odysseus2000 wrote:With green energy the fuel cost is zero so that the costs of generation are the hardware, but green energy tends to peak when it is most needed, so you sell into peak energy prices, leading to very good margins.
I suppose if one forgets things like the upwards of 500 tons of concrete manufacture, transport, processing, installation costs Etc. that goes under each unit plus the costs of manufacturing the windmill together with the design , maintenance, shipping and again installation costs to install a unit with a limited life, fuel costs would be zero but a lot of fossil fuels would have been needed in order to accomplish that overall task.
The costs of fossil fuels would equally be zero if we were to disregard the treasure required to bring them to the surface and distribute them, though their cost must come pretty close to zero if one takes into consideration the huge tax haul we extract from their usage.
I don't think much green energy would be possible if we were to rely solely on renewable energy.
On the other hand fossil fuels are reliable world wide on a 24/7 basis even in places where there are no windmills. They also not responsible for producing merely energy butt also things like road making materials, together with all the tyres that run on roads, Pharmaceuticals, suits, shirts, carpets, curtains, fertilisers, food and probably somewhere around 10,000 other products essential for the survival of mankind living in a modern world none of which could be or are produced by any form of renewable energy.
There will always be a place for and certainly a need for renewable energy but if the economics of green energy to replace the production fossil fuels were so overwhelmingly compelling then the world would not need persuading of their virtue we all would have stopped using fossil fuels 50 years ago.
I must say I am surprised that the green drum has so much credibility left; this article in todays Sunday Times highlights at least one of the absurdities amongst the many.
Snippet from behind the paywall:-
“I'm one of the nearly 12 million suckers in Britain who is about to be hammered for driving a diesel car, which emits noxious particulates. It seems only yesterday we were told by a labour government that it was a great way to reduce Britain's carbon footprint.”
I must also be one of those 12million.
If the left hand knew what the wright hand was up to we would all be all right.
“Enough of the gullible greens-- they've led us into a peasouper”
“All over town, the save the planet brigade warmed their houses with smog-inducing wood burning stoves”
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comme ... -pmnph72gj
Regards