“Never again; let the free market choose winners and let government not pick losers.”
Remember Solyndra, a solar panel manufacture that collapsed soon after receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from the US government back in 2011? This company received the U.S. Department of Energy’s first loan guarantee under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, an infamous beginning that embarrassed President Obama and the “green” energy industry.
Today, 14 years later, the erroneously described “infant” industry is badly listing with its perennial tax subsidies at risk. Grid solar is plagued by failure, with investors facing net zero and employees looking for alternatives. Customers are disgruntled as well.
Enter SolarInsure, whose business is about “safeguarding your renewable energy investment with energy system monitoring and warranties.” SolarInsure has compiled a list of bankrupt solar firms in the interest of filling claims for nonperformance.…
Continue ReadingSolar is hardly an infant industry, as documented here and here. And ‘Big Oil’ tried to make it economic a half century ago–and failed. A six-year-old article, “How Big Oil Of The Past Helped Launch The Solar Industry Of Today, by Andrea Hsu tells the story, one that is pertinent today given the bust of the industry (see tomorrow’s post). She begins:
… Continue ReadingRenewable energy has gotten so cheap that even oil giant Exxon Mobil, which reported $20.8 billion in earnings in 2018, is getting in on the savings. Over the next couple of years, Exxon Mobil will begin purchasing wind and solar power in West Texas, part of a 12-year agreement signed late last year with the Danish energy company Orsted. The plan is to use cheap, clean electricity to power Exxon Mobil’s expanding operations in the Permian Basin, one of the world’s most productive oil fields.
This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. Droz is also the author of the popular Substack Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues.
Unreliables (General):
*** Governors, Renewables & PJM
Progressive Don Quixotes: Tilting at Wind Projects
Wind Energy — Offshore:
*** Duke Energy officially decides against offshore wind for North Carolina
*** Great news: Duke has decided to stop pursuing offshore wind
Massachusetts Postpones Round 5 Offshore Wind Solicitation
Wind Energy — Other:
Trump cancels giant Lava-Ridge wind project
Solar Energy:
Expert exposes solar panel industry as a ‘total scam’
Nuclear Energy:
*** Nuclear power in a free enterprise environment is the pathway to abundant low-cost electricity
How AI Can Make Nuclear Power a Safe Bet
Report: New Financing Strategy Needed to Spark America’s Nuclear Energy Revival
Fossil Fuel Energy:
CEI Comments on EPA’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for fossil fuel power plants
South American Cold Underscores Role of Oil and Gas
Electric Vehicles (EVs):
US EV Future: Unsubsidized and Uncertain
Miscellaneous Energy News:
*** America’s Critical Mining Industry Finds Itself in a Deep Hole
Manmade Global Warming — Some Deceptions:
*** How China Hijacked America’s Climate Fears
*** Turns Out Major Climate Study Peddled by Media Relied on Bunk Data
Too Big to Fail: A major new scandal in climate science
The Climate Alarmism Grift is Dying
Manmade Global Warming — The Science:
*** The Carbon Mirage: When the DOE Broke Ranks and the Climate Script Cracked
*** The Rise of the Climate Right
Radioactivity in Ice Cores and Unreliability of C02 Estimates
Manmade Global Warming — Misc:ellaneous
Nova Scotians fined $25,000 for hiking in the wood…