as power from the plug?
From the EIA website…
“The rise in wind generation was the largest absolute “fuel-specific” increase as it was up 2,839 thousand megawatthours, or 35.5 percent. Texas, Iowa, and California showed the largest increases, although the gains were widespread as only three of the thirty-eight States that had wind generation reported to EIA showed less in June 2011 than they had in June 2010. Delaware, Maryland, and Rhode Island, which did not have wind generators that reported in June 2010, had wind generation in June 2011.”
Yes it will, the huge advantage of wind and solar is there’s no fuel cost. The technology will continue to develop and there will be absolutely no way that systems which require continuous fuel inputs can compete.
That’s basic and fundamental economics. No input costs = the lower cost option.
More Pages:
- Solar Power: How Much It Would Cost For Wind Power Generator ? (6/26/2011)
- Solar Power: How Do Electric Generators At Power Plants Work? (1/18/2012)
- Solar Producer: What Is The Potential For Alternative Energy In Malaysia? (biomass/fuel, Solar, Nuclear, Wind, Water)? (6/23/2011)
- Should we be concerned the USA only has 4 of the world’s top 30 companies in wind, solar, and battery tech?
- Solar Power: What Percent Of Wind Power Does The United States Produce? (6/11/2011)
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
It isn’t going to happen.
You will turn 50 more birthdays before that ever becomes a reality.
Haven’t you heard windmills kill sparrows so your own side is protesting against your own solar power.
Tell you what present a VIABLE power source that does NOT require subsidies and is efficient then we can talk.
Still.. it takes around 500+ wind turbine towers to equal the power output of a single coal or nuclear power plant. And the coal/nuclear can operate predictably at or near 100% capacity for long periods of time. Wind power is unpredictable and efficiency is never that great even in the best of conditions.
There’s a whole lot more involved with the cost of producing power than the input cost. There’s maintenance/operation. Wind towers frequently need repair, solar cells need to be replaced in time, etc.
How exactly would you handle the windless nights, anyway?
I’d like to see how solar/wind would be doing without subsidies and without the state governments that are placing requirements on their utilities to implement them.
The green dream lives on we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars since Jimmy Carter got the green bug an is still only accounts for 3 % of all energy used.
Hey, just who the hell do you think TRANSMITS the solar power so it can be used? Geez, you anti corporation, oil company, hating people just cannot think.
From the consumer standpoint, that’s already true in very limited cases. In an ideal location, solar on a residence is cheaper than retail electricity, and certainly cheaper than electric or gas water heating. But that’s a rare case today. Electric companies actually welcome this in sunny areas, as it reduces peak capacity that they have to build. But again, only in specific areas like Honolulu.
If too many solar generators connect, that would present a problem for the grid as it stands today. Too much variability. At that point, we would need to rethink the connection scheme. New solar would probably not get as good a deal as existing solar that’s grandfathered in.
At a time when solar and wind is actually half the cost of grid power, it will become grid power, and I think we’ll see massive deployments by the power companies themselves.