April 13, 2021
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No Contest: Never Reliable Wind & Solar Can’t Compete with Ever Reliable Coal-Fired Power
Then, along came coal-fired power, and they were history.
Renewables acolytes have been massaging the numbers for years, in an attempt to show that wind and solar power are the cheapest of all.
The standard bag of tricks includes ignoring the capital cost of having every single (unreliable) megawatt of wind or solar constantly backed up by another (reliable) megawatt of coal, gas, nuclear or hydro; refusing to acknowledge the cost to power consumers of mandated targets, tax breaks and/or massive direct subsidies that exclusively benefit wind and solar; ignoring the additional transmission costs of bringing intermittent and diffuse sources of energy from remote locations (where they’re produced) to the cities where the power is consumed; and dis
For any system dominated by renewables, storing energy is essential.
Storage means renewable energy can be saved when it is overproducing relative to demand – for example, in the middle of the day for solar, or during extended windy conditions. Stored energy can then be used when renewables cannot meet demand – such as overcast days or at night for solar.
Among options being considered for large-scale investment in Australia are batteries and pumped hydro energy storage (using excess renewable power to pump water back up to dams to again drive hydroelectric turbines).
Capital costs of storage technologies in $/kWh (total cost basis). Aurecon and Entura are engingeering businesses who publish project cost estimates. AEMO ISP is the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Integrated System Plan, which also includes technology cost estimates. CSIRO
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