[ExI] Solar power makes UK people poorer

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: [ExI] Solar power makes UK people poorer

The Register has an article about the latest electricity and natural gas
price increases.
For the first time the power companies are blaming 'green' power.


><http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/08/green_stealth_taxes_driving_up_lec
cy_price/>
Quotes:
>... government regulations imposed on the energy companies, whose effect is
to drive up prices and pass the resulting extra cash to the owners of
renewable power generators: from massive windfarms to rooftop solar panels
on houses...
---------------
>(Remember, the UK doesn't get very much sun, compared with countries nearer
the equator).
So it looks as though the UK needs the costs of solar power installations to
drop to about 20% of current prices...BillK

_______________________________________________





Hi BillK, no one ever promised green would be cheap.

Clearly England isn't a good place for ground based solar.  I hear it rains
a lot there.  800 kWh per kWp is way below the economic threshold by my
BOTECs.  I have an Oregon property with twice that insolation, but it is
still marginal for rooftop solar, probably still a no-go.

My main criticism of the Register article is that it gets too tangled up in
issues that are actually a completely different problem.  Government
subsidies on solar are making the rich richer and the poor poorer.  Sure,
but clear away the clutter and look at it this way: does rooftop solar pay?
Yes or no.  If no, don't install it.  Is the government subsidizing solar
installations that do not pay?  If yes, vote them out.  Get a government
which understands energy economics.

spike