Are Solar and Wind Power Worth It?

Governments have a terrible record at selecting technologies. Rather than selecting what 'we' should build, an approach that minimizes government interference in the marketplace is more likely to produce the most economical result. The first step would be to radically reform our dysfunctional regulatory system for nuclear, which is based on ridiculous assumptions about worst case accidents that were disproved in the 1980's, but the law has never changed. Freed from the risk of arbitrary government actions, financing nuclear would be much easier, and a national consortium to establish recycling and fast reactors would be possible.

In a few locations wind or other renewables are good alternatives, but we shouldn't be subsidizing technologies that clearly need more breakthroughs before they become economical. That just makes us poorer as a nation.

Nuclear power is not the answer. More efficent use of what we already have is better.

With increasing demand for more comforts (more air conditioning, more computers, large screen TV's, bigger freezers, etc) power demand is going up.

More efficient use of what we have can slow the rate of increased demand but it will still go up.

People will not accept a significantly reduced standard of living for some "green ideal", and the underdeveloped world definitely won't.

Improved conditions in the less developed world will drastically increase demand there, so world wide, the demand for base load power will increase.

Unfortunately, the sun doesn't shine when we want the lights on.

Wind doesn't blow on hot, still days when the air conditioning is needed etc. All these need to come from storage (pumped storage is a good option for large amounts of power, but try getting a dam built to install it!), or base load stations.

Wind, solar and tide cannot supply this and supply more than 20-25% of the grid using these sources and the grid becomes unstable.

While solar and wind have their place, it cannot hope to provide the amount or reliability of power needed.

Nuclear power has been shown to be safe and excellent for base load generation. Waste disposal has been solved technically, although not politically.

In addition, don't write off coal. there are large supplies world wide, accessible to underdeveloped nations as well as developed ones. Research points to some interesting possibilities for dealing with both the pollution and carbon footprint involved in it's use. I'm currently crunching the numbers and writing up one such proposal which would have the air quality and CO2 levels of the flue gases better than the inlet air!

Solar and wind need to stand on their own feet.

Government subsidies only skew the mix leaving us with a long term solution which is less desirable than if they had left it alone. (If they left it alone our pockets would be better off too!)