Three energy realities that renewable advocates can’t answer

Renewable energy advocates like to stick to their talking points about wind and solar, but they never seem to address the elephant—or elephants—in the room when it comes to running a grid with weather-based, intermittent energy sources, such as not being able to survive without subsidies, causing massive price increases, and ultimately leading to blackouts.

However, just because advocates of wind and solar never address these concerns doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Whether you’re in favor of an “above all approach,” indifferent about renewables, or aren’t in favor of them at all, the rest of us need to be aware of the realities and limitations of a grid with high levels of renewable generation.

Here are the realities:

Despite claiming to be ardent followers of “tHe ScIEncE,” wind and solar advocates live in their own universe of alternative facts that deny the basic physics and economics of the electric grid

1. Renewables can’t survive on their own–they must be subsidized.
2. Renewables increase the cost of electricity–solar and wind are by far the most expensive of all energy options by far. Three to five times more expensive than any other energy options.
3. More wind and solar means more blackouts–totally dependent on the weather.

Despite claiming to be ardent followers of “tHe ScIEncE,” wind and solar advocates live in their own universe of alternative facts that deny the basic physics and economics of the electric grid.

Mitch Rolling and Isaac Orr, American Experiment