y for 15 years (the factory warrantee is for 10 years), the annual payments would be $427.03/y. 

https://www.myamortizationchart.com

 

In addition, there would be annual costs for scheduled and unscheduled service calls ($100+/call, plus parts), plus annual costs for maintenance contracts ($100+/contract, plus parts).

 

Those costs would be in addition to amortizing the cost of the existing traditional heating system investment over 15 years, plus the annual cost of service and maintenance.

 

Independent energy systems engineers predicted installing ASHPs in energy-hog houses would result in an annual loss to owners, if overall costs of having two heating systems were accounted for, some years ago, but ASHP boosters were busy chasing CEP goals, collecting subsidies, creating jobs and making profits.

Comment by Willem Post on May 11, 2022 at 7:12am

The Dem/Progs appear to not being able to see the forest for the trees.

They would have imposed MAJOR additional HEATING COST BURDENS on Vermonters, who have been fearfully looking forward to a DIRE FUTURE with:

Increased inflation rates,
Increased interest rates,
Increased energy prices,
Increased food prices,
Increased shipping costs,
Increased materials prices, such as lithium, cobalt, titanium, aluminum, copper, fertilizers.
Increased supply chain disruptions

Most of these are due to the US, the largest economy in the world, being grossly mismanaged by the pump-priming, deficit-spending, and the dollar-printing (to cover deficits) by woke Dem/Prog amateurs, who, after a 2020 Coup d’Etat, have been very busy:

1) Imposing THEIR disastrous, wokeness onto others, including on our pre-school children, and K-12 children, with corrupted textbooks and CRT programs, etc.

2) Managing THEIR disastrous, very costly, ludicrous, “open border policy”.

As a result, the prices of wind, solar and battery systems have become about 25% higher in 2022 than in 2020, which means:

1) Net-Zero (whatever that means), by whatever date, will be much more expensive to achieve


2) Electricity used by heat pumps and electric vehicles will be much more expensive in the future; in Munich, Germany the price to charge an EV was raised by 80%!!

Read this article to get up tp speed.

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

US natural gas prices have surged to the highest level since the financial crisis in 2008, as strong demand for LNG from buyers in Europe and Asia puts pressure on inventories.

Trading in futures, for gas delivered to the Henry Hub, in Louisiana, is at almost $9/million Btu, up from just over $3 at the same point in 2021, and less than $3 in 2019.

This is due to Biden’s handlers shipping OUR liquid natural gas, LNG, (and crude oil) to Europe to make the BIG bucks, but that raises prices of many products in the US.

In Europe, LNG prices are $30/million Btu, the same as Asia. See image and URL

Prices are due to go much higher after the EU stupidly imposes an oil and gas ban on Russia

SANCTIONS BLOWBACK ANYONE?

The Russian ruble is higher than it has been in 4 years.

 

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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