Solar Power Isn’t Working

$2.2 Billion Solar Plant May Be Forced to Shut Down

A federally backed, $2.2 billion solar project in the California desert isn’t producing the electricity it is contractually required to deliver to PG and E Corp., which says the solar plant may be forced to shut down if it doesn’t receive a break Thursday from state regulators. --Cassandra Sweet, The Wall Street Journal, 17 March 2016

Announcing government support for clean-energy projects, President Obama hailed a Spanish company, saying its new solar technology would supply tens of thousands of American homes with renewable power, while spurring local employment. “It’s good news,” Mr. Obama said in 2010, “that we’ve attracted a company to our shores to build a plant and create jobs right here in America.” But Abengoa’s global ambitions are now the source of its troubles. Saddled with debt from its expansion, the company is scrambling to avoid what would be the largest bankruptcy in Spanish corporate history. Creditors and shareholders are taking the company to court as losses mount and crucial financial support disappears. --Raphael Minder, The New York Times, 17 March 2016

The original justification for solar subsidies was that by stimulating greater consumer demand, there would be a massive increase in production leading to dramatic falls in production costs. Eventually the subsidy regime, the thinking went, could die away. That last part in particular doesn’t seem to be happening: long-term subsidies appear to be as necessary to the solar industry as ever. The technology just isn’t there yet—the current generation of commercial solar panels don’t work well enough for people to install them unless they get fat subsidies and tax write-offs. -- The American Interest, 15 March 2016

Germany’s carbon dioxide emissions increased by an estimated 10 million tonnes from 2014 to 20152, in a blow to the country’s claims to climate leadership. Higher demand for heating oil and diesel, plus use of lignite (brown coal) for power generation, were behind the 1.1% bounce, according to Green Budget Germany. The think tank warned this set Europe’s largest economy off course for its 2020 target of a 40% cut from 1990 levels. Berlin needs to find 18% cuts in the next five years. --Megan Darby, Climate Home 15 March 2016

Clive James has described concerns over climate change as “manufactured fright” in a new poem and says that environmental disaster, like his death, is yet to materialise. --Kaya Burgess, The Times, 17 March 2016

 

It is widely promulgated and believed that human-caused global warming comes with increases in both the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. A survey of official weather sites and the scientific literature provides strong evidence that the first half of the 20th century had more extreme weather than the second half, when anthropogenic global warming is claimed to have been mainly responsible for observed climate change. The disconnect between real-world historical data on the 100 years’ time scale and the current predictions provides a real conundrum when any engineer tries to make a professional assessment of the real future value of any infrastructure project which aims to mitigate or adapt to climate change. What is the appropriate basis on which to make judgements when theory and data are in such disagreement? --Michael J Kelly,Journal of Geography and Natural Disasters, 17 March 2016