Midwest Chick's Place

(A.K.A. Non-Original Rants)

–Co-opting good stuff from all over the ‘Net and maybe some original thoughts—ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE

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If an industry can’t survive without subsidies, let it die

The solar industry is in a panic because the Green New Deal bus is getting ready to stop rolling. Mass bankruptcies are on the horizon. Because, as we all know, it’s been a scam all along. Wind and solar sound good when you’re sitting around and passing a joint or you’re supplementing power in a single home, but they do not scale up and they cost more than you’re going to get in return. And, ultimately, both solar and wind are harder on the environment and wildlife than fossil fuels. They’re also a great place to shuffle money around and to look virtuous while grifting.

Because what they refer to as ‘clean energy’ just isn’t clean. And it’s not self-sustaining.

If they need help taking down those windmills and solar farms, I’d be happy to help.

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Midwest Chick

17 responses to “If an industry can’t survive without subsidies, let it die”

  1. T Roy Avatar
    T Roy

    Subsidies are a cousin to communism. It is the taking of one citizen’s treasure by threat of force, to prop up the substandard ideas of another.

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  2. Texas Dan Avatar
    Texas Dan

    I run several cameras on my rural property to check comings and goings – they are very handy and reliable, they run on a small solar panel with battery backups. The panels last about two years. Not saying home solar is in anyway similar, but I can’t believe those house panels last the 20 plus years they have to to payout that investment.

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  3. CL Avatar
    CL

    I live off grid and have had solar power for 10 years now. It was the only real option out here. My system is still going strong, still capable of 120% of its rated output under the right weather conditions. Batteries still going strong as well. I wouldn’t want to rely on it if I lived in a city, however. It’s a case, out here, of solar or ridiculous amounts of expensive gasoline to have generated power for just a few hours a day. 24 hour power is nice.

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  4. Matthew W Avatar
    Matthew W

    Everything “Green”, is a taxpayer funded scam.
    Solar and wind would barely exist without taxpayers.
    It it is NOT cheaper that real energy.

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  5. EqOpOff Avatar
    EqOpOff

    Used minimally in a rural setting, camping, RV-ing…sure. I’d do the same. These homes around me- their panels are still on grid, they sell excess electricity back supposedly (however that works) so yeah they get cheaper electric bills, but offset by the big solar payment for the life of that note. And all those promises it would reduce energy production costs- BS, my electric bill just went up 14%. MFn liars everywhere- believe nothing from an official telling you how much you’ benefit from anything.

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  6. Cederq Avatar
    Cederq

    I’ll help you set charges at the base of those wind towers, then we step back way far away and watch them topple!

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  7. hh475 Avatar
    hh475

    Most new and innovative efforts require “subsidy,” whether its from private or public funds, from the point that development starts until it becomes financially viable on its own. There has been *no* major breakthrough that does not fit this pattern. It’s even true in retail. I can remember thirty years ago when people thought Amazon was doomed because it had been running at a deficit for a decade. These startups you hear about that go from nothing to billions in market cap in a year do so not on sales, but on venture investment.

    The only big question is whether or not those subsidies should come from private or public investors. At that point you have to ask whether or not it’s in the public interest to have something, even if its subsidized. You can say “It’s a waste to support development of solar industry” as a national policy, but that’s not an indictment of subsidies, per se. As a counter argument, I suspect that most of the people who say that subsidies are “bad” when thinking about solar energy will also say that subsidies are “good” when it comes to keeping a viable steel industry in the US.

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    1. Phil B Avatar
      Phil B

      A bit of yeas and no to that.

      I’m British but live in New Zealand and saw the way that Britain essentially destroyed its defence industry.

      Should steel production be subsidised? Well, if you buy your steel from China, your ships from Poland or Korea, your chemicals and/or powder for ammunition from Russia (which the USA does) or (from when I was in the Army in the mid 70’s) spare bearings for the engines in the main battle tanks from Russia, if war breaks out then the subsidies for those items may be considered to have been a damn fine idea.

      Subsidies for non essential stuff such as solar panels when they are essentially a niche use and non essential to the continuation of the nation? No.

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  8. WDS Avatar
    WDS

    Kathy Hochul, governorette of NY has called for the building of nuclear plants since the energy warning from their grid operator the other day. She also called for citizens to limit their energy usage. I wonder what the A/C thermostat at the mansion in Albany is set at.

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    1. Midwest Chick Avatar
      Midwest Chick

      WDS–Nuclear is the future. I can’t imagine that she has the thermostat set where mine is since she doesn’t pay the bills.

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  9. Madam DeFarge Avatar
    Madam DeFarge

    wind farms murder eagles by the thousands.

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  10. Midwest Chick Avatar
    Midwest Chick

    TRoy–In the case of solar and wind, the money is going primarily to overseas companies.

    Texas Dan–I don’t think they last as they would have to in order to recoup the cost.

    CL–It can work on the micro level. Does not scale up.

    Matthew–Totally agree.

    Eq–I just think of what happened in Spain–they ran diesel generators to spotlight solar panels in order to get the payout.

    Cederq–Sounds like a plan!!

    hh–PhilB said basically what I would about it. We need steel, but we don’t need solar or wind when there are better options for power security.

    Phil–Excellent breakdown. Thanks!

    Madame–They are abominations for sure.

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  11. Sailor Paul Avatar
    Sailor Paul

    To expand on what Phil B said, we have to be wise about the cascade effects of subsidies, which are a tool to be used.
    The Jones Act requires all American commercial boats and ships be crewed by American citizens. It’s trade protectionism, a form of subsidy… it’s done for 2 reasons- 1) 99% of all foods and fuels, and 90% of all commodities in the US travel by water within US waterways, coasts, or on oceans. It’s not safe to let cheap foreign labor manage our logistics. This makes prices rise in Hawaii and Alaska, but 99% of all marine jobs are in US harbors or rivers, not on ships.
    The second reason is that in a war, all US mariners become cadre for our fleet of military sealift ships or get inducted into the navy directly… though that hasn’t happened since Desert Shield and Viet Nam, respectively…
    Point being, prices for commodity transport are about 10% higher than they could be, because do we really want Indonesians, Russians and Pakistanis running our ferry boats and tugs moving our grain and oil? And of course like England during the Falkland Islands conflict, where the Brits had no sealift ships to carry ammo, so the soldiers had to rely on bayonets and run into massed fire… turns out foreigners don’t like to tske ships into war zones. Whodathunkit?

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    1. Midwest Chick Avatar
      Midwest Chick

      Sailor Paul–Thank you for the additional explanation. This also speaks to my complaint that solar and wind subsidies are going to foreign countries/foreign companies, which I think is wrong.

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    2. crazyeighter Avatar
      crazyeighter

      Sailor Paul–And recent history has shown that foreign sailors have a problem dodging our bridges and whatnot.

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  12. Nemo Avatar
    Nemo

    Here’s several things about solar and wind.

    It’s not JUST the subsidies to build the industries that we’re borrowing money from the Fed for. On the front end, most of that money is going to China, that country that hates us and to whom OUR OWN GOVERNMENT, over the last 50 years, has allowed the off loading of most of our industrial capability. In the middle, we end up paying about 3 to 4 X the cost of the electricity generated by any other means. Then, on the back end, when solar panels and wind turbines reach their end of life, we’ll be paying enormous sums, probably again to China(you know, that country that hates us) for them to dispose of the panels and turbine parts, most of which are unrecyclable because the environmental weenies won’t allow them to be land filled, not that I blame them on this instance. The waste has a million year(may be exaggerated because I’m too lazy to look up the actual figure) half life.

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  13. Old NFO Avatar
    Old NFO

    Welp, we ‘know’ they don’t work and don’t pay for themselves, much less provide the power claimed unless ‘perfect’ conditions exists… And we don’t have many of those days.

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