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Over the past eight years, Duke Energy has invested more than $4 billion in wind and solar facilities in 12 states.
“As the cost of solar energy continues to decrease and the efficiency of panels grows, we’re increasing our investments in solar,” said Alex Glenn, Duke Energy state president for Florida, in a statement. “It’s part of our ongoing strategy to offer clean energy and provide customers more options to use renewable energy.”
Okay that is brilliant and you know what the next complaint will be? What about all the natural gas workers?!
It's market forces at work. Sun and wind are great resources and as they get better at using them, it will create an ever larger surplus of natural gas and coal.
What does that do to places like Saudi Arabia?
And I'm sure in 100 years when they discover the newest form of energy it will be "What about all the windfarm technicians?" The reality is the amount of coal workers as a percentage of the electorate is overstated. A good portion of the people supporting him have either retired or moved on from those jobs anyway. The idea of the coal worker waiting in stasis for coal jobs to return is ludicrous.
she just panders to different people. And "pander" is definitely the right word. That's all any of them do.
If, for instance, hilary also told the 40% of women volunteering to be single parents that their choice of family arrangement was uneconomic, then i would respect her. But we all know that's not going to happen.
None of them are for true free markets any more. All we have is a mix of corporate cronyism and socialism. 2 different masks on the same face.
Don't kid yourself. This is not the marketplace at work. Obama and now Hillary are actively planning to kill coal Obama said it before he even got elected. This is not something new. Besides, we may not use cal as much but coal can always be exported. And this notion of I am going to replace it with new jobs is preposterous on the face of it. They have no more ambitious plan than replacing their paychecks with a welfare check.
The factory closings on the one hand and the welfare checks on the other created lots of idle people. And what do they do with all that spare time? Drugs. Government checks are easily laundered (In Appalachia a favorite trick is to buy cases of soda with food stamps and re-sell them for cash).
Manufacturing shed 5 million jobs after 2000, giving way to welfare, drugs and despondency. The number of Americans receiving welfare of one kind or another exploded from 42 million (or 18.8 percent of Americans) in 1983 to 109 million (or 35 percent) in 2012. As America added 83 million citizens, then, it added 67 million welfare recipients — during a period of massive wealth creation. (Per-capita income rose from about $30,000 in 1983 to over $52,000 in 2012.)
And I'm sure in 100 years when they discover the newest form of energy it will be "What about all the windfarm technicians?" The reality is the amount of coal workers as a percentage of the electorate is overstated. A good portion of the people supporting him have either retired or moved on from those jobs anyway. The idea of the coal worker waiting in stasis for coal jobs to return is ludicrous.
That makes me feel better about their intelligence. The image of a bunch of unemployed coal miners waiting for the coal jobs to come back is just sad when there are mountains of coal stockpiled that no one is buying.
As you say, a hundred years from now we could be using energy a completely different way. This is just market forces at work.
Actually PV solar is now cheaper than coal or gas. From the wiki...
Well I guess we can get rid the rid of the subsidies, green credits and mandates then?
Electric from coal might be 3 or 4 centsper kWh. I'm not going to look it up but the solar farm you are citing is most likely receiving a 2.3 cent production credit on top of the 3.87 cents..... Inevitably there is most going to be other incentives involved such green credits etc. A renewable energy source like this can produce a credit, those credits are bought by power distributors to meet mandates. The value of these credits can be substantial.
The US is moving to a low carbon economy just like every other developed nation. Natural gas and renewable sources are cost competitive and cheaper than coal. Technology improves and things evolve like every thing else. Coal as a percentage of total electricity in the US is 33% and falling. Wind energy will be around 20% of total electricity generated in the US within a few years.
Well, in that case, they'd better speed up the process just in case people like Hillary somehow get elected.
Well I guess we can get rid the rid of the subsidies, green credits and mandates then?
Electric from coal might be 3 or 4 centsper kWh. I'm not going to look it up but the solar farm you are citing is most likely receiving a 2.3 cent production credit on top of the 3.87 cents..... Inevitably there is most going to be other incentives involved such green credits etc. A renewable energy source like this can produce a credit, those credits are bought by power distributors to meet mandates. The value of these credits can be substantial.
I don't know if there are credits but that is not unusual. The reality is as we look at alternative energy sources, we become less dependent on the Middle East. Coal is not gone, it's just a becoming a smaller piece as has been shown repeatedly.
If an energy company thought coal was better than natural gas, why are they retiring all the coal plants and switching to natural gas?
Gone over this, it's because of the regulatory burdens caused by the new mercury emissions standards that will reduce deposition a whopping 1 to 10 percent and increase the average IQ 2/1000.
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How long do you think it will take to use up all the coal they already have stockpiled? d
How long before the gas supply goes low? You're asking something that is impossible to answer. Is the heat going to continue or will the rest of the summer be mild? Will there be brutally cold winter? Is the gas industry goin to slow production to drive the gas price back up or will they keep production high to try and hammer the coal industry more? Is there going to be major disruption here in the US or overseas because of a terrorism?
Get out your crystal ball and tell me the answer to these questions and I can give you better answer.
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The only new coal plant I've found built was designed to use less coal. The rest were being retired.
Until the caps on CO2 is resolved it's unlikely you are going to find many of them if any at all. These are multi billion dollar investments that need to operate for decades before they even make profit in the best of times. Even with a resolution without long term regulatory guarantees it's a risky investment.
Well I guess we can get rid the rid of the subsidies, green credits and mandates then?
Electric from coal might be 3 or 4 centsper kWh. I'm not going to look it up but the solar farm you are citing is most likely receiving a 2.3 cent production credit on top of the 3.87 cents..... Inevitably there is most going to be other incentives involved such green credits etc. A renewable energy source like this can produce a credit, those credits are bought by power distributors to meet mandates. The value of these credits can be substantial.
Dream on. There is likely the 30% Fed credit on the NV installation...but that would still leave the total cost at less than $.06 fully loaded. There is no similar credit on the ME 3 cent installation. And there is still another factor of up to 2 to come over the next 10 years.
Face it. Solar PV is now at the break even point with minimal cleaned up coal. And it is going to get better and better over the next years. Coals is simply on its way out. Inevitable at this point. I always though the transition fuel would be nuclear but clearly it will be ng.
The one I find more interesting is the roof top battle. And that one is not nearly as definitive.
So you acknowledge that there is an oversupply of natural gas and coal. And natural gas is cheaper.
At the moment it is cheaper, it was cheaper a few years ago, it was also 3 times what it now a few years ago. The average price in the natural gas market has been about for $4 since 2008, that average price is not based on steady decline. It is based on average that has fluctuated substantially since 2008. The coal market is not subject to these wild swings.
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