Our Sources Say
Renewable Energy
L
ast summer I went home for my 40th high school reunion. I continue to be amazed at how the 12 years we spent in school seems longer than the 40 years since. I grew up in Corinth, Miss., near the Tennessee line and only get home a few times a year to visit Mom. When I am home I try to spend as much time as I can with her, so I don’t see my high school friends as much as I would like. However, class reunions are a good chance for us that grew up together to reconnect. Last summer, after the formal reunion functions, a number of us stayed out late like we did as teenagers. In talking about our careers, one of my closest childhood friends, Jimbo Bryant, questioned why
Gary Smith is President and CEO of PowerSouth Energy Cooperative 44 may 2013
electric utilities don’t use wind and solar power instead of fossil-generated power. Bo has always been a little progressive (he was suspended from high school for a while and may have filed a lawsuit because he refused to cut his hair), and he insisted that renewables would be better than how we generate electricity. Bo is not the only one who questions me about renewable power. I am often asked what I have against renewable energy. My answer is the same I gave to my old friend Bo Bryant: “The only things I have against renewable energy are its reliability and cost.” From a reliability perspective, wind and solar power are poor choices. Even in areas where there is a lot of wind, the capacity factor of wind (a measure of how much electricity a generator would produce if it were running at continuous full power operation during a same period) is about 30 percent. (The capacity factor of base load fossil generation plants is usually close to 90 percent.) Renewables are most often not available when electric loads are the highest, with an on-peak capacity factor of about 10 percent. It is even worse in areas like Alabama and the Florida panhandle where the wind doesn’t blow very much. Solar is not much better since the sun does not shine a number of hours each day. PowerSouth’s distribution systems normally peak on cold January mornings when the sun is not shining, so it has no value in meeting our peak loads. To make renewable energy reliable, electric utilities build natural gas generation facilities to use when the renewables are not available. The other thing I don’t like about renewables is the cost. There would be no renewable power without government
subsidies, and renewable developers fight effectively to retain those subsidies. Fossil generation also receives government subsidies, but not to the extent of wind and solar power. The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimates federal subsidies for wind generation will be more than $11 billion in 2013 – about $52 per megawatt hour. Wind power, with the subsidies, can be competitive in price with fossil energy if the cost of back-up generation is not counted. Because of subsidies and renewable energy standards, some states require that a certain percentage of renewable energy is sold, so the higher-cost wind or solar often displaces lower-cost fossil generated power – raising electricity costs to consumers. Solar subsidies are equally high, and even with subsidies the cost is at least two times more expensive than fossil generation (not including the cost of back-up generation). If the back-up generation for use when the sun doesn’t shine is included, solar makes no economic sense. For comparison purposes, coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear generation will receive about $2.7 billion in subsidies in 2013. That equates to approximately $0.64 per megawatt hour for coal, $0.63 for natural gas and $3.10 for nuclear. These resources provide about 95 percent of all electric power in the U.S., while renewable energy garners $11 billion in subsidies for only 5 percent of the energy. In the meantime, if you have a chance to visit downtown Corinth, Miss., stop in at JB’s Outdoors or the Pizza Grocery next door. Jimbo has a great line of outdoor equipment, clothing and great pizza. Tell them I sent you. Thank you for reading. I hope you have a great month. A www.alabamaliving.coop