The Hammond Report

Most big oil companies do more than oil. So it is better to call them energy companies. But you are still right. It's nobody's business what kind of energy a private company produces.

On the other hand, if somebody is in love with the idea of solar or wind energy, for example, let him form his own company to produce it, if he thinks it such a great idea.

Where are the solar and wind companies? Oh, they are out there, all right. But they are making money mostly by selling equipment to aging hippies, clueless California liberals, and sharp operators who use the equipment to make a fast buck off gullible taxpayers. Nobody is making any money generating power because solar and wind make the most expensive electricity in the world. Nobody will buy it. So the money is in selling equipment to fools —photovoltaic panels and turbines and batteries and inventers and a hundred other expensive items.

Where do these fools get the money? From you! Pick up a copy of any solar or wind magazine and check out the ads. Most of them have some mention of tax credits or other government subsides, such as, «The perfect choice to maximize rebates for projects that receive performance based incentives.» Yeah, you see, even a total California Desert Party Jerk wouldn't buy this stuff unless he got a government kickback. Ditto for big operators, only the kickback is bigger.

Solar and wind power, as sources of «renewable energy,» are a hoax and a scam. Only 10 percent of America's energy generation is classified as renewable, and of that total, three-quarters is hydropower, as in mega-dams. Wind produces 7 percent of the renewable energy total and solar a mere one-tenth of one percent. (Source: US Dept. of Energy)

Solar and wind power are an expensive joke. They are just feel-good technologies that have no potential whatsoever for supplying this nation's energy needs.

Under a state energy master plan, solar power should account for 2.12 percent of New Jersey's electricity by 2020. But even though more than 3,100 residential and commercial solar systems have been installed during the six years the state has offered rebates, they generate only 0.07 percent of current energy needs.

To reach even that, New Jersey has handed out more than $170 million in rebates. The Board of Public Utilities has estimated that if rebate rates remained unchanged, it would cost nearly $11 billion to get to the 2020 goal. According to state calculations, that would add about 7.5 percent to New Jersey electricity rates, which are already among the highest in the country.

--New York Times
June 25, 2008