{"id":16483,"date":"2016-05-14T04:38:43","date_gmt":"2016-05-14T08:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=16483"},"modified":"2016-05-14T04:40:56","modified_gmt":"2016-05-14T08:40:56","slug":"solar-price-drops-setting-invisible-price-limit-for-ever-dirtier-fossil-fuel-extraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/solar-price-drops-setting-invisible-price-limit-for-ever-dirtier-fossil-fuel-extraction.html","title":{"rendered":"Solar price drops setting invisible price limit for ever-dirtier fossil fuel extraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nA fairly insightful piece on the how oil price rises drive more fossil fuel production,\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\ncurrently fueled by debt because wages of most workers have been falling, still misses two big points: solar prices continually plumetting now undercut all fossil fuel prices, and dirtier fossil fuel extraction and its massive colonial invasion of pipelines are meeting resistance everywhere, including at the regulatory-captured puppet agencies like FERC.\r\n

\r\n“Tyler Durden”, ZeroHedge, 13 May 2016,\r\nSubmitted by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog,\r\n\r\nThe Real Oil Limits Story – What Other Researchers Missed<\/a>,\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

\r\nBecause of the availability of an increasing amount of resources, we\r\nare likely to get more<\/em><\/strong> oil, natural gas, and coal, if prices rise.\r\nWe associate high prices with scarcity; instead, high prices tend to\r\nmake a larger quantity of energy product available.<\/em><\/strong>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe International Energy Agency (IEA) has a different way of\r\nillustrating the likelihood of huge future oil supply, if prices can\r\nonly rise high enough.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAnd there’s another rub in her thinking: oil and gas prices have fallen, not risen,\r\ndue to Saudi Arabia flooding the market to damage Russia, Iran, and U.S. frackers.\r\nWhich has forced the “shale gas revolution” to run even more on debt fumes.\r\nWhich means its house of cards will come crashing down soon,\r\n\r\nas the carbon bubble pops<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nHere is the handwriting on the solar panel, by none other than\r\nEric Silagy, FPL president and CEO.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nBruce Ritchie,\r\nPoliticoFloridabeta, \r\n\r\nFlorida utilities move toward solar energy as price drops<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nTALLAHASSEE — The biggest barrier for solar energy in Florida\r\nhad always been the cost.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nBut that’s changing as the price of solar continues to drop, making\r\nit as cheap — or cheaper — as traditional sources of\r\nelectricity generation.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nFlorida utilities are taking advantage of the lower costs.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nFlorida Power & Light Co. is building a 74.5-megawatt solar facility\r\nat the Babcock Ranch housing development in Lee County, one of three\r\nsolar projects FPL announced in February. Together, the projects\r\nwill generate 225 megawatts, which is enough energy to power 45,000\r\nhomes.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“This is the first time we have been able to build cost-effective\r\n(solar) in Florida,” said Alys Daly, FPL’s manager of public\r\naffairs.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nIn December, Gulf Power signed a contract with Coronal Development\r\nServices to build solar power stations at three military bases in\r\nthe Florida Panhandle. The nearly 1.5 million solar panels will\r\ngenerate up to 120 megawatts of electricity that can power 18,000\r\nhomes on a sunny day.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nFPL acts like it didn’t know that way back in 2013 the electric utility\r\nindustry’s own think tank,\r\n\r\nEdison Electric Institute, told them all that solar was going to eat their lunch<\/a> unless they got out in front.\r\n

\r\nFPL acts like it didn’t know that a year ago Southern Company pivoted\r\nfrom solar maybe by the end of the decade to there’s a market for it and\r\nwe’re going to sell it and if it threatens our utility we’re going to own it.\r\nThat’s why SO subsidiary Gulf Power is building those military-base solar plants in Florida, after SO subsidiary\r\n\r\nGeorgia Power already built a bunch in Georgia<\/a>.\r\nLike FPL didn’t know Southern Company’s 2016 Annual Meeting Notice<\/a> touts: “Growth in Renewables\r\nApproximately 3,800 megawatts of announced or added renewable capacity since 2012. This includes the development of what is expected to be the largest voluntary solar portfolio in the U.S. (at Georgia Power Company).”\r\nSouthern Company has even bought a smart grid company<\/a> to help integrate solar and wind power.\r\n

\r\nFPL acts like it didn’t know that bank researchers from Citi GPS<\/a> to UBS Warburg to Goldman Sachs<\/a> for years have been saying get on board with the solar revolution or get left behind.\r\n

\r\nThat’s the same FPL that’s wasting $3 billion of its ratepayers dollars\r\non the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline boondoggle.\r\nExcept, wait! FPL can’t possibly have collected all those funds\r\nfrom its ratepayers yet, which means it’s almost certainly\r\nleveraging it through debt.\r\nWhich means as FPL shifts to solar power, as even FPL will, like Southern Company is already doing,\r\nthat 500-mile pipeline IED will also be a stranded asset.\r\nAlong with all its ugly stepsister power plants, LNG exports, and bomb trains<\/a>. \r\n

\r\nAnd Duke Energy, also owner of part of Sabal Trail:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nDuke Energy, Florida’s second largest utility behind FPL, says it\r\nhas a long-range plan to install 35 megawatts of solar by 2018 and\r\nup to 500 megawatts by 2024.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“As the cost of solar energy continues to decrease, we’re increasing\r\nour investments in this resource,” Duke Energy Florida\r\npresident Alex Glenn said in an announcement last September.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSo why are you still building a fracked methane power plant to use Sabal Trail gas\r\nnext to your failed Crystal River nuke, Duke?\r\n

\r\n

\r\nDespite the lower costs, solar may not always be cheaper than\r\nnatural gas, FP&L officials say.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nUhuh. And the Internet will never replace CompuServ.\r\nMeanwhile wind and solar power are getting twice the investment of gas and coal<\/a>.\r\nWhich means that the \r\n6% of world GDP that currently subsidizes fossil fuels<\/a>,\r\nmore than all the world’s government health care spending,\r\nis going to come crashing down before long.\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nYou’re betting on the wrong pipeline horse, FPL (and your little Turkey Point nukes, too).\r\n\r\nSolar power will win like the Internet did<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\nI’ve got an idea: let’s not waste money and the countryside and our waters!\r\nLet’s just not build that boondoggle.\r\nLet the sun rise on Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and the world!\r\n

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