EIA knowledge exhibits wind & photo voltaic met three% of U.S. power after $50 billion in subsidizes
Visitor essay by Larry Hamlin
The EIA AEO 2019 report exhibits that in yr 2018 wind and photo voltaic power assets present about three% of U.S. complete power consumption whereas fossil gasoline power assets present about 81% of complete power use.
The dominate use of fossil fuels in assembly U.S. power wants stays little modified from a decade in the past earlier than use of renewable power assets grew to become mandated and supported by profitable authorities subsidizes.
Utilizing extra EIA knowledge the full wind and photo voltaic offered power going again to yr 2000 is obtainable which permits an evaluation of the Manufacturing Tax Credit score (PTC) funds to be made.
These PTC’s are outlined via Federal Regulation and quantity to $zero.023 per Kwh for photo voltaic and wind initiatives that qualify as renewables which began building earlier than January 1, 2018 and can be found for a interval of ten years.
PTC subsidizes for renewable photo voltaic and wind initiatives within the U.S. have now reached about $50 billion in cumulative funds via yr 2018 with these assets offering about three% of our nations complete power consumption in that yr.
Moreover these annual wind and photo voltaic subsidizes now complete greater than $eight billion per yr.
With out authorities pushed mandates to make use of renewables and with out beneficiant federal PTC subsidizes which give for many if not the entire capital price restoration for these initiatives few of those vegetation could be constructed.
Even within the Alice in Wonderland power world of California fossil fuels dominate our states complete power consumption accounting for 82% of power use with that determine additionally little modified within the final decade.
The fossil gasoline power assets embrace petroleum, pure gasoline and coal that are the dominate power suppliers for all power sectors together with electrical energy, transportation, industrial, industrial and residential.
The electrical energy sector represents the biggest single power use space representing about 38% of complete power use. When addressing the opposite power use sectors that are industrial, industrial, residential and transpiration the electrical energy sector parts are appropriately divided between these sectors.
Renewables have made little headway in assembly the power wants related to aside from the electrical energy sector with all types of renewables (contains geothermal, wooden and wooden waste, biogenic municipal waste, different biomass, wind, photovoltaic, and photo voltaic thermal sources, excludes standard massive hydro) accounting for less than about 6% (with half of that being wind and photo voltaic) of complete U.S. power use with the good majority of that complete associated to the electrical energy sector.
About 98% of the mixed industrial, industrial, residential and transportation sectors power wants are equipped by non-renewable power assets.
Standard massive hydro is just not included as a renewable on this knowledge as most popular by “renewable purists” due to the big dam reservoirs concerned with these assets that present reliability however offend renewable power activists. Standard massive hydro initiatives aren’t categorised as renewable assets eligible for PTC subsidizes.
Regardless of greater than a decade of presidency mandated renewable power use with profitable and beneficiant renewable subsidizes required these politically pushed power assets have made little progress in defining helpful patterns of assembly power wants largely due to their unreliable and extremely restricted efficiency capabilities.
Absent authorities mandated use and provisions requiring profitable PTC subsidizes renewables would fall flat on their face within the power markets.
Moreover on condition that one of many main political justifications for renewables was their supposedly useful emissions discount efficiency with this declare now utterly negated due to the full irrelevance of U.S. and EU emissions ranges and progress relative to world emissions outcomes that are pushed solely by the world’s creating nations and given the meaningless influence of emissions reductions targets on world temperatures the politically contrived push mandating renewable power use whereas massively subsidizing their excessive prices and unreliable efficiency wants to finish.
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