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PHONE: 202/326-9316
FAX: 202/326-9334
E-MAIL: clegates@ngsa.org
I would like to draw your attention to a new study of renewable energy and its costs by historian
and political economist Robert L. Bradley, Jr., Renewable Energy: Why Renewable Energy Is Not
Cheap and Not Green. Mr. Bradley contrasts electricity generated from fossil fuels, especially
natural gas, with electricity generated from renewables, in the process identifying subsidies, tax
structures, and hidden problems that make the economic and environmental costs of renewables
significantly higher than most current estimates.
NGSA members have not discussed Mr. Bradley's policy recommendations, but his compilation
of facts, studies, and analyses have added significantly to our understanding of the threat that
renewables mandates pose not just for natural gas but for the entire U.S. economy. His work is
likely, I believe, to be cited frequently in the ongoing congressional debate on electricity
restructuring.
The study is available on the Internet at <http://www.public-policy.org/~ncpa/studies/renew/renew.html>. Following are some quotes I found particularly
interesting:
"Improved new-generation renewable capacity is, on average, twice as expensive as new capacity from the most economical fossil-fuel alternative and triple the cost of surplus electricity." ("Executive Summary")
"A rough estimate of electric subsidies for renewables and conservation over the last 20 years is between $30 billion and $50 billion. . . . This represents the largest government peacetime energy expenditure in U.S. history." ("Executive Summary")
". . . the total cost of wind power was really around 6-7 cents per kwh when the production tax credit and other more subtle cost items are factored in. . . . approximately double the cost of new gas-fired electricity generation." ("Problems of Wind Power")
"Remote wind sites often result in construction of additional transmission lines, estimated to cost as much as $300,000-$1 million per mile." ("Problems of Wind Power")
"A wind farm requires as much as 85 times more space than a conventional gas-fired power plant. . . . Wide spacing (a 50 megawatt farm can require anywhere between two and 25 square miles) is necessary to avoid wake effects between towers." ("Problems of Wind Power")
". . . the future of all the central solar generators is in doubt. They are expensive to build, their very scale escalates financial risks. . . and their massive height (in excess of 200 meters) may attract opposition." (Quoted from "a Worldwatch Institute study" in "Solar: The Smaller the Better")
"The major environmental cost of photovoltaic solar concerns toxic chemical pollution (arsenic, gallium and cadmium) and energy consumption associated with the large scale manufacture of photovoltaic panels. The installation phase has distinct environmental consequences given the large land masses required for solar farms--some five to 10 acres per megawatt of installed capacity." ("Solar: The Smaller the Better")
"Although biomass is a renewable resource, much of it is currently used in ways that are neither renewable nor sustainable. In many parts of the world, firewood is in increasingly short supply. . . . As a result of poor agricultural practices, soils in the United States Corn Belt. . . are being eroded 18 times faster than they are being formed." (Quoted from Christopher Flavin and Nicholas Lenssen of the Worldwatch Institute, "Biomass: The Air Emission Renewable")
"Geothermal. . . . [has] heavy requirements for cooling water (as much as 100,000 gallons per
megawatt per day), hydrogen sulfide emissions, and waste disposal issues with dissolved solids
and even toxic waste." ("Geothermal: The Nonrenewable Renewable")
NGSA represents producers and marketers of domestic natural gas.
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This page was last updated August 31, 1997.