Last December, the French utility giant EDF above He plans to build a 400 megawatt solar farm near Williamsport, Ohio. The reason for this is that there is strong local opposition to the project.
In Ocean City, New Jersey, a project is underway to connect an offshore wind farm to the land via cable delay For years due to local opposition. According to a local resident, “We don’t want that here in any way.”
In West Texas, people are getting obese problem On new developments in wind power that opponents say would be a disaster for nature and will fight approval.
In Kansas, more than 20 counties have banned new wind and solar power projects to protect ecosystems. Opposition to low-carbon energy seems to be spreading like wildfire. This puts billions of investments at risk.
Last year, the Biden administration successfully passed the Lower Inflation Act, which includes terms for about $370 billion in stimulus for wind, solar, electric vehicles and carbon capture aimed at reviving an energy transition that has been slow to emerge under the administration. precedents.
Europe shouted obscenities, complaining that its companies would now move to the US to stand in line for a piece of the subsidy pie. Local businesses welcomed the opportunity to finance expensive projects with government money. And everyone seems to have forgotten about the ordinary taxpayers, taxpayers and landowners.
newly vote Previously, the Pew Research Center suggested that Americans are worried about climate change. More than two-thirds support the expansion of non-hydrocarbon energy sources such as wind and solar. Most of them also support wind and solar energy. But climate change is not the top priority for most Americans. They have bigger concerns, like the state of the economy.
last votedone in Europe but likely representing general human actions, suggests that people may be concerned about the climate and the effects of its constant changes, but are not particularly willing to do anything about it if it affects their way of life.
In the United States, people are increasingly concerned about something else: the scale of wind and solar power facilities. The Wall Street Journal Mentionsed This week, Kansas, which has seen a rapid increase in wind energy capacity over the past 20 years, is starting to put the brakes on as people worry that wind and solar farms are getting too big and taking up too much space.
The problem of energy intensity and land use is one of the major drawbacks to wind and solar power, and it is probably only a matter of time before people start to wonder if they are worth losing land.
Some call it NIMBY – Not in my garden – and the counter YIMBY – Yes in my garden – tells us we should Retraining Our eyes see the beauty of wind turbines.
Others point to environmental concerns about new solar and wind power projects – rising rates of whale mortality off the Atlantic coast in recent months have sparked a fuse debate on offshore winds.
Then there are those who don’t like wind and solar close to their homes and would make no effort to retrain their eyes.
This is already becoming a problem for the big green ambitions of the Biden administration. According to this, the $370 billion in subsidies is likely to cost Americans more than $1.2 trillion. Goldman SachsYou should generate three times your investment.
Separate countries are already scrambling to introduce their own grant schemes to attract business, which is ironic when their companies delay and cancel projects that might benefit from such grants.
The transition has proven more difficult than politicians initially expected. Hectares occupied by solar panels and the flashing red lights of wind turbines sooner or later become a problem.
It may also happen earlier. Because ferc is warning The US grid is already struggling to manage existing wind and solar power amid rapid shutdowns of coal and gas plants.
“The United States is heading into a very difficult situation in terms of reliability,” FERC Commissioner Mark Christie said during a recent hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Another commissioner directly blamed wind and solar subsidies for the situation, saying that it was the subsidy system that made much coal and gas generation power unprofitable, leading to its closure and thus to greater reliance on intermittent wind and solar power. It will take years to adjust the development of the network and invest tens of billions.
In this context, the growing public opposition to new wind and solar projects could become a blessing in disguise. Those investors with $3 trillion may have to look for other things to invest their money in.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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