Last Monday, I wrote about how renewable energy is reducing electricity prices in Spain. Maybe predictably, I got some pushback from readers staying that this is not the case in the US. As proof, one reader sent me the chart below of the average electricity price homeowners pay in California, which has aggressively moved to renewables vs. the average US homeowner.
It’s also a horses for courses argument. California power per sq km has a high population density. Therefore the additional transmission costs are materially lower when you have a high % of renewables. As you your population density declines the transmission costs rise exponentially. It a classic case of humans trying to understand simple problems with simple solutions. The real world is way more complex.
Until we have quantum shifts in energy storage technology that is scalable, commercial and feasible in engineering terms then the high % renewables argument remains a virtue signaling exercise. Just ask an engineer whose job is not at risk for speaking out.
Btw check out energy dome. It may be a complete failure but it’s the most realistic option for grid scale energy storage I’ve seen. Irony of ironies, it’s a carbon dioxide battery 😂
'In Connecticut, electricity prices are about the same as in California, but they use only 5% renewables and 95% fossil fuels and nuclear'
1 Biden halted permitting new fossil exploration in the US.
2 The environmentally concerned climate- and energy experts amongst the north-eastern electorates voted to not be connected by pipeline to shale from the US interior.
3 They have to import fossil fuel and are exposed to global prices. Most natural gas is imported from abroad.
4 Most US refineries are old as US govs discouraged investments since the 80s (again environmental- and climate concerns). This means that a large share of US shale is refined abroad and is then transported back. This is neither economical nor CO2 friendly. But it does lead to funny situations: Biden proposed a few years ago, AFTER Nordstream, to halt energy exports (‘ally’ Europe would have been massively intercoursed in the rear). Despite an existing (from the Marxist pov) US energy department it took the Chevron CEO writing in the WSJ that the US nééds foreign refineries for its shale to change Biden’s mind (whether there is a Biden mind fully existing as understood from the Marxist pov is another discussion).
'on days where renewables were so abundant as to supply more than 100% of the state’s electricity needs, electricity prices dropped by more than 50% compared to the same period the year before when renewables were a smaller share of the electricity generation'
Hallelujah. And at which times was all that abundant ‘cheap’ energy produced? During working or sleeping hours? During the weekend? Renewables' supplies are opposed to work- production- and life patterns. Europe just had a massive 2024 negative electricity price ‘fest’ because of renewables. But those surpluses go down the drain. We haven't benefited because renewable elec production cannot be controlled, storage is non-existent and interconnectivity is not only troublesome but actually causes troubles.
Norway's (now the UK's main energy supplier) gas fields are slowly emptying. https://tinyurl.com/4p336dyn While the EU wants NO to implement the EU's 4th clean energy program. https://tinyurl.com/y5t9xxn4 NO sees that as infringement on its sovereignty.
Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany are rapidly getting entangled in an interconnectivity problem. The Swedish gov once again called German energy policies nuts:
'Sweden slams German ‘green’ energy policy reliance on ‘weather gods’'
Of course, the idea of purity-obsessed Teutons (once again) assembling under their holy trees is funny. Though they don’t seem capable of doing in another Varus as today's Teutons-under-the-tree are mostly of the callus free academic kind.
'A third important driver of the California premium is higher electricity demand '
Read: if you subsidize the hell out of your eager lets-save-the-planet-at-someone-else's-expense electorate - and it still weren't Los Angeles' working poor who got Teslas and solar panels - then you can up demand really quickly.
Plus, since the Cali gov demands renewable energy from its utilities, the excess elec that these very responsible middle- and upper class private producers sell back from their subsidized panels is bought by the utilities at RETAIL prices. Instead of the price they'd pay for elec from another source.
A fourth important driver of the Cali premium is the fact that a complete fossil back-up system has to be guaranteed. Which has ever fewer moments to make a profit while maintenance costs grow (a utility on hold is not healthy for the machinery).
A fifth important driver of the Cali premium is that > renewables correspond with massive extra grid investments.
Let us finish with Hayek on intellectuals - i do believe that a generous supply of (true) intellectuals runs in the opposite direction of a grid filled with ever more renewable energy and therefore the intellectual as meant by Hayek is (also) becoming a scarce good. We are now left with experts, consultants and other academic gurus:
'Intellectuals, according to Hayek, are drawn to utopian visions. First and foremost among those visions is the creation of a new social order, specifically one designed by “experts.” They also have the hubris to anoint themselves as the experts to design this new order. Hayek wrote:
The intellectual, by his whole disposition, is uninterested in technical details or practical difficulties. What appeals to him are broad visions, the spacious comprehension of the social order as a whole which a planned system promises'.
Cheers. But you dó understand that for today's secular Teutons those holy trees come in the shape of wind mills, right? They're treated with the utmost deference. In fact, since the non-metal parts can’t be recycled, the blades are actually buried when their ‘economical’ life ends. (Typically a lot quicker than the warranty certificate said).
But high morals don’t let such common sense vulgarities crash their party. Of course in the réal world the Greens and Social Dems háve crashed. But that’s because of social media operated by malign foreign actors. We all know that.
Btw: only the stupid fall for it. Just follow media-psychologist Sander van der Linden (Cambridge) on X or LinkedIn. He has an uncanny insight into the motivations of plebeians and will share weekly updates of his studies that have remarkable conclusions like ‘on social media bad news is shared more than good news!’ (For unknown reasons soulboy Sander blocked me. So now i have to do without my weekly dose of exclamation marks. Bummer…they made me feel young).
Of course the Greens & Dems did not politically crash because they’re profoundly arrogant treehugging nitwit idiots. (As soulboy Sander will show you such qualifications not only make for an unsafe reading experience, they clearly prove i’ve been intellectually captured by a Putin-paid 2 minute Tiktok video (as far as those-on-the-wrong-side-of-history can have an intellect).
Nor did the Greens & Dems crash because they’re not 100% on the side of German females. Just look at their feminist foreign policy and its undeniable results (these days headlines áre the result).
Solidarity and equality is what progressives have always been about.
That’s why young German females on a night out more and more are exposed to streets that aren’t any safer than girls and women in the Maghreb and Levant experience (or a night out elsewhere in Europe for that matter, we’re all progressives now). But middle class girls, at least until they reach nightlife-age, are transported from a to b by their see no evil hear no evil parents - electrically of course. As Gary Numan already knew, friends are electric).
To finish with wind mill blade burials: in the future a new invention (the study already exists) may have them constructed from a substance that can be turned into sweets and bubblegum when their economical life ends. Reborn as bubblegum. That’s how we like our energy trans.
In addition to the factors you mentioned, we also pay more in CA for electricity because of the following factors:
1. Amortizing the cost of suddenly shutting down the San Onofre nuclear station a decade ago.
2. Paying for the re-licensing and extended operation of Diablo Canyon, so the same thing that happened to San Onofre doesn't happen to Diablo Canyon.
3. Paying costs associated with the San Bruno natural gas pipeline explosion a decade ago, and upgrades to other pipelines to prevent a similar disaster.
4. Paying costs associated with the pollution and leakage from the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility.
Aren't bots fun? 🤣
not a bot
Thanks for doing additional research on the topic in response to reader comment.
It’s also a horses for courses argument. California power per sq km has a high population density. Therefore the additional transmission costs are materially lower when you have a high % of renewables. As you your population density declines the transmission costs rise exponentially. It a classic case of humans trying to understand simple problems with simple solutions. The real world is way more complex.
Until we have quantum shifts in energy storage technology that is scalable, commercial and feasible in engineering terms then the high % renewables argument remains a virtue signaling exercise. Just ask an engineer whose job is not at risk for speaking out.
Btw check out energy dome. It may be a complete failure but it’s the most realistic option for grid scale energy storage I’ve seen. Irony of ironies, it’s a carbon dioxide battery 😂
'In Connecticut, electricity prices are about the same as in California, but they use only 5% renewables and 95% fossil fuels and nuclear'
1 Biden halted permitting new fossil exploration in the US.
2 The environmentally concerned climate- and energy experts amongst the north-eastern electorates voted to not be connected by pipeline to shale from the US interior.
3 They have to import fossil fuel and are exposed to global prices. Most natural gas is imported from abroad.
4 Most US refineries are old as US govs discouraged investments since the 80s (again environmental- and climate concerns). This means that a large share of US shale is refined abroad and is then transported back. This is neither economical nor CO2 friendly. But it does lead to funny situations: Biden proposed a few years ago, AFTER Nordstream, to halt energy exports (‘ally’ Europe would have been massively intercoursed in the rear). Despite an existing (from the Marxist pov) US energy department it took the Chevron CEO writing in the WSJ that the US nééds foreign refineries for its shale to change Biden’s mind (whether there is a Biden mind fully existing as understood from the Marxist pov is another discussion).
'on days where renewables were so abundant as to supply more than 100% of the state’s electricity needs, electricity prices dropped by more than 50% compared to the same period the year before when renewables were a smaller share of the electricity generation'
Hallelujah. And at which times was all that abundant ‘cheap’ energy produced? During working or sleeping hours? During the weekend? Renewables' supplies are opposed to work- production- and life patterns. Europe just had a massive 2024 negative electricity price ‘fest’ because of renewables. But those surpluses go down the drain. We haven't benefited because renewable elec production cannot be controlled, storage is non-existent and interconnectivity is not only troublesome but actually causes troubles.
Norway's (now the UK's main energy supplier) gas fields are slowly emptying. https://tinyurl.com/4p336dyn While the EU wants NO to implement the EU's 4th clean energy program. https://tinyurl.com/y5t9xxn4 NO sees that as infringement on its sovereignty.
Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany are rapidly getting entangled in an interconnectivity problem. The Swedish gov once again called German energy policies nuts:
'Sweden slams German ‘green’ energy policy reliance on ‘weather gods’'
https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/12/swedish-deputy-pm-slams-german-green-energy-policy-
reliance-on-weather-gods/
Of course, the idea of purity-obsessed Teutons (once again) assembling under their holy trees is funny. Though they don’t seem capable of doing in another Varus as today's Teutons-under-the-tree are mostly of the callus free academic kind.
'A third important driver of the California premium is higher electricity demand '
Read: if you subsidize the hell out of your eager lets-save-the-planet-at-someone-else's-expense electorate - and it still weren't Los Angeles' working poor who got Teslas and solar panels - then you can up demand really quickly.
Plus, since the Cali gov demands renewable energy from its utilities, the excess elec that these very responsible middle- and upper class private producers sell back from their subsidized panels is bought by the utilities at RETAIL prices. Instead of the price they'd pay for elec from another source.
A fourth important driver of the Cali premium is the fact that a complete fossil back-up system has to be guaranteed. Which has ever fewer moments to make a profit while maintenance costs grow (a utility on hold is not healthy for the machinery).
A fifth important driver of the Cali premium is that > renewables correspond with massive extra grid investments.
Let us finish with Hayek on intellectuals - i do believe that a generous supply of (true) intellectuals runs in the opposite direction of a grid filled with ever more renewable energy and therefore the intellectual as meant by Hayek is (also) becoming a scarce good. We are now left with experts, consultants and other academic gurus:
'Intellectuals, according to Hayek, are drawn to utopian visions. First and foremost among those visions is the creation of a new social order, specifically one designed by “experts.” They also have the hubris to anoint themselves as the experts to design this new order. Hayek wrote:
The intellectual, by his whole disposition, is uninterested in technical details or practical difficulties. What appeals to him are broad visions, the spacious comprehension of the social order as a whole which a planned system promises'.
Great post. Got a big laugh out of "purity-obsessed Teutons (once again) assembling under their holy trees".
Cheers. But you dó understand that for today's secular Teutons those holy trees come in the shape of wind mills, right? They're treated with the utmost deference. In fact, since the non-metal parts can’t be recycled, the blades are actually buried when their ‘economical’ life ends. (Typically a lot quicker than the warranty certificate said).
But high morals don’t let such common sense vulgarities crash their party. Of course in the réal world the Greens and Social Dems háve crashed. But that’s because of social media operated by malign foreign actors. We all know that.
Btw: only the stupid fall for it. Just follow media-psychologist Sander van der Linden (Cambridge) on X or LinkedIn. He has an uncanny insight into the motivations of plebeians and will share weekly updates of his studies that have remarkable conclusions like ‘on social media bad news is shared more than good news!’ (For unknown reasons soulboy Sander blocked me. So now i have to do without my weekly dose of exclamation marks. Bummer…they made me feel young).
Of course the Greens & Dems did not politically crash because they’re profoundly arrogant treehugging nitwit idiots. (As soulboy Sander will show you such qualifications not only make for an unsafe reading experience, they clearly prove i’ve been intellectually captured by a Putin-paid 2 minute Tiktok video (as far as those-on-the-wrong-side-of-history can have an intellect).
Nor did the Greens & Dems crash because they’re not 100% on the side of German females. Just look at their feminist foreign policy and its undeniable results (these days headlines áre the result).
Solidarity and equality is what progressives have always been about.
That’s why young German females on a night out more and more are exposed to streets that aren’t any safer than girls and women in the Maghreb and Levant experience (or a night out elsewhere in Europe for that matter, we’re all progressives now). But middle class girls, at least until they reach nightlife-age, are transported from a to b by their see no evil hear no evil parents - electrically of course. As Gary Numan already knew, friends are electric).
To finish with wind mill blade burials: in the future a new invention (the study already exists) may have them constructed from a substance that can be turned into sweets and bubblegum when their economical life ends. Reborn as bubblegum. That’s how we like our energy trans.
In addition to the factors you mentioned, we also pay more in CA for electricity because of the following factors:
1. Amortizing the cost of suddenly shutting down the San Onofre nuclear station a decade ago.
2. Paying for the re-licensing and extended operation of Diablo Canyon, so the same thing that happened to San Onofre doesn't happen to Diablo Canyon.
3. Paying costs associated with the San Bruno natural gas pipeline explosion a decade ago, and upgrades to other pipelines to prevent a similar disaster.
4. Paying costs associated with the pollution and leakage from the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility.
There was a good study on this recently: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/01/03/high-electricity-prices-in-california-have-nothing-to-do-with-renewables/