For years, the energy policy landscape in Europe has looked dark and dreary with the thick clouds of the transition but lately, occasional rays of light have started breaking through the clouds.
I moved to Israel more than 50 years ago. Even then, every home had a simple solar water heater on the roof. A panel or two plus an insulated tank. When it's cold and cloudy, you flip a switch in the house to add electricity.
Exactly. It works wonderfully in certain parts of the world -- at a small scale. And it can never be your only source of electricity, even with a battery, if you want electricity 24/7.
Love it. Add in windmills and EVs (except Tesla) as industries that wouldn’t exist without subsidies. Remember what Margaret Thatcher said. “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
No he's doing good from SpaceX, by far and away the best launch company on Earth, makes big Aerospace look like a sick joke. Subsidies have helped Tesla, but they could certainly do without them, very well. Detroit? Maybe not.
Key point, virtually everything wind, solar, hydrogen, CCS, battery storage, makes is subsidies. And most of those subsidies go to China not America. Even Florida is an incredibly massive subsidy gravy train direct to China, via Nextra. And the entire Military-Defense Industrial Complex. And the Medical/Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex.
So why does everyone want to beat up on Musk and ignore those far, far worse parasites? Are you a Democrat/Neoliberal?
Musk is a crazy Afrikaner and marketing wiz. Maybe you have some fan bias. I don’t favor any grifter. The entire global oligarchical collusion network involves NATO, political parties, central banks, WEF, UN. WHO, all the SDOs, all flavors of zionists, commercial propagandists, professional protection rackets, NGO human trafficking rings, community development organizations, race hustlers, and on and on. Why didn’t you list all those??? Are you part of the CFO or what?
He's not a grifter. Unlike all those other names you list, Musk actually builds things. You ever built anything? Do you think you could build one of the two car companies in American history that haven't gone bankrupt, that's since Ford?
SpaceX which has brought launch costs down 10X from what big Aerospace charged. And will bring them down another 100X. And yep I'm a fanboy, because I have admiration for the people of the World who actually make things work rather than the parasites who only destroy.
Marketing wiz? Tesla doesn't even advertise, people just want their cars. Neither does SpaceX which has captured most of the launch business in the entire World. Not because of marketing but because they make the best rockets, by far. Do you think you could build a rocket company, which starting out, came one launch from bankruptcy? That took balls.
Musk was instrumental in this Republican/Trump sweep in the election, and took major heat from the establishment you "claim" to dislike. But you dump on Musk, not Gates, or Soros, or Bloomberg or Rockefeller gang etc.
One day someone will write the history of this time, and Elon Musk will figure prominently.
It seems to me, that it wasn't only Trump who dodged a bullet.
I think we have all just dodged one.
The evil, powerful people, who were willing to murder the President, on camera, in front of God and everyone, with the evident co-operation of the US Secret Service, had much worse plans for the rest of us.
By God's grace, the President dodged, and Elon went loud and proud.
We all owe a great debt of thanks to that 'crazy Afrikaner'.
And if you still haven’t caught on, I am so far left that I was a GOP PCO and Ron Paul delegate who started an argument with the fossilized state chair by telling her that she should change the party fund raiser to the John Wilkes Booth dinner.
Could have fooled me, since you dump all over the guy who saved the Republic, in the last election, spent $150M in swing states with an innovative campaign to get out voters.
And also saved Twitter from being another FBI/CIA mockingbird echo chamber. And getting flack from every corner by doing that. Including some corrupt DemonRat judge stealing $50B from him, money he actually earned. And Neoliberal governments around the World threatening to throw him in prison, including politicians in the US.
What have you done? Oh I know, nothing, just a windbag.
My website: allaboutenergy.net follows energy, energy by-product, environmental problems, climate change issues and most importantly how people benefit or abuse energy. There are more than 3,660 articles, slide presentations, ebooks and videos.
Irina Slav on energy is an excellent substack source. We will help promote it with our contacts in 124 countries.
WOW, I don't know how many more nails the solar coffin requires, but this post might do the trick. The host has run out of blood, is the best analogy I heve seen which accurately reflects how the taxpayers feel. I salute your principles & a fireplace. 🤘😎🤘
Can you imagine the piles of toxic waste producing (non-recyclable) solar panels that will be piled up after these solar projects go bankrupt and the land is returned to farmers and forests?
It's very interesting that you keep complainning about state subsidies on greens, but never complain on state subsidies on fossils. Why is it so? Perhaps some subsidies may be better than others? The CEO of Exxon or Shell woudn't have said it better.
Fossils are taxed heavily in the UK, not subsidised. Who else pays 78% on profits for a 'windfall' which no longer exists ? You are probably distorting the definition of 'subsidies'.
As the article clearly states, solar power has a number of limited small-scale applications that, with the appropriate numeric considerations, and perhaps even some salesmanship, can be made to make sense. Residential rooftop solar if local climate has good solar exposure and municipal rates are high; and many other small-scale applications like a remote cabin; a greenhouse, powering a workshop that is only intermittently used - the examples are many and varied but, in every case, the wholesale elimination of municipal grid-scale electricity in favor of solar is a fool's errand.
To understand why, some analysis (and I mean detailed honest analysis: future and present value, Monte Carlo analysis of bounds on predictions and so forth) is required and the layman is simple not interested and qualified to assess how poor solar stacks up at grid scale. And the same is true of wind power. Absent a real energy analysis, salesmanship and vague claims win the day. That is, until the real installed scale of solar (or wind) reaches some value.
As solar and wind increase in percent of energy produced, the first step will be an increase in costs, and who pays? Initially, one would imagine that there is enough slack in the resource in the subsidy chain and even some limited rate hikes to pay for the sin. But as costs continue to increase as percent of energy production from solar and wind, the parties involved look to one another with a single question: "Where's the money?"
By my thinking, we are at the "where's the money" phase. Look at COP 29. Only news I hear is the "where's the money?" chant. But it will get worse.
The next phase, if a continued build of wind and solar is done and coal, nuke and gas are shut down, and God forbid we start tearing down dams, is that we will not have electrical energy. Blackouts and brownouts will become common. Eventually electricity will become unavailable at any price.
We are on a bad path right now. But so far in the West, we are only up to the cost phase. It can get worse and probably will get worse before we wake up. the Trump win might be a good thing - but really people, the electorate, have to wake up!
Totally agree - but the problem really is that the entire "industry" is predicated on emotion - what did that blowhard moron at the UN say? "We are all going to die of global boiling!!"? So the folks who are sucked into that fear mode and believe the utter nonsense of it ("but, but, it's settled science!") cannot be dissuaded by cold hard facts and logic.
"... Blackouts and brownouts will become common. Eventually electricity will become unavailable at any price. We are on a bad path right now..."
Did you ever think that may be a feature not a bug? When we turn control of our civilization to Misanthropes & Malthusians, does that not make sense? Destruction of our food supply, endless war, mass invasions of migrants, crime & thuggery enabled, plandemics, pushing ineffective & dangerous medical treatments while suppressing low cost effective ones, piling up debt with reckless abandon....
The future for us appears to be one in which we will be told: " The wind is blowing today, serfs, so you can enjoy some electricity, next day, no wind or sun, so serfs you must do without. Be thankful that you are reducing your carbon footprint. Possibly your carbon account will allow some of you to buy some meat this week".
But their giant A.I. data centers that must monitor and control us 24/7, will be all powered by reliable Nuclear power.
Yes, it's scary if the entire energy transition isn't based on stupidity and ignorance but on pure evil intent. Heaven forbid. I sure hope it's simple stupidity.
Thank you for the detailed overview of the situation. One additional note: if we tear down the dams, we'll also have floods, to complement the blackouts.
Thanks! "Investor" is another frequently abused word. Reuters reports regularly refer to day traders as "investors". It's amusing but also a little bit annoying.
With regard to the faux investors hell-bent on stealing from governments worldwide, some of these “segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida”, have proved to be entirely maniacal and deadly to some nations in other ways. Ukraine has suffered at the hands of Annelida Baerbock as a firm and recent example. God Bless Slav!
OMG, Annelida Baerbock! LOL! These are two abbreviations I don't normally use but the occasion calls for both. Alas, it's not funny and you are absolutely right.
You’re really on fire with this article. ‘Take no prisoners’ 🙌🔥 especially with these two sentences — 🙌🔥
“What we have here is an industry lobby group chief who essentially admits that there is no such industry. There is a government-sponsored attempt at an industry, which is failing on all vital signs.”
I was a little bit angry because so many people have been warning this was going to happen for years and nobody paid attention. Yet another "We told you so" moment.
Great article. It's all so obvious but thanks for laying it out so well.
All the emphasis was on getting green hydrogen production projects off the ground but nobody thought deeply about who was going to pay a realistic price for the stuff.
I moved to Israel more than 50 years ago. Even then, every home had a simple solar water heater on the roof. A panel or two plus an insulated tank. When it's cold and cloudy, you flip a switch in the house to add electricity.
Exactly. It works wonderfully in certain parts of the world -- at a small scale. And it can never be your only source of electricity, even with a battery, if you want electricity 24/7.
And yet, with all the CO2 prevention, it's STILL hot in Israel!
Love it. Add in windmills and EVs (except Tesla) as industries that wouldn’t exist without subsidies. Remember what Margaret Thatcher said. “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
For years, the only profits Musk "earned" were from subsidies. But hey, CNBC says that's OK.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/12/musk-embraces-trump-and-scorns-subsidies-but-tesla-still-lobbies-for-us-benefits.html
No he's doing good from SpaceX, by far and away the best launch company on Earth, makes big Aerospace look like a sick joke. Subsidies have helped Tesla, but they could certainly do without them, very well. Detroit? Maybe not.
Key point, virtually everything wind, solar, hydrogen, CCS, battery storage, makes is subsidies. And most of those subsidies go to China not America. Even Florida is an incredibly massive subsidy gravy train direct to China, via Nextra. And the entire Military-Defense Industrial Complex. And the Medical/Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex.
So why does everyone want to beat up on Musk and ignore those far, far worse parasites? Are you a Democrat/Neoliberal?
Musk is a crazy Afrikaner and marketing wiz. Maybe you have some fan bias. I don’t favor any grifter. The entire global oligarchical collusion network involves NATO, political parties, central banks, WEF, UN. WHO, all the SDOs, all flavors of zionists, commercial propagandists, professional protection rackets, NGO human trafficking rings, community development organizations, race hustlers, and on and on. Why didn’t you list all those??? Are you part of the CFO or what?
He's not a grifter. Unlike all those other names you list, Musk actually builds things. You ever built anything? Do you think you could build one of the two car companies in American history that haven't gone bankrupt, that's since Ford?
SpaceX which has brought launch costs down 10X from what big Aerospace charged. And will bring them down another 100X. And yep I'm a fanboy, because I have admiration for the people of the World who actually make things work rather than the parasites who only destroy.
Marketing wiz? Tesla doesn't even advertise, people just want their cars. Neither does SpaceX which has captured most of the launch business in the entire World. Not because of marketing but because they make the best rockets, by far. Do you think you could build a rocket company, which starting out, came one launch from bankruptcy? That took balls.
Musk was instrumental in this Republican/Trump sweep in the election, and took major heat from the establishment you "claim" to dislike. But you dump on Musk, not Gates, or Soros, or Bloomberg or Rockefeller gang etc.
Thankyou Smith FS.
One day someone will write the history of this time, and Elon Musk will figure prominently.
It seems to me, that it wasn't only Trump who dodged a bullet.
I think we have all just dodged one.
The evil, powerful people, who were willing to murder the President, on camera, in front of God and everyone, with the evident co-operation of the US Secret Service, had much worse plans for the rest of us.
By God's grace, the President dodged, and Elon went loud and proud.
We all owe a great debt of thanks to that 'crazy Afrikaner'.
Let's have a few more of them.
Thankyou for standing up for Elon Musk.
Widsom is justified of all her children - Luke 7
God Bless
And if you still haven’t caught on, I am so far left that I was a GOP PCO and Ron Paul delegate who started an argument with the fossilized state chair by telling her that she should change the party fund raiser to the John Wilkes Booth dinner.
Could have fooled me, since you dump all over the guy who saved the Republic, in the last election, spent $150M in swing states with an innovative campaign to get out voters.
“Saved the republic”?
HAHAHA
You are just a dumbfuck quisling fan boi who is, undoubtedly, easily fooled by all sorts of things, none of which I care to hear any more about.
And also saved Twitter from being another FBI/CIA mockingbird echo chamber. And getting flack from every corner by doing that. Including some corrupt DemonRat judge stealing $50B from him, money he actually earned. And Neoliberal governments around the World threatening to throw him in prison, including politicians in the US.
What have you done? Oh I know, nothing, just a windbag.
Dear DE
You lost the debate with F word.
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger - Proverbs 15
God Bless
Spot-on as usual, Irina. But I'm surprised champagne has survived the carbon dioxide jihad.
Turn those climate killer bottles over to our benevolent leaders to dispose of properly, perhaps at COP30.
Shh, don't give them ideas or they'll come for the beer.
My website: allaboutenergy.net follows energy, energy by-product, environmental problems, climate change issues and most importantly how people benefit or abuse energy. There are more than 3,660 articles, slide presentations, ebooks and videos.
Irina Slav on energy is an excellent substack source. We will help promote it with our contacts in 124 countries.
Many thanks.
WOW, I don't know how many more nails the solar coffin requires, but this post might do the trick. The host has run out of blood, is the best analogy I heve seen which accurately reflects how the taxpayers feel. I salute your principles & a fireplace. 🤘😎🤘
Thanks! :D the analogy kind of imposed itself on the situation.
Once again you have out done your self on this one - I love it!
Simple easy reading but hits every nail on the head!
Yes it just doesn't scale up - quote - "Keep solar on rooftops. Leave the land for the farmers."
Hogs at the trough!
Burn off all the leaches (please).
Message me for free cigars 😉
Can you imagine the piles of toxic waste producing (non-recyclable) solar panels that will be piled up after these solar projects go bankrupt and the land is returned to farmers and forests?
With any luck the subsidy gravy train will be over early in 2035 for the USA.
Jeff, did you mean 2025 with the arrival of Mr T?
I, for one, hope he did. 2035 is too far away.
It's very interesting that you keep complainning about state subsidies on greens, but never complain on state subsidies on fossils. Why is it so? Perhaps some subsidies may be better than others? The CEO of Exxon or Shell woudn't have said it better.
Show me your numbers.
Don't fool yourself. Numbers aren't mine for sure. You just look for them in the Net. They're avalable to anyone
Thanks Jose. I went out on the web and found this: https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-11-13-are-you-even-aware-that-there-is-another-big-un-climate-conference-going-on
You can dig into his blog and find lots of numbers.
Fossils are taxed heavily in the UK, not subsidised. Who else pays 78% on profits for a 'windfall' which no longer exists ? You are probably distorting the definition of 'subsidies'.
Busting the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Myth
The claims of massive UK subsidies for fossil fuels are disingenuous nonsense.
David Turver:
https://davidturver.substack.com/p/busting-the-fossil-fuel-subsidy-myth
This is why
Subsidies in the USA (don't know about other nations):
Coal/oil/gas: ~$.60 per MWHr equivalent energy production
Nuclear: ~$2.00 per MWHr (and this number is inflated as EIA includes some nuclear weapon program expenses in electricity subsidy numbers)
Wind: $20 - $70 per MWHr
Solar: $50 - $90 per MWHr
This is why. Wind/solar subsidies are, in the best case, ten times higher than any other energy subsidy and in the worst case 150 times higher.
As the article clearly states, solar power has a number of limited small-scale applications that, with the appropriate numeric considerations, and perhaps even some salesmanship, can be made to make sense. Residential rooftop solar if local climate has good solar exposure and municipal rates are high; and many other small-scale applications like a remote cabin; a greenhouse, powering a workshop that is only intermittently used - the examples are many and varied but, in every case, the wholesale elimination of municipal grid-scale electricity in favor of solar is a fool's errand.
To understand why, some analysis (and I mean detailed honest analysis: future and present value, Monte Carlo analysis of bounds on predictions and so forth) is required and the layman is simple not interested and qualified to assess how poor solar stacks up at grid scale. And the same is true of wind power. Absent a real energy analysis, salesmanship and vague claims win the day. That is, until the real installed scale of solar (or wind) reaches some value.
As solar and wind increase in percent of energy produced, the first step will be an increase in costs, and who pays? Initially, one would imagine that there is enough slack in the resource in the subsidy chain and even some limited rate hikes to pay for the sin. But as costs continue to increase as percent of energy production from solar and wind, the parties involved look to one another with a single question: "Where's the money?"
By my thinking, we are at the "where's the money" phase. Look at COP 29. Only news I hear is the "where's the money?" chant. But it will get worse.
The next phase, if a continued build of wind and solar is done and coal, nuke and gas are shut down, and God forbid we start tearing down dams, is that we will not have electrical energy. Blackouts and brownouts will become common. Eventually electricity will become unavailable at any price.
We are on a bad path right now. But so far in the West, we are only up to the cost phase. It can get worse and probably will get worse before we wake up. the Trump win might be a good thing - but really people, the electorate, have to wake up!
Totally agree - but the problem really is that the entire "industry" is predicated on emotion - what did that blowhard moron at the UN say? "We are all going to die of global boiling!!"? So the folks who are sucked into that fear mode and believe the utter nonsense of it ("but, but, it's settled science!") cannot be dissuaded by cold hard facts and logic.
"... Blackouts and brownouts will become common. Eventually electricity will become unavailable at any price. We are on a bad path right now..."
Did you ever think that may be a feature not a bug? When we turn control of our civilization to Misanthropes & Malthusians, does that not make sense? Destruction of our food supply, endless war, mass invasions of migrants, crime & thuggery enabled, plandemics, pushing ineffective & dangerous medical treatments while suppressing low cost effective ones, piling up debt with reckless abandon....
The future for us appears to be one in which we will be told: " The wind is blowing today, serfs, so you can enjoy some electricity, next day, no wind or sun, so serfs you must do without. Be thankful that you are reducing your carbon footprint. Possibly your carbon account will allow some of you to buy some meat this week".
But their giant A.I. data centers that must monitor and control us 24/7, will be all powered by reliable Nuclear power.
Yes, it's scary if the entire energy transition isn't based on stupidity and ignorance but on pure evil intent. Heaven forbid. I sure hope it's simple stupidity.
Thank you for the detailed overview of the situation. One additional note: if we tear down the dams, we'll also have floods, to complement the blackouts.
Bang - right on--you go girl. Cannot agree more. I love the well worded distinction between "Investors" and "Parasites". Well done.
Thanks! "Investor" is another frequently abused word. Reuters reports regularly refer to day traders as "investors". It's amusing but also a little bit annoying.
With regard to the faux investors hell-bent on stealing from governments worldwide, some of these “segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida”, have proved to be entirely maniacal and deadly to some nations in other ways. Ukraine has suffered at the hands of Annelida Baerbock as a firm and recent example. God Bless Slav!
OMG, Annelida Baerbock! LOL! These are two abbreviations I don't normally use but the occasion calls for both. Alas, it's not funny and you are absolutely right.
The worms will soon be in retreat dear Slav, have faith
Brilliant. I have passed it on to friends and famly.
Well, I hope none of them severs relations with you because of that.
You’re really on fire with this article. ‘Take no prisoners’ 🙌🔥 especially with these two sentences — 🙌🔥
“What we have here is an industry lobby group chief who essentially admits that there is no such industry. There is a government-sponsored attempt at an industry, which is failing on all vital signs.”
I was a little bit angry because so many people have been warning this was going to happen for years and nobody paid attention. Yet another "We told you so" moment.
Great article. It's all so obvious but thanks for laying it out so well.
All the emphasis was on getting green hydrogen production projects off the ground but nobody thought deeply about who was going to pay a realistic price for the stuff.
Seems like dot.com.v2