My newsletter today explains. Following are just the top four bullet points:

  • The renewable energy sources (wind and solar) aren’t a one-for-one tradeoff for traditional resources (coal, gas, nuclear). Wind and solar are far less efficient than traditional resources. It’s more of a one-third to one-fourth for one tradeoff.
  • Furthermore, wind and solar are unreliable resources — the wind doesn’t always blow, the sun doesn’t always shine, especially not in coordination with up-to-the-minute consumer energy needs.
  • So wind and solar need a reliable resource — coal, gas, nuclear — traditional always cycling in the background. This means they simply cannot “replace” those resources.
  • Because there cannot be an independent, reliable wind or solar facility standing alone without needing backup from a traditional resource, it cannot be said their energy costs are free nor that they emit nothing (well, unless their backup is nuclear).

Read the newsletter for the rest — and also for links to several reports to flesh out the case behind those bullet points.