New York Times Touts Solar Energy

The New York Times argues that the solar industry is where the jobs are in the energy sector: 374,000 in solar versus 100,000 in wind and 160,000 in coal mining and coal-fired power generation. Only the natural gas sector employs more people: 398,000 workers in gas production, electricity generation, home heating and petrochemicals.

What is totally neglected however, is the inefficiency of solar and wind generating electricity compared to coal and natural gas.

It is glaringly obvious how wasteful, inefficient and unproductive solar power is when you look at the amounts of energy produced per sector. (This tally does not include electricity generated by nuclear, hydroelectric and geothermal power plants.) Zerohedge

398,000 natural gas workers = 33.8% of all electricity generated in the United States in 2016

160,000 coal employees = 30.4 % of total electricity

100,000 wind employees = 5.6% of total electricity

374,000 solar workers = 0.9% of total electricity

It’s even more glaring when you look at the amount of electricity generated per worker. Coal generated an incredible 7,745 megawatt-hours of electricity per worker; natural gas 3,812 MWH per worker; wind a measly 836 MWH for every employee; and solar an abysmal 98 MWH per worker.

In other words, producing the same amount of electricity requires one coal worker, two natural gas workers — 12 wind industry employees or 79 solar workers.

Even worse, whereas coal and gas electricity is cheap, affordable, and available virtually 100% of the time — wind and solar are expensive, intermittent, unreliable, and available only 15–30% of the time, on an annual basis. Wind and solar electricity is there when it’s there, not necessarily when you need it.

The only thing solar and wind companies do well is collect billions of dollars in subsidies from taxpayers and billions of dollars in much higher electricity rates from consumers.

Georgetown has doubled down and placed their bet that solar and wind energy will continue to be subsidized by the American taxpayer so that we can enjoy low stable electric rates for the next 25 years. Let us hope the city has become more proficient at hedging electric prices in the ERCOT market so that the city does not lose another $6M+ this summer.