Alternative Energy A wise Choice?
By bobmnu
@bobmnu (8157)
United States
January 28, 2009 12:37pm CST
President Obama wants to develop alternative energy sources. Right now almost 50% of our electricity is produced by using coal. The big push is for Wind and Solar to produce Electricity. I tried to find the cost of producing a megawatt hour of electricity using coal vs solar or wind. It is very difficult and I could not get a true cost. What I did find was a chart that showed the government subsidy for the different forms of electricity production. Coal, which we have the largest known reserves in the world, receives a subsidy of $0.44 per megawatt hour. Wind, which is cheaper than solar, receives a subsidy of $23.37 per megawatt hour. This means that if we paid the full cost of electricity we would pay $0.44 per megawatt hour for electricity produced by coal and $23.37 per megawatt hour for electricity produced by wind or a 5311% increase in the cost of our electric bill. One advantage of coal is you can build the plant near where the electricity is being used and reduced the number of Power lines. Wind requires the farms to be where there is a constant wind and many open acres of land and this is often far from the end use so more power lines need to be built. Below is the subsidy chart form the Federal Government.
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/energy_in_brief/energy_subsidies.cfm
Does it make sense to invest in wind on a massive scale if it is going to put electricity out of reach of the average person?
1 person likes this
2 responses
@quinnkl (1667)
• United States
28 Jan 09
I think there will have to be a lot done to keep the energy costs efficient, but I do believe that we need to find a way to make the wind and solar energies work for us. I think there is so much more involved and so much more than we know that can and will be done so that we can make the alternative energy sources affordable. And I am all for it. We need to get away from using up our gas, oil, coal etc. And we have to find something cleaner to do the job.
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@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
30 Jan 09
Back in the 1970 and the last energy crisis I knew a group of business men who were going to produce ethanol using corn and burning wood. They would buils several smaller plants to do the production. They would use the corn and the by product was a mash that could be used as animal feed. It would be very competitive with gas. The EPA stopped the project in the very early stages because if the air remained perfectly calm the smoke from the wood would produce smog and pose a health hazard. The EPA was right the levels would be high enough to cause health problems over a months time. That is assuming that there was no air movement at all, no rain or no snow in the area for at least one month. A workable solution stopped because of some "Brains" out of Washington.
There are people fighting wind power because of the birds being killed.
@JoyfulOne (6231)
• United States
28 Jan 09
I believe alternative energy is a very wise choice. I'm looking into wind power for here (a farm), and it looks promising. (I have the land, good steady winds, and can sell extra power made back to the power company.) I think it's unattainable for the average person right now, and costs will have to come down if the US really wants to make a difference in our oil/coal resources and dependency. For those with the right land requirements, there are helps out there so that the person doesn't have to bear the whole cost of the project. I think as more wind farms, and with solar technology, that maybe it will make a huge difference in the future.
There is no guarantee that coal and oil resources will be there in the future, I think the time to plan ahead for the inevitibility is now. We want our future (children & grandchildren) to have a warmth too:-) Wind and solar should be made more affordable to the masses! I think the only reason why it's so expensive a power source (right now) is because it's so limited...and as with everything else, the more availability there is, the more the cost comes down.
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
30 Jan 09
In the Midwestern part of the US we have many wind farms. The problem is getting the lines built to deliver the power to the areas that need it. Minnesota has passed a law saying that the power companies must have a certain percent of their electricity from wind. The companies say that there is not enough wind power produced in Minnesota to meet the requirement. The reason the cost are too high for people to do it on a large scale.
We do need to look for and develop alternative sources of power, but until then we need to use what we have now. We need to find better ways to use the Gas, Oil and Coal while we are developing new energy sources.
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