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I promised to put the period on the OBBBA and the absurd strategy that the solar industry attempted to execute to minimize its damage.
The headline may read that solar sold its soul. The reality is that it never had one. It has always been about the Benjamins, with climate change as the hook.
The failed attempt to jettison references to climate and replace it with energy security and grid reliability demonstrates the industry’s willingness to turn its back on what one can only assume is its primary reason for existence.
Why else would taxpayers pony up massive amounts of dollars to install renewables?
It certainly isn’t to improve grid reliability or for energy security.
The strategy also demonstrates an almost unparalleled ineptness. The brain trust - such as it is - at SEIA, the industry’s main mouthpiece, should be summarily dismissed to allow them to pursue a career in politics.
It’s not so much putting profits ahead of conviction. Heck, most industries do that. However, most industries aren’t as self-righteous. Nor do most industry feed at the taxpayer trough like solar.
What’s even more irksome is the solar industry’s insistence that it offers the least expensive power. Perhaps that’s true. If so, why do they need subsidies? If it’s not true – which I suspect is the case when all factors are considered – then the industry is guilty of misleading the public.
Either way, it’s not a good look.
Solar has its place – on rooftops and in sun-rich environments. It should not be the cornerstone of a net-zero power strategy.
As for the OBBBA, ironically, President Trump may have done more for the climate movement than anyone realizes.
Little attention has been given to the fact that the law continues support for nuclear, geothermal, and carbon sequestration.
Why?
I can’t say definitively other than Trump doesn’t like solar and wind. However, I can say why I would follow a similar path: because solar is an intermittent and inefficient source of power that will become increasingly problematic as time passes.
That’s not entirely the fault of the technology. However, the industry ignored the need to align storage technology and utility tariffs with the advancement in solar proliferation. It also ignored the dire need to invest trillions into worldwide grids to rearchitect and upgrade them to accommodate a power source that they were never designed to accommodate.
That’s mostly because the industry doesn’t care about achieving climate goals. It cares about making money. The solar emperor has been revealed to be sans clothes.
Though there are many environmentally damaging aspects of the bill, President Trump – likely inadvertently - has pointed the climate movement in the right direction. That is toward carbon capture and technologies capable of providing 24/7 baseload power, regardless of weather or geography.
#solarpower #renewables #OBBB #OBBBA