Solar and battery storage make up 81% of new power capacity this year

Love that chart. Only 4% of new capacity is fossil fuel based. My Alternative Energy ETF sure isn't showing it ... I wonder why the disconnect ...

 

I wonder if any of this new capacity will be used to retire coal plants?

 

for the same reason your ESG funds are best case a tulip. Nothing about either ETF is about efficiency or productivity which is what drives growth and profit. It’s a poor man’s ponzi and any increase in asset is based on new money and not productivity or efficiency as mentioned above.

 

Not sure about the surprise. The key word is ‘new’. If you restrict and attempt to discontinue all other forms of energy and throw billions of tax payer money at another via incentives what other outcome would you expect.

 

Would guess that many of the companies involved in the driving technology development are privately held or do not show much profit yet.

Political uncertainty, in states where the Republi-ban still worship oil gods makes it difficult for people to fully invest in alt fuel companies still. Gerrymander enough House districts and you could have a Republi-ban congress outlaw science and engineering beyond fossil fuels and printing presses.

 

This is being done because solar is cheaper by far than burning fossil fuels. Storage has been the bugaboo because solar doesn’t produce much at night. Battery storage prices are also coming down. The future is bright if the idiots don’t end everything first.

 

Yeah… higher upfront costs but then decades of “free” energy creation from wind and sun… anyone saying that is inefficient can’t see past the ends of their noses. I mean, there is a reason why FPL is in a death battle against residential solar… because it’s free (and clean) energy creation that cuts them out of the loop….

 

Then there is this ...

The cost of electricity from fossil fuels is anywhere between 5 and 17 Cents per kilowatt hour. As per the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, solar energy costs are dropping and range from 3 to 6 cents per Kilowatt-hour.

While it points out that solar panels are slightly less efficient at capturing the sun's free energy than energy capture from burning costly fossil fuels, the facts that the input costs are "free" (compared to the costs of oil/gas/coal, mining, transportation, etc.) makes solar energy the cheaper option. And that's before you weigh in the costs associated with the environmental damage ... like how much does coastal flooding cost? How much as air and water pollution added to health care costs?

Solar Energy vs. Fossil Fuels | ConsumerAffairs®

 

Unsubsidized levlized cost of utility-scale solar with storage has reached the level of the cheapest form of fossil fuels burning. Add in the subsidies and it is cheaper for a utility to add solar and storage than any form of fossil fuels. Add in lowering your exposure as a company to changes in future fossil fuels process and, yes, this is a smart financial decision at this point, even if it means that those liberals were right about something.

2023 Levelized Cost Of Energy+

 

China dumping solar cells below production costs to try to take control of the industry will end but the increased efficiency of the new cells should keep the costs per kwh down enough to keep solar as lowest cost generator.
Batteries count as new production because they capture and then disperse the excess wind and solar that doesn't normally make it into the grid. Plus is that they allow for wind or solar to count as baseload which decreases the demand for coal/nat gas base demand generators. Once we have enough battery+nuclear+geothermal+hydrogen+hydroelectric to satisfy base demand when sun isnt shining and wind isn't blowing, all of the coal/nat gas can be removed. Lots of new stuff in the energy thread in the construction phase now.
Hopefully by the time these solar fields reach life expectancy, we will have fission.

 

This will change that data.
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/18/1194303196/solar-panel-imports-china

The Department of Commerce has determined that solar panel manufacturers in four Southeast Asian countries are evading U.S. trade rules by using Chinese-sourced materials subject to tariffs without paying applicable duties. Those countries — Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia — are responsible for nearly three-quarters of solar modules imported to the United States.
The ruling, unveiled Friday, means that new U.S. solar projects may soon be more expensive: manufacturers whose goods run afoul of Obama-era solar tariffs will be subject to additional import duties on their products.
Those duties, however, will not begin to be assessed until June 2024, when a waiver put in place by the Biden administration is set to expire.

 

That would be quite dumb. Tariffs are generally stupid and, in this case, will create environmental as well as financial costs to consumers (and to workers for utility companies and installation companies based in the US as well as to manufacturers and other users of electricity). I hope that the Biden folks don't go through with this or that every utility buys a ton of cheap panels before it goes into effect (preferably, the former).

 

https://www.lazard.com/media/2ozoovyg/lazards-lcoeplus-april-2023.pdf

Solar and wind are now competitive. Why the infatuation with fossil fuels? This is a good thing, isn’t it?

If the US and the rest of the world weren’t doing this, all of this additional energy would have to be backfilled with more fossil fuels. Where would that come from? You do realize that extra demand would increase the price of fossil fuels, correct?

 

Disagree. What is stupid is allowing China to dominate the world market with predatory pricing

 

This is a lost point on most. It would drive up the cost of everything that requires energy to be made or transported, including gasoline

 

I mean look at what happens when Saudi Arabia scales back production just a little. Oil price skyrockets.

If one purports to be a free market conservative our ability to become more energy independent ought to be a good thing. They are so wrapped up in the tribal identity thing that whatever a democrat likes must be bad.

 

I didn’t realize only democrats approve of energy independence.

I learn something every day.

 

It is something we need to address, eventually but at this point I tend to think the cheap solar panels are probably doing more good than harm.