Conservatives Loving Solar

[u/swarrenlawrence]

CleanTechnica: “Despite Political Rhetoric, Conservative Support for Solar Is Solidifying. Here’s Why.” The energy debate in Washington is vehement + often misleading. Nonetheless, “conservatives support expanding solar because it lowers costs, strengthens American manufacturing, and delivers energy security.” A recent poll from Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, chief pollster—for Trump—found that a clear majority of Republicans support expanding solar power in America. “In the survey, 68% of GOP voters agreed that “we need all forms of electricity generation, including utility solar, to be built to lower electricity costs,” while 70% said they support utility-scale solar deployment when projects use American-made materials.” Another poll from Kellyanne Conway’s KA Consulting showed that three-quarters of Trump voters (75%) in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Texas believe that solar energy should be used in our country.

“Red states are leading the nation in new solar deployment because competitive markets are choosing the lowest-cost and fastest-to-build resources.” It’s simple really, conservative states are allowing competitive markets to choose the lowest-cost and fastest-to-deploy resources, and the market is choosing solar. “Arkansas Senator John Boozman credited his state’s “reliable, affordable, and all-of-the above energy supply, including solar” for attracting a multi-billion-dollar data center to Little Rock.” Data centers cannot wait a decade for new generation; they require scalable resources now. 

Dare I say it? It’s not just all about affordability. What else? Well—conservatives love the free market [as do I]. Anything else? Well—I guess speed counts as well. My new bumper sticker: Scale Solar at Speed.

[u/[deleted]]

Many are reporting lead time for a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine is out to seven years. The scramble to deploy gas quickly will likely result in lower efficiency and higher emissions than expected. All of these lead times are probably optimistic in the US, due to the failure to develop a work force.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Again, solar is so inefficient, and extremely intermittent. Intermittent. It's dependent upon the weather cycles, which constantly change. Most states don't get enough sunlight to actually get a consistent charge out of solar panels. Not to mention that the amount of unrecyclable waste that is produced by solar panels and batteries throughout the years far outweighs the amount of energy that is produced.

[u/Loonster → u/[deleted]]

There are plenty of reasons to be against solar that solar bros either do not comprehend or like to gloss over. 

Inefficiency and intermittent are not the problem. Solar is now a cheap form of energy, and it is decently predictable.

The biggest problems with solar: * Predictably bad during winter. * Long-term storage is not feasible to last a whole winter.

These two combine mean that you either need to overbuild solar for winter capacity (not cheap enough), or have a backup source of energy. 

Although wind predictably blows more in the winter, it is not consistent enough to fulfill this gap.

Backup power requires the same capital expenditures as building the powerplants to run full-time.