Solar now accounts for over 50% of new electricity capacity added to the U.S. grid

Good luck putting 22% corn in a bin and drying it down to 15% with out getting hot spots and out of condition corn. 18.5% corn is around my limit that I am willing to try air drying. And that is when the weather conditions are in your favor.

 

Most of my power come from the Dakota dams where I live. West Central Iowa.

 

I live in Colorado. Limon and the entire eastern plains are installing wind energy at a rapid pace. I am not a farmer, but the feelings here seem to be mixed, with 60% of folks in the wind farm areas positive about the development. Here are a few comments.

https://coloradosun.com/2022/06/19/eastern-plains-renewable-energy-xcel-power-pathway/

“We’ve had windmills around here for a long time. These are just bigger,” said Jan Kochis, 73, whose family runs a farm and cattle operation in Elbert County, and already has wind turbines on her land, generating royalties. “It’s our new cash crop. We don’t have to worry about the rain or hail, as long as the wind blows,” Kochis said.

“Once these big companies come in, we are going to lose control,” said William Harman, 54, who runs a family cattle business and farm in Washington County. “Once you sign a lease you lose control.”

Tom Jackson, who raises corn outside the town of Joes, in Yuma County, said, “maybe 60% of the people are OK with it, either way everybody realizes it’s coming.”

“The money is all right. It is the longevity that bothers me and having to look at those transmission lines and wind mills forever.”

“It’s a big land rush. Everyone is jockeying to get into position,” said R.J. Jolly, a Cheyenne County commissioner and farmer,
who has signed a wind lease agreement with Enel. “There is a lot of money on the table.”
”

 

Your state is a leader in the wind industry. I think it's a tribute to the people of Iowa. Although you are against the wind development, there must be a lot of support for it, otherwise it wouldn't be happening as much as it is. Are a lot of the big farmers making a lot of royalty money?

 

Much advocacy for renewable energy seems to have an irrational foundation.
The Mystery Of The Uncontrolled Hatred Of Fossil Fuels And Those Who Produce Them
March 11, 2024/ Francis Menton

• 
  What is it about fossil fuels and the people who produce them that brings forth such uncontrolled hatred, anger, and vengefulness in a very large segment of the population?
  
  
• I’ve been trying to figure out the answer to that question for many years, but I’m no closer today than when I started.
  
  
• I look at the use of fossil fuels in the world, and somehow I see enormous benefits to mankind — reliable electricity, transportation of people locally and at long distances, and of freight to enable worldwide trade, comfortable heating and cooling of homes, refrigeration to preserve food, computers, and so much more, all at remarkably low cost and remarkably small environmental impact. Most uses of fossil fuels either have no good substitutes (e.g., air travel, ocean shipping, steel-making), or only substitutes that have both higher cost, plus inferior functionality and/or their own environmental problems (e.g., wind, solar, or nuclear for electricity).
  
  
• With almost no exceptions (e.g., the Unabomber) everybody who has access to fossil fuels or their energy output uses them in large quantities, precisely because they provide great benefits at low cost and low environmental impact, in ways that nothing else can. Even the most virtue signaling of climate fanatics, with almost no exceptions, won’t give up air travel, or buildings made with steel and concrete, or full-time life-saving electricity at the hospital, or plenty of other things that come only from fossil fuels.
  

READ MORE

 

I’m not interested in doing the math, but depending on the percentage of electricity coming from fossil fuels to run a fan long enough to air dry, it’s likely more fossil fuels would be used that way than if used to directly heat air for the drying process.

As you know, it takes a long time and a lot of electricity to air dry without heat.

 

We have gone totally solar. We're still connected to the grid, but just to sell power back to the utility company. It works great. Expensive, but the bottom-line is we pay about the same for the solar loan as we paid in monthly electric utility bills. So its a wash. Except that now we are building equity. And we never have to worry about power outages. I'm no tree hugger and I'll probably never own an electric car, but household solar is a winner. And as electric gets more expensive, we'll make more selling it to the utility company.

 

The crucial difference is that YOU made this decision on your own you weren't forced by government to do it but the solar array degrades over time thus an investment just as in a new car decline in value over time.

 

All true. But the increased payments from selling power and the equity more than makes up for it. 65 panels will last. The batteries will degrade like on a car, but at my age that doesn't worry me. The installation and all the rest will last. Heck, Biden may have us all nuked by November.

 

Congratulations! Last year, two my Republican neighbors followed my lead and recommendation, and got solar. Now the Utility just raised the fixed fee again, which makes it harder to pay back. The fixed fee was $9.95 in 2011. This latest increase raised it to $39.95. The Utility is run by a bunch of Republicans. These two neighbors may start voting Democratic after this move.

 

Ha ha ha, I always consider single issue voters to miss the higher importance of supporting the Republic over ideology.

 

"Supporting the Republic"? Think about these fixed fees. Let's say you enter a service station to gas up your car, and the attendant charges you $20 before you start pumping. Now if you have a huge SUV that holds $100 worth of gas, you are paying an additional 20%. It you have a small car that holds $20 worth of gas, you are paying an additional 100%. Maybe you like Corporate moguls stealing money from the poor, and letting the wealthy have a free ride, but most of us don't.

 

Claimed solar energy "costs" exclude significant expenses for the public utility. Home solar users are to some extent free riders. Those fees balance the books.

 

Home solar users bring down the cost of electricity for all customers, because they contribute to lowering the peak load in the Summer. Also when putting surplus generation back on the grid, their neighbors draw that electrical current, and there is no voltage loss. Voltage loss accounts for 5% of wasted Utility generation, and in rural areas the number is even higher.

 

Well, no.
Impacts of Solar Power on Electricity Rates and Bills

American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy
https://www.aceee.org › files › data › papers

PDF
by MA Brown · Cited by 4 — Residential electricity bills are projected to increase by nearly 6% in real terms from 2015 to 2030, assuming that the solar installation patterns across ...
13 pages

 

Either refute the peak load argument or let's not discuss. It's very common for all solar naysayers to ignore the peak load contribution of solar.

 

From your #89: Home solar users bring down the cost of electricity for all customers . . .

 

Parroting my comment doesn't refute anything.

 

But it suggests "peak load" was not really your focus, at least not as posted by you.

 

I cited solar's contribution to peak load demand.

 

Yea, we have all this solar generated electricity, and the electric bills are going up as a result. In the California, Newsom wants to tie the amount of your electric bill to your income.

 

I'm dealing with just the opposite in my area of Colorado. My Utility continues to raise the Fixed Fee, while holding down the Usage Fee. Under this scenario, the poor low-square-footage dweller who conserves and conserves pays a much higher net "Per-Kilowatt-Hour" rate than the extremely wealthy trophy home owner - it could easily be 2-3 times as much. Fixed fees have gone from $9.95 per month in 2011 to $39.95 per month today, while KWH rates have gone from about 10 cents to 11 cents.

 

And yet your claim was lowered rates for all, which my linked research showed was not the case.

 

Your article is dated 2016, and is just about 100% out-of-date. From your article:

Because NEM customers receive retail rates for energy they provide to the grid or use to reduce their own demand they may not be adequately paying for grid services such as transmission, distribution, and other ancillary services that they still consume

There may be 1 or 2 utilities in the US still reimbursing renewable surplus generation at the Retail rate, but the vast majority use the Wholesale rate, so the entire premise is false. I could talk a lot more about this, because Utilities are now putting the screws to Netmetering customers more and more, but it would be off-topic. Suffice to say that if Utilities were more fair with Netmetering customers, the 50% number mentioned in this thread would be much higher.

 

Sure.