[ExI] A Nobel laureate and climate change

[Dennis May]

Every cent redistributed from productive enterprises into
"green" energy further damages the economy.  The numbers
don't add up for solar or wind except in niche applications.
More and more government investment into losing enterprises
with the money being pocketed by political patrons isn't
going to change the simple physics and economics that solar
and wind will never amount to much.  If Germany wants to
go broke like Spain chasing green energy there is no reason
to follow their foolish path.
 
Once you move outside of the U235 path into other
nuclear energies there is enough to power civilization
until well after the sun itself becomes a problem.
 
Dennis May

From: BillK <pharos at gmail.com>
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2011 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: [ExI] A Nobel laureate and climate change

2011/9/18 john clark wrote:
> And that's why wind farms and solar panel companies don't need huge subsidies. Oh wait they do.
> Tax benefits are the only reason wind farms exist and Solyndra just went under taking over half a
> billion dollars of taxpayers money with it; they found out that selling solar panels for half of what it
> cost to make them was not a good business model. Maybe we'll need more than moonbeams and
> lollipops to power the world economy after all. Maybe its time to get serious.
>
>

Solyndra failed, as you say, because they didn't reduce production
costs like other solar companies were doing.
See:
<http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/solyndra-solar-failed-poor-cost-structure-not-china>

But solar power is a new booming industry. There are always lots of
failures at the start of a new industry. (Remember all the failed
Internet startups?).  The government made a failed investment in the
case of Solyndra, but other investments are doing nicely.  Nobody can
pick winners every time. Even venture funds make mistakes sometimes.
;)

I think all western governments decided to encourage investments in
renewable energy industries because private industry won't invest
until they see a near-term profit. Governments need renewable energy
in the near future and they don't want to wait until fuel is $20 USD
per gallon.

Germany (where Eugen is) is doing very nicely in the renewable energy races.


BillK
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