SeekerBlog

This letter was sent by power systems engineer Eugene Preston:

Dear President Obama,

I think that solar and wind energy will produce far too little energy to solve the climate
change problem or allow the US to become energy independent. Here’s why:

SOLAR – A large utility owned solar plant costs about $5 per watt (Austin Energy) and a
new nuclear plant also costs $5 per watt (Austin Energy). However, solar runs less than
25% of the time and nuclear runs more than 90% of the time. The long term centralized
solar plant with solar tracking panels produces energy at 4 times the cost of nuclear.

Roof-top solar with fixed panels appears to be a short term solution; however, it produces
half the energy of the centralized plant tracking panels. Centralized solar can take
advantage of an economy of scale. This results in roof-top solar producing its energy at
about 2.5 times the cost of centralized solar. Combining the 2.5 and 4 shows that the
short term roof-top solar has 10 times the energy cost of that from a new nuclear plant.

Roof-top solar is affordable only to people and businesses that are already doing well financially. Since everyone pays their electric bills, I think we will hear an outcry from low income people that they are subsidizing home solar systems for the rich. There is a good chance that roof-top solar will fail to develop as you have envisioned.

The Preston letter continues- examining wind, coal and nuclear options.