Cost Of Renewable Energy; Name Plate Capacity Of Renewable Energy -- The European Experience -- January 14, 2015

Capital Cost and Production Effectiveness of Renewable Energy in Europe – the Data.

In case this link breaks, I've included the most important graphics from that page:

And, by country:

Promoting wind energy and solar energy with outlandish promises based on "nameplate capacity" seems a lot like selling snake oil back in the vaudeville era.

There are two huge takeaways from the linked site and the graphics.

First, the cost, and most of us have dwelled on the cost of renewable energy vs coal/natural gas.

Second, the nameplate capacity. I first learned about that concept several years ago when I did not know at all what it meant, and then a reader explained it to me. I don't think the average American knows that when renewable energy advocates talk about capacity (nameplate capacity) they are generally talking about "best" capacity under ideal conditions. It turns out that "never" happens (for anything manmade because conditions are never ideal -- even nameplate capacity of a coal plant is meaningless when coal miners go on strike) ... and now there are more and more stories that "oh, the wind is not blowing as much as we thought it would, or the sun is not shining as much as we thought it would" -- some stories posted at the blog.

So, it's great to see the nameplate capacity graph because in many ways it's worse than the cost. Folks budget for the cost and accept it when they agree to a project; but then when the project doesn't deliver as expected ... that's when things get a bit testy.

A big thank you to the reader who sent this this link.

By the way, consider the above data when looking at this recently released "study" from "Oceana":

Oceana’s report finds that offshore wind would produce twice the number of jobs and twice the amount of energy as offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean. The report, titled Offshore Energy by the Numbers, An Economic Analysis of Offshore Drilling and Wind Energy in the Atlantic, challenges recent claims by the oil and gas industry that opening the East Coast to offshore drilling will lead the United States to energy independence, generate millions of dollars in revenue for states and create thousands of jobs in the process. Oceana’s analysis instead finds that the benefits projected by the industry appear to be exaggerated due to the inclusion of oil and gas resources that are not economically recoverable, thereby inflating the potential benefits. Industry estimates also rely upon an assumption of a state revenue-sharing system that does not exist.

Considering no one really knows the extent of oil and gas reserves off-shore, and considering the European experience with renewable energy .... let's just say I'm happy I stumbled across The Coyote Blog's "fake but accurate" style of writing in today's journalism.