Department of Agriculture

[kandrathe]

So why the sudden concern with counting dollars to the pennies when it comes to solar and wind?

I have the same concern about having China manufacture and invest energy into rubber novelty toys, to fill container ships to be sent all over the world. I'm concerned about heedless consumption, and whenever we take finite materials which within a decade or less will end up in a landfill, or wash up as trash on a beach. Rather than jobs that waste energy and materials, I'd rather they were employed to dig a hole one day, then fill it in the next. It would be less harmful to our planet and save the resources. I'm sure we can think of something better to do.

And yet ongoing funding still does flow into coil, oil, and natural gas.

It's a part of the problem of the whole hand outs to corporate special interests crap.

Many times I hear the justification is to support the jobs\economy. Both directly, and indirectly such as other industries that relies on worker\that industry dollars. After all employed people who has some spending money, spends that money. On things, services, maybe some nice shoes etc. All that magical invisible hand of the marketplace jazz libtards all seems to love.

By the same logic, it would be best for the economy if we burned everything down. That way, we'd employ more people to rebuild it. Waste is waste. If you turn something into nothing, you've actually lost, not gained. If you walk in a big enough circle, it just look like progress. Are you advocating human hamster wheels? It might actually be productive if you put generators on them.

So again, why the sudden penny pinching when it comes to solar, wind, or any other alternative source of energy technology? Do solar\wind engineers\maintenance\installers crew people just hoard their monies, and buy nothing? Or do they just bury it for composting or something? Maybe they're really bad tippers at restaurant? If they even go to restaurants...

Or, we might employ people in productive pursuits where we don't waste our time and money pretending they are helping. Whether you are a corporation, an individual or a government, not all spending is good spending.

We are in a a debt hole, with a failing world economy because we've borrowed more money than we can repay (and mostly built a huge military that didn't attack much). If we are going to invest in something (as a society -- with our tax money) then we should also demand that there be a societal return on investment. The easiest example is education. But, there is a limit to how much a brain can learn in a day/week -- so there is a limit to teaching, and therefore the spending. Here in the US we tend to try to solve problems, like illiteracy, by throwing money at it rather than investigate how and why the people are illiterate and if a lack of money is actually the problem. Sometimes it is.

Back to power.

It makes little sense to spend time, money and [X] KWh making a component that will return [X-1] Kwh in its lifespan. Even if somebody gets employed in the process, it would be best to not waste the resources and have that person pick up litter or plant trees instead. That will actually help the environment.

Kandrathe, the economics are fine. Subsidies are at the moment mainly used to sponsor the big energy and engineering companies.....because of course otherwise they would never think about changing teams.....wind turbines make money but not as much as just simply pumping up oil.

Natural gas is now cheaper than when the chart was made at about $2.75 / Mcf.
Wikipedia: Cost of electricity by source