EDITORIAL: Clean energy's dirty truth at the Ivanpah solar facility
It turns out the green energy produced at the Ivanpah solar power facility isn't so green after all.
As reported by the Riverside Press-Enterprise, the massive mirror array off Interstate 15, just south of the Nevada state line, uses so much natural gas to function that it has to be regulated under California's cap-and-trade boondoggle.
The project, funded by $1.6 billion in federal loan guarantees and $600 million in tax credits, burns natural gas when there isn't sufficient sunshine to boil water and generate the steam that turns the plant's turbines. Last year, the plant burned enough to emit 46,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Which officially makes a facility … a polluter.
A dirty secret about "clean" energy is that it requires fossil fuel backup that's substantially cheaper to produce — and doesn't require taxpayer handouts to be built. So why make taxpayers subsidize a technology that can't meet demand for power on its own and doesn't have the environmental benefits promised — to say nothing of the thousands of birds the Ivanpah plant incinerates every year?
If green energy isn't as green as its advocates claim, then it stands to reason that the climate change alarmism that drives green energy mandates isn't honest policy, either.
As reported by the Riverside Press-Enterprise, the massive mirror array off Interstate 15, just south of the Nevada state line, uses so much natural gas to function that it has to be regulated under California's cap-and-trade boondoggle.
The project, funded by $1.6 billion in federal loan guarantees and $600 million in tax credits, burns natural gas when there isn't sufficient sunshine to boil water and generate the steam that turns the plant's turbines. Last year, the plant burned enough to emit 46,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Which officially makes a facility … a polluter.
A dirty secret about "clean" energy is that it requires fossil fuel backup that's substantially cheaper to produce — and doesn't require taxpayer handouts to be built. So why make taxpayers subsidize a technology that can't meet demand for power on its own and doesn't have the environmental benefits promised — to say nothing of the thousands of birds the Ivanpah plant incinerates every year?
If green energy isn't as green as its advocates claim, then it stands to reason that the climate change alarmism that drives green energy mandates isn't honest policy, either.
No comments:
Post a Comment