{"id":1611367,"date":"2025-11-06T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T18:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1611367"},"modified":"2025-11-06T13:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T18:45:00","slug":"if-solar-and-wind-are-now-cheaper-than-fossil-fuels-why-dont-we-have-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/if-solar-and-wind-are-now-cheaper-than-fossil-fuels-why-dont-we-have-more\/1611367\/","title":{"rendered":"If Solar And Wind Are Now Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels, Why Don’t We Have More?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Solar And Wind Are Now Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels, Why Don’t We Have More?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Mike Shedlock via Mish Talk<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

The answer is they aren\u2019t cheaper…<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Energy Talking Points<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Substack writer Alex Epstein has a great post on The \u201cLevelized Cost of Energy\u201d Scam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you ever hear anyone favorably compare solar and wind to coal, gas, or nuclear by citing a low LCOE\u2014\u201cLevelized Cost of Energy\u201d\u2014you are being scammed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve heard it over and over: \u201cSolar and wind are now cheaper than fossil fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n

You might suspect something is wrong here, because if solar and wind were so cheap their developers wouldn\u2019t always be asking for subsidies, or claim the sky is falling when subsidies are taken away.<\/p>\n

The suspicious claim that \u201cSolar and wind are now cheaper than fossil fuels\u201d is usually justified using an intimidating-sounding metric called LCOE: \u201cLevelized Cost of Energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a 2020 report, the International Energy Agency used LCOE to claim that \u201crenewable\u201d energy costs are now \u201ccompetitive\u201d with fossil fuel costs, and that onshore wind is the cheapest source of electricity in most countries.<\/p>\n

In a 2023 article titled \u201cThe Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think,\u201d\u00a0the New York Times used LCOE to claim that solar and wind are somehow cheap<\/strong>\u00a0while coal, gas, and nuclear are somehow expensive.<\/p>\n

LCOE absurdly equates the value of reliable electricity and unreliable electricity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imagine there were a metric called LCOB\u2014Levelized Cost of Babysitters\u2014that compared the cost of different babysitters in your neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\tBut there was a catch that made it useless: the organization collecting the metric allowed totally unreliable babysitters to qualify.
\n\tImagine that unreliable babysitters sold themselves by saying: We have the cheapest LCOB\u2014we only charge $15\/hour, while reliable ones charge $20.<\/p>\n

\tObviously that would be a scam because in practice if you pay for an unreliable babysitter you also need to pay for a reliable one.
\n\tWhether you\u2019re comparing babysitters or sources of electricity, reliability is table stakes.<\/p>\n

And yet LCOE\u2014Levelized Cost of Electricity\u2014popularized by the firm Lazard, explicitly excludes \u201creliability-related considerations\u201d<\/p>\n

By allowing unreliable electricity to qualify as \u201celectricity\u201d or \u201cenergy,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0LCOE wildly understates the cost of solar and wind<\/strong>. In reality, solar and wind need life support from reliable sources.<\/p>\n

\tThe cost of using them is the full system cost, including life support cost.
\n\tThe full life-support cost of solar and wind includes the dispatchable power plants that accommodate solar and wind\u2019s unreliability\u2014and the high-density long-distance transmission wires needed to connect faraway solar and wind to nearby grids\u2014and various grid-stabilizing expenses.
\n\tSolar and wind\u2019s life-support costs are large and increase with the percentage of solar and wind use.<\/strong><\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

New York Times \u2013 The Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think<\/a><\/p>\n

Guardian \u2013 Wind power is cheapest energy, EU analysis finds<\/a><\/p>\n

IEA \u2013 Projected Costs of Generating Electricity 2020<\/a><\/p>\n

Lazard \u2013 LCOE Report 2021<\/a><\/p>\n

If Wishes Were Fishes<\/strong><\/h2>\n

All of the above are scams.<\/p>\n

If wind and solar were cheaper they would not need subsidies and we would have more wind and solar power.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: But isn\u2019t China expanding solar?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: Yes, but China does not care about costs, has a perfect high altitude location, and is not subject to ridiculous US tariffs on solar panels.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hydropower may be cheaper. And China is again a perfect example.<\/p>\n

Hydropower Electricity<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

On July 23, 2025, SCMP reported China is building the world\u2019s biggest hydropower dam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau, China envisions a future powered by the roaring waters of the Yarlung Tsangpo, also known as the Brahmaputra. The river will be the site of a mega dam \u2013 the world\u2019s most ambitious to date \u2013 that promises to bring clean energy, jobs, infrastructure and prosperity to the region.<\/p>\n

How big is the mega dam?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The dam will be situated in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo, where a section drops 2,000 metres (6,562 feet) over a 50km (31 miles) stretch, creating immense hydropower potential. The dam is reportedly located in Medog, a remote county in the city of Nyingchi in the Tibet autonomous region.<\/p>\n

When completed, the project will overtake the Three Gorges Dam as the world\u2019s largest hydropower dam. It could generate three times more energy with five cascade hydropower stations \u2013 an estimated annual capacity of 300 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, more than Britain\u2019s total annual power output.<\/p>\n

It is estimated to cost around 1.2 trillion yuan (US$167 billion), dwarfing many of the biggest infrastructure undertakings in modern history at around five times the cost of the Three Gorges Dam and even more expensive than the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

But not all hydropower is unproblematic. Lake Powell and Lake Mead in the US are problem examples.<\/p>\n

Dams silt up, US water rights are an issue, and water replenishment is an issue. The Brahmaputra damn has none of those issues.<\/p>\n

I discussed hydropower on October 27 in Why China Is On a Pace to Win the AI Race<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

China has three big advantages over the US: cheap electricity, an open source model, and fewer capital needs.<\/p>\n

Electricity Costs Are Soaring and AI Will Make Matters Worse<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Please note Electricity Costs Are Soaring and AI Will Make Matters Worse<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Electricity demand for AI data centers is soaring. The result won\u2019t be pretty.<\/p>\n

We should take advantage of cheap hydropower in Canada and be grateful for Canada\u2019s ability to produce steel and aluminum cheaper than we can.<\/p>\n

Instead, Trump proposes to make aluminum, copper, and steel manufacturing great again with 50 percent tariffs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 11\/06\/2025 – 08:45<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/energy\/if-solar-and-wind-are-now-cheaper-fossil-fuels-why-dont-we-have-more<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Solar And Wind Are Now Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels, Why Don’t We Have More? Authored by Mike Shedlock via Mish Talk, The answer is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1611368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1611367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6LbN","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/11\/The-Cost-of-Renewal-Energy_png_92-XxbQSz.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1611367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1611368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1611367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1611367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1611367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}