LETTER: Solar folly
Nevada is copying California’s solar mandates. Loony California is not a good example to follow unless we want to enjoy electricity rates sometimes exceeding 50 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Solar is intermittent electricity. It doesn’t work at night, and it goes to sleep just as demand peaks in the early evening. It never replaces a fossil fuel plant, because every fossil fuel plant has to remain in place and on standby in case clouds move in or the sun sets. If solar is so great, why was it necessary to pass Senate Bill 358 to force our electric utility to buy solar electricity?
You can add batteries to solar. The batteries cost a fortune and wear out in five years. Solar is still intermittent. One cloudy day and the battery runs flat. The battery for the Gemini solar project near Las Vegas will cost more than $200 million to replace when it wears out in five years.
In the Boston Globe, James Hansen, the father of global warming advocacy, said: “The notion that renewable energies and batteries alone will provide all needed energy is fantastical — a grotesque idea.” He recommends nuclear energy.
The United States is responsible for only 14 percent of world carbon emissions. Emissions in Asia are huge and rapidly increasing. One has to credit those in the solar industry. They are great propagandists. They fight hard for their money.
