Here is MORE bad news about the hidden costs of wind and solar energy. Operators of electrical grids must do a careful dance to keep the grids balanced—sending electricity, at the right voltage, where it is needed, while preventing electricity from surging to where it is not needed. Output from fossil fuel, nuclear, and hydropower generating stations is predictable. But output from wind and solar facilities is weather dependent. So, when the wind blows too hard, or at the wrong time, the grid operator must pay big dollars to deal with the unwanted electricity.
California grid operators regularly pay utility operators in other states to take excess electricity generated by the burgeoning number of subsidized solar panels in California. That cost, of course, ends up going to the consumers. As more and more “renewable” windmills and solar panels are installed, the problem gets worse. As a consequence, Californians pay the highest electricity rates in the continental United States at 34.31 cents per killowatt-hour. For comparison, residents in neighboring states Oregon, Nevada and Arizona only pay 15 cents, 13 cents and 12 cents per kilowatt-hour respectively. Pennsylvanians pay 14 cents.
The problem is not limited to the left coast. So far in 2024, grid operators in the United Kingdom have paid $1.3 billion to curtail production from the increasing number of wind turbines in the UK. Bloomberg explains the process as follows: “UK generators usually sell output in advance on the wholesale market. But those transactions don’t take into account the physical limitations of balancing supply and demand in real time. To keep the lights on, the operator steps in, paying some plants to turn off and others that are closer to demand centers to fire up.”
So…the successful business model for wind and solar facilities: build it, and be paid to NOT run it.
It’s really a great idea. Let’s pay oil and gas well owners to NOT pump oil and gas. It will solve the climate crisis at the same time…except that there will be nothing to power the air conditioners in Arizona or the furnaces in Maine. But other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?