BREAKING: Voice Of Reason Finally Appears In Form of 53 Year-Old White Male With Something To Say About Grid Resiliency, Reliability (FULL DETAILS)
DALLAS, TX - Immediately realizing the error of their ways, the entire renewable/clean energy and energy storage sectors promptly abandoned all efforts to produce, or enable delivery of, energy from clean, renewable, free sources such as sunlight and wind, after 53 year old “retired C-Suite Executive” Robert T. Grainger pointed out that there is more to energy cost than LCOE, such as reliability and resiliency.
Grainger’s LinkedIn post oozed the sort of maturity, experience, and “adult-in-the-room” wisdom completely lacking in the clean energy sector, putting all those naive little children in their place:
There is more to energy cost than the price of electricity. Wind and solar folks need to understand that their “cheap” (subsidized) intermittent electricity can only exist because thermal and nuclear generators provide reliable BASELOAD power, and utilities (rate-payers) bear the cost of managing an increasingly complicated electricity grid full of wind and solar. The renewables community needs to come together and have measured conversations with the traditional power and utility communities so they can better understand how it is our electrical grid and power markets actually function. If they had it there (sp) way, the country would be buried in blackouts and brownouts. It’s time to have a reality-based policy environment and mechanisms in place to ensure that large thermal plants - which form the foundation of our energy mix and will do so forever - are economically viable. The renewables community needs to show the traditional generator community some respect and wake up to the realities of America’s power needs.
Everyone in the clean energy sector immediately stopped their work developing/construction their 800 MWh energy storage facilities, placed their tails between their legs, and offered to pick up the mic Grainger dropped in their metaphorical faces.
Laura Anderson of Greenbacker explains: “What Robert explained came as a complete shock. None of us had the feintest idea that intermittent resources create grid-management challenges. We all thought we could just go straight to a 100% wind/solar grid and it would be fine. I’m just glad he set us straight.”
Deeksha Patel had a similar reaction, noting the importance of experienced professionals’ perspectives: “This is why we need people like Robert. To condescendingly explain to us how the real world works. He’s a voice of reason in a sea of unchecked exuberance. Shame on us for ignorantly pursuing proven technologies that require no fuel and emit no greenhouse gases. We should have known that underneath all those wonderful attributes lay such a devilish and unapproachable dark side.” Patel also regretted developing possible replacement PV/Storage facilities near a coal plant, thereby facilitating it’s already-planned retirement. “Robert says we need to delay coal plants to support more AI load growth, and I really shouldn’t be questioning his opinion given how experienced he is.”
Humans, as a species, have been steadily improving the way they generate power for hundreds of thousands of years. In primitive times, food would fuel human muscle power; upon the discovery of fire, wood provided heat; and then wind could power sea transportation. Later, humans harnessed the power of domesticated animals to perform heavier tasks. Eventually homo sapiens discovered the ability to use waterwheels and windmills. Natural geothermal vents were converted into power sources. And then, of course, we discovered fossil fuels buried deep in the Earth’s crust. Later still we split the atom and converted that to large scale power generation. In the 21st century, wind turbines and solar panels went from science fair project to cost-competitive mainstream energy sources. Anthropologists and futurists alike have long predicted a future powered by sunlight, wind, water, and fusion - all renewable, clean sources of power appropriate for a rapidly growing population trying to live in a relentlessly warming world. Nevertheless, after reading Grainger’s measured treatise, every member of the renewable energy community now understands that the long arc of progress should be immediately cancelled.
“If you stop and really just listen to Grainger, it becomes perfectly clear that the logical thing to do is halt all progress. We’ve essentially discovered the utopian ideal for power: i) dig up black goop (and it’s gas byproduct) from deep in the earth (where an ever-shrinking amount of it resides), ii) burn the goop, boil water, then iii) use steam to turn a super complicated device with thousands of moving parts that fail constantly, to iv) use electromagnetic forces to generate electricity. Guys, if that doesn’t sound like the perfect place to settle in for the long haul, I don’t know what to tell you. Robert’s finally made me see it. We’re there… at the pinnacle of progress. Why would we ever try to move beyond this? I suppose there’s the obvious reality that this strategy is rapidly obliterating the ability to live comfortably on the only planet in the universe known to support life, but that’s just, like….one con.” Offers Mark Jacobsen, a revered Stanford University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program. “I just feel so lucky to have stumbled upon Grainger’s reality check. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.”
A few folks have pointed out that before Grainger’s precious gift of illumination, the vast majority of professionals and institutions in the renewable/clean energy sector are sober-minded with respect to the challenges imposed by the evolving energy mix, and have the utmost respect for the conventional power community. However, Grainger - again demonstrating his grace and pragmatism with the ease of Buddha himself - saved those folks from further embarrassment: “Even the most level-headed wind and solar people seem incapable of admitting that their projects only pencil because of all the fat subsidies our bloated government hands out to these overeducated liberal hippies. Did the conventional power sector ever get those fat government handouts? Everyone’s against us and always have been, yet we’re the ones keeping the lights on.”
At press time, Grainger was walking away as an Eolian ancillary services specialist politely noted that ~70% of the ~$1 Trillion in total energy-sector subsidies went to fossil fuels as recently as 2020, and also that the conventional power sector currently benefits from Intangible Drilling Costs Deduction (26 U.S. Code § 263), Percentage Depletion Allowance(26 U.S. Code § 613), LIFO Accounting (26 U.S. Code § 472), Clean Coal Credit (IRS Section 48A), Foreign Tax Credit (26 U.S. Code § 901), accelerated amortization subsidies for G&G expenditures, expensing of exploration and development costs, Master Limited Partnership allowances that facilitate increases in corporate profitability and reduction in costs of capital, royalty relief for Federal Lands and Offshore Drilling, R&D funding for CCS and “clean coal” technologies, and Federal Loan Guarantees for large-scale fossil fuel-based projects. And also that historically the O&G sector also received support in the form of Nonconventional Fuels Tax Credit (IRS Section 45), Domestic Manufacturing Deduction (26 U.S. Code § 199), Production Tax Credits (PTCs) for Coal, Accelerated Depreciation for Coal Plants, and Subsidies for Oil Shale and Tar Sands Development.
“That’s different, though,” dismissed the Sagely One.