mvanwink5 wrote:Why do you think solar is a scam?
Why is it subsidized? Why is base load power required? Why is CO2 always added as the major factor in selling it?
There are niche power applications for it, but it is not a base load power source.
If fusion power was cheap would we even be talking about solar?????? Of course not. Scam.
We can get in to an interesting argument about subsidies and where they are appropriate or not. Personally I'm happy for govenrment money to be spent on tech research and to see subsidies used as a way to help develop a market for potentially useful emerging technologies. This happens for all sorts of industries and it isn't like more established forms of power generation aren't also receiving large or larger subsidies of their own. But that is a whole different debate.
I'm not sure why you ask 'Why is baseload power required?' in response to my question. I'm not questioning that baseload power is required and I'm not saying solar is the best fit to provide it (though I think with improved storage solutions it can be an effective part of the mix), all I was asking why do you consider it a 'scam?'. Scam suggests a deliberate attempt to extract money from someone while not providing what you promised in return. Do you believe people and organisations buying solar are being conned? And if so how? A legitimate claim could be made about ROI or something or systems that don't work at all but that doesn't sound like what you are getting at..
As for fusion, sure, that would be great. But even with optimistic projections we can't reasonable expect much if any commerical fusion until the mid-2020s. Most would call that wildly optimistic. In the meantime solar seems a pretty good solution of producing low emision power.
Of course if you don't believe reducing emission, carbon or otherwise, is a problem then the whole solar thing becomes moot. Or at least less important. Coal would still be on the delcine but hey, burn as much natural gas is you want and can find. Build more fission plants (I'm not against this anyway frankly, done sensibly). And maybe use some solar anyway since it is getting pretty impressively cheap.
If, on the other hand, you feel emssions are important you could perhaps argue the life cycle emissions are worse for solar but I think that is pretty unreasonable compared to many other techs.
So, again, why a scam? Govenment support does not a scam make.
