Renewable Revolution

Solar Dropping Wholesale Electricity Prices Like A Bad Habit (Charts) 

Agelbert NOTE:The article is great but I got a kick out of the comments. It seems quite a few of us were on to the fossil fuel utility "energy expert" BULLSHIT game from the start. 

Jouni Valkonen 
• 8 hours ago
And soon batteries will eliminate that evening spike and little bit later also morning spike will be eliminated.

Adam Devereaux 
• 7 hours ago
Isn't it incredible how solar went from a technology that could never generate an appreciable amount of power to a technology that is bad because it steals profits away from utilities and disrupts the standard revenue pattern?

Zachary Shahan Top Commenter > Adam Devereaux 
• 6 hours ago
Ha ha, so incredible and cool. (And also from a power source that "couldn't be integrated into the grid at more than ~5% of the power supply" Funny how that claim turned out. )

Matt > Zachary Shahan 
• 3 hours ago
People still try to use the "can't be integrated" line. Its like living in Oz. But instead of "Ignore the man be hid the curtain" it is "Ignore those countries in Europe"

Zachary Shahan Top Commenter > Matt 
• 2 hours ago
True.

SecularAnimist 
• 3 hours ago
The utility company alarmism about "integrating solar into the grid" was always a bit of a red herring. That may be a relevant issue if you are talking about integrating utility-scale solar power plants into the grid. But it is mostly irrelevant with regard to distributed end-user solar power, which doesn't really have to be "integrated" into the grid. As far as the grid is concerned, it just looks like demand reduction. Which, as is becoming apparent, is what the utilities were really worried about all along.


Zachary Shahan Top Commenter > SecularAnimist 
• 2 hours ago
Well summarized.

Dave R 
• 2 hours ago
Got any data on California wholesale prices? There's enough solar on the California grid (~3GW utility scale, ~2GW distributed) that we should be seeing a similar effect there as well.

Do NOT expect Charles Hall, Gail Tverberg, Nicole Foss, Tyler Durden or any of the other "energy" pundits out there to own up to the FACT that they pushed the fossil fuel mendacious propaganda for years! Now they are getting SO quiet about what they previously loudly claimed (up about one year ago when the Renewable Energy tsunami began to eat into their cred).   

It is too expensive - It is not competitive with fossil fuels - It's over subsidized with feed in tariffs while fossil fuels are cheap (no mention of fossil fuel gigantic subsidies LOL!) - It's a fad - it's pie in the sky - it's hopium and fartum - it's magical thinking - it's EROI is too low! - it's polluting! - it's unhealthy! - it's a niche -  we need to better use our resources! - it lowers our GDP! - it makes us less powerful as a country! - it's a drop in the bucket - it takes food off the table  - it will destabilize the grid! - it hurts the poor - it's a bad investment - the upfront costs are too high -  it isn't cost effective -  it isn't reliable - it won't last because we will always have to use fossil fuels to make the machinery for it  -  it's ugly and lowers real estate values - it can't respond to demand spikes and people will freeze to death in winter or roast in summer from lack of RELIABLE fossil fuel power!  -

it cuts into health insurance profits because less people get SICK from fossil and nuclear fuel poisons (Actually they didn't say this because it is the only statement of all the above that is actually  true!).