Let’s cut to the chase, most of us are tired of the government taking more and more money from taxpayers like you and me and giving it to whatever individuals or companies make the most noise, and that’s exactly what solar energy is, just one more big government welfare program.
Solar Welfare
Landowners signing leases for solar panel installations are simply doing the equivalent of filling out the paperwork to sign up for a government check, sort of like “solar welfare.” Why? It’s pretty simple, the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard requires utility companies to buy “renewable energy” like solar energy. You don’t have to force companies to buy something unless it is an inferior product. If it was as good as or better than electricity produced by conventional methods, utilities would be building grid scale solar installations on their own. The government is simply forcing them to buy what it is paying other companies to provide.
Who pays for solar welfare? You do!
You want electricity to be there when you need it so the utility companies have the generators and power plants necessary to supply it on demand, running all day, every day and able to be adjusted as needed. Solar farms only supply electricity when the sun is shining, no utility can depend on it, so power companies can’t replace any generators with solar power or they might not have any electricity for your lights when you flip the switch. Forcing utilities to buy this inferior power from solar companies means the generators they already have are now more equipment than necessary and powering them up and down to adjust for changes in sunshine means they run less efficiently and economically. The combination of more equipment than necessary and inefficient operation means costs rise and your electric bill goes up.
Some of the the money the government forces the utility to pay to the solar company goes to the landowners who are selling access to their land to provide an unwanted product, expensive and unreliable electricity. Those “green” landowners are not helping anyone but themselves while you pay the cost.
Solar developers collect solar welfare, too
The solar developers, who magically appeared to chase all of this green stimulus money, collect even more with production tax credits and investment tax credits, incentives from the government to keep building more solar installations which means the utilities will be forced to buy even more expensive electricity.
All of this money from the government also provides ample incentive for some individuals in a community to make decisions that may not be in the best interests of the entire community.
Enough already!
Let’s stop the solar welfare payments. Wouldn’t it be nice if companies and individuals were selling something everyone wanted instead of this subsidized inferior electricity? Then real customers would gladly give them money in return for a useful product, everyone would be happy and we wouldn’t have to see these industrial size solar lawn ornaments littering the landscape, but that would be too simple wouldn’t it?
Solar farms are very destructive to land and wildlife. Not to mention a eye sore to look at if I wanted this I would move to the concrete jungle.. (THE CITY)