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To the Editor:

The claim that solar power saves money could not be more wrong. The taxes we pay to subsidize are huge.

A 2017 study by the Department of Energy found that every dollar of taxpayer subsidy per BTU unit of energy produced from fossil fuel costs $10 for solar power. These subsidies are so high because solar has additional costs compared to fossil fuel.

Solar power is more dilute and is “nondispatchable,” meaning output cannot be changed to match demand. The sun does not shine brighter just because electricity is peaking. Fossil fuels can ramp up and down based on need. Solar power relies on expensive batteries on a large scale when the sun is not shining at night and on cloudy days, or if iced over.

These massive banks of batteries are not environmentally friendly. They also require large maintenance costs during the life of the solar generating stations. The U.S. Energy Information Administration uses the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) and the Levelized Cost of Storage (LCOS). These measures consider the initial costs, the lifespan of generation and storage systems, maintenance and fuel costs, decommissioning expenses, subsidies, etc., and compare that to how much electricity is produced over a power plant’s lifetime.

The LCOE and LCOS for solar is four times as expensive as natural gas. Imagine paying four times as much for electricity every month. Yet it is even worse than that when taking into account that electric costs greatly affect the cost of producing nearly everything we need everyday. If we think inflation is bad now, imagine what it would be if this country were dependent on solar power.

Rolling electric blackouts would become an everyday event. If this is our “green “future, Americans should want nothing to do with it.

Data supplied by Epoch Times, May 25.

Ann Klieves

Brodnax