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The problem with solar farms is that they require huge subsidies to get started. Couple that with the pollution thats created by their creation. Thats one reason why there are so few solar panel producers in the states.
The problem with solar farms is that they require huge subsidies to get started. Couple that with the pollution thats created by their creation. Thats one reason why there are so few solar panel producers in the states.
THANK YOU! It's like these little Prius/hybrid cars. Some of the rare earth metals it takes to produce the computers/technology in these cars is almost worst from an environmental perspective than carbon emission. If you study the rare earth mining industry in china and other countries and what it does to the environment most people would understand this. But again Americas spoonfeed what their corporate overloards tell them and are glued to the boob tube and facebook.
THANK YOU! It's like these little Prius/hybrid cars. Some of the rare earth metals it takes to produce the computers/technology in these cars is almost worst from an environmental perspective than carbon emission. If you study the rare earth mining industry in china and other countries and what it does to the environment most people would understand this. But again Americas spoonfeed what their corporate overloards tell them and are glued to the boob tube and facebook.
Its a "as long as its not in my backyard".
The reason for solar, in most folks minds, is because its good for the environment. Thats simply not true if you look at a one world reality.
There are viable alternatives, the main one being Hydrogen. Sure, in the short term 10 to 20 years it would release carbon. But in the mean time with more nuclear (in safer places), and other alternative sources of electrical use we could make the hydrogen from other sources than natural gas.
I'm not a clean freak, but solar is a pipe dream right now. If we can find a way to make solar panels without the dangerous materials that we currently need, great. But solar is safer when you look at thermal transfer instead of photovoltaic.
I don't know what the current numbers are but the amounts for renewables would be much more than these from 2007. I'm sure the subsidies for fossil fuels have increased some too. While the subsidy amounts may be similar, for example wind and coal are very close, the cost per unit of production is the important number. For example the subsidy on one gallon of gas is fractions of a penny per gallon, for ethanol it's between 50 cents to more than a dollar depending on how you want to calculate it.
One other thing I will note about the coal subsidies, most of them go to R&D. For renewables we are subsidizing production.
The bottom line is if the subsidies for fossil fuels were dropped it would have little effect on their costs, dropping them for renewables on the other hand would pretty much bury them.
Quote:
Table ES5
Coal
Net generation in billion kilowatthours: 1,946
Subsidization : $854 million
Cost per megawatthour of generation $0.44
Refined Coal
Net generation in billion kilowatthours: 72
Subsidization : $2,156 million
Cost per megawatthour of generation: $29.81
Nuclear
Net generation in billion kilowatthours: 794
Subsidization : $1,267 million
Cost per meggwatthour of generation: $1.59
Solar
Net generation in billion kilowatthours: 1
Subsidization : $14 million
Cost per meggwatthour of generation: $24.34
Wind
Net generation in billion kilowatthours: 31
Subsidization : $724 million
Cost per megawatthour of generation: $23.37
Liquid fuels:
Quote:
Table ES6.
Natural Gas and Petroleum Liquids
FuelConsumption(quadrillion Btu): 55.78
Subsidization : $1,921 Million
Subsidy per million Btu: $0.03
Ethanol/Biofuels
FuelConsumption(quadrillion Btu): 0.57
Subsidization : $3,249 Million
Subsidy per million Btu: $5.72
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