{"id":20664,"date":"2019-01-13T12:04:25","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T17:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=20664"},"modified":"2019-01-13T12:04:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T17:04:25","slug":"solar-faster-cheaper-no-cooling-water-no-leaks-no-explosions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2019\/01\/solar-faster-cheaper-no-cooling-water-no-leaks-no-explosions.html","title":{"rendered":"Solar faster, cheaper, no cooling water, no leaks, no explosions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nWay back in 2014 I calculated that half the right of way acreage of the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline could produce just as much electricity<\/a>,\r\ncheaper, faster, taking no land, using no cooling water, risking no leaks or explosions.\r\nSolar is even cheaper now, doubling deployed capacity every two years,\r\nand even Duke, FPL, and Georgia Power are building solar farms everywhere.\r\nSo why do utilities persist in building more pipelines?\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"Net<\/a>\r\n
\r\nNet generation, United States, all sectors, monthly<\/a>, U.S. EIA.\r\n

\r\nEvery electric utility can read that chart from the U.S. Energy Information Agency,\r\nwhich shows wind (the middle orange line) and solar (the green line coming up from the bottom) adding up to almost all of “other renewables” (the top blue line),\r\nwith nothing else growing like that.\r\nAll the pipelines rammed through regulatorially captured agencies\r\ndon’t come close\r\n\r\n to those kinds of exponential growth rates.\r\nOnly solar and wind are growing like compound interest.\r\nSo why are utilities still pushing pipelines?\r\n

\r\nIf you had a guaranteed annual profit of 11% or more,\r\nand federal eminent domain letting you take land from private owners\r\nand states,\r\nand\r\n\r\nambition to sell fracked methane overseas<\/a>,\r\nyou might keep building pipelines.\r\n

\r\nOr you might realize solar, wind, and batteries are already taking over,\r\nwith twice as much investment as fossil fuels,\r\nwhile more coal plants closed in the past two years than\r\nthe previous two<\/a>,\r\nnobody but Southern Company is crazy enough to build new nuclear power plants,\r\nwhile more of them close,\r\nand so-called\r\n\r\nnatural gas is the next to go down<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\nSolar and wind have been cheaper than all fossil fuels for years<\/a>,\r\nand\r\nfor more years have been cheaper than nuclear<\/a>.\r\nAs former FERC<\/a> Chair\r\n\r\nJon Wellinghoff says<\/a>, by about 2023\r\n\r\nsolar power will overtake and pass every other source of power in the U.S.<\/a>\r\nSolar power\r\n\r\nwill win like the Internet did<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nYou might realize the electric utility that learns how to leverage\r\nsun, wind, and batteries will be the utility still standing\r\nwhen the others go the way of landline telephone companies\r\n25 years ago when the Internet shot up like a rocket,\r\njust like solar power is doing now.\r\nYou might not want to have to\r\ndeclare bankruptcy like Pacific Gas and Electricity (PG&E)<\/a>.\r\nYou might realize that might cause a crisis of confidence on Wall Street<\/a>.\r\nYou might even not want to burn down California or pollute rivers or take land from people or roast the planet.\r\n

\r\nOh, wait, that would mean a utility with a conscience.\r\nWhich would require taking over its board.\r\nWhich\r\nhas been done before,\r\n\r\n such as when Cobb EMC suddenly gave up building a coal plant and\r\nwent for solar instead<\/a>,\r\nafter coal opponents got elected to a majority on its board.\r\n

\r\nSee for yourself.\r\n\r\nSolar Farms Sprouting In Kauai & Florida<\/a>,\r\nSteve Hanley, CleanTechnica, 9 January 2019,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nMore utility scale solar farms are coming online in Kauai and\r\nFlorida as America’s electricity providers increase their commitment\r\nto renewables. Hawaii has some of the most aggressive renewable\r\nenergy goals of any state in the union, primarily because its\r\nutility rates are higher than any other state. Being out in the\r\nmiddle of the Pacific, it has relied for a century on diesel-powered\r\ngenerators for its electricity.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"Kauai<\/a>\r\n
\r\nKauai solar power plant\r\n
\r\nCredit: Kauai Island Utility Cooperative\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nKauai Adds 28 MW Solar Power Plant\r\n<\/H4>\r\n

\r\nThe northernmost island of Kauai began a transition to solar power\r\nlast year when its local utility company, the Kauai Island Utility\r\nCooperative, signed a power purchase agreement with Tesla. The\r\nCalifornia company built and installed a 13 megawatt solar farm and\r\nadded 52 MWh of battery storage using 272 Powerpacks.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n28 MW? That, that’s nothing!\r\n

\r\n

New Duke Energy Florida Solar Power Plant<\/H4>\r\n

\r\nFlorida is at the opposite end of the scale when it comes to\r\nembracing solar. In 2015 and 2016, a consortium of power companies\r\nspent millions of dollars to promote a change to the state’s\r\nconstitution that would have effectively banned rooftop solar\r\nsystems. As I write this, I am in Florida and can attest that in the\r\nlast month, I have seen exactly one residential solar installation.\r\nSuch a waste of all the glorious sunshine that pours down on the\r\nstate every day.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nYet the people of Florida saw through that astroturf fake solar amendment\r\nand voted it down!\r\nFlorida and Georgia didn’t even fall for the ALEC-pushed solar connection fee,\r\nalthough Virginia among other states did.\r\n

\r\n

\r\nDuke Energy Florida was one of the members of that cabal, whose\r\nmessage was essentially, “It’s our grid, dammit, and we will\r\ndecide who gets to use it and how.” But economics will not be\r\ndenied. Duke and its confreres may not want you to have solar power,\r\nbut it is more than happy to have the sun provide it with\r\nelectricity. In a January 8 press release<\/a>, it announced that its\r\n74.9 megawatt Hamilton solar power plant in Jasper near the Georgia\r\nborder is now in operation. Construction began in July of last year.\r\nBelow is a video from the company showing a drone’s eye view of its\r\nsolar facilities in Florida.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n