on February 15, 2019

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Green New Delusion Would Require Lots of Mining, But Will Walz Allow it in MN?

Written by Isaac Orr

The Green New Deal (GND) has become the talk of the down despite the fact that Ernie Moniz, the head of the Department of Energy under the Obama administration, has called the deal impractical. However, renewable energy advocates are pressuring lawmakers in St. Paul to push ahead with their own GND for Minnesota, but the question remains, where will the copper, nickel, cobalt, and manganese come from? An article from Geologyforinvestors.com suggests there will be as many as 125 million electric cars on the road within the next decade, which may be overly optimistic, but we'll see. The more important point...

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on February 01, 2019

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Bitter Cold Shows Reliable Energy Sources Are Critical

Written by Isaac Orr

in Energy, Environment, Minnesota Economy

The Star Tribune has published an opinion piece I wrote on how Minnesota's bitter cold should be a wake-up call for energy policy in our state. Instead of mandating the use of wind and solar, which generated just 24 percent of its installed capacity, and provided just four percent of MISO's electricity, we must maintain and keep reliable electricity sources like coal, nuclear, and natural gas plants running. You can read the article by clicking here....

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on January 30, 2019

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It’s Negative 24 Degrees and the Wind Isn’t Blowing. This is Why We Need Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power, Not Renewables

Written by Isaac Orr

in Energy, Environment, Minnesota Economy

Good morning, everyone! I hope you're staying warm. If you are, it's because of natural gas, oil, coal, nuclear power, or even wood, because the wind isn't blowing right now. The screenshot below is from Electricity Map. It's a fun app that tells you how your electricity is being generated at any given moment in time. Turns out wind is producing only four percent of electricity in the MISO region, of which Minnesota is a part. While that's not good, what's worse is wind is only utilizing 24 percent of it's installed capacity, and who knows how this will fluctuate throughout the course of the...

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on January 28, 2019

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Germany To Burn Beautiful, Clean Coal For 19 More Years

Written by Isaac Orr

in Energy, Environment

Renewable energy rent-seekers often tout Germany as a paradise of renewable energy integration, but Germany is no role model that Minnesota should follow. Unless of course, it's following Germany's lead in keeping Minnesota's coal plants open for another 19 years....

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on January 27, 2019

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EIA Data: Wind Replaced Natural Gas, Not Coal in 2017

Written by Isaac Orr

in Energy, Environment, Minnesota Economy

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently released its electricity data for Minnesota in 2017, and boy, were there some interesting findings. One of those interesting findings is that contrary to the popular narrative that by building wind turbines, we will make Minnesota less dependent upon coal-burning power plants. The graph below shows the annualized capacity factor for each generation source in 2017. I've used this graph in recent blog posts but this merits its own 15 minutes of fame in this post. The capacity factor for coal was 61 percent, much larger than the capacity factor for wind at 35.9 percent,...

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on January 25, 2019

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Throwing Shade at the Solar Pathways Analysis: 70 Percent Solar and Wind Would Require We Build 6 to 11 More Capacity Than Nuclear Would Require: At a Massive Cost

Written by Isaac Orr

in Energy, Environment

Renewable energy advocates have been trumpeting the findings of the Solar Pathways Analysis (SPA) that claims solar power can not only meet 70 percent of Minnesota's energy demand, but it can also do it affordably. However, this type of thinking requires a gold medal in metal mental gymnastics. It's time to throw some serious shade at the SPA for being a shoddy work of scholarship. For the purposes of this article, it's helpful to understand that a gigawatt (GW) is the equivalent of 1,000 megawatts (MW) and 1,000,000 kilowatts (kw). First off, the SPA says we can achieve a grid powered by 70...

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on January 19, 2019

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Should Minnesota Require Rooftop Wind?

Written by Isaac Orr

in Energy, Environment, Minnesota Economy

California has mandated rooftop solar units be placed on every new home built in the Golden State. Given Minnesota winters aren't as conducive to rooftop solar as sunny California, should Governor Walz push for similar measures in Minnesota, only requiring rooftop wind turbines for new and existing homes? The short answer, obviously, is no. I've posted an article from engineering.com to demonstrate just how terrible such a mandate would be....

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on January 16, 2019

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China: No Wind Or Solar If It Can’t Beat Coal On Price

Written by Isaac Orr

in Energy, Environment, Minnesota Economy

Solar advocates often emphasize the fact that the cost of solar panels has fallen about 80 percent in the last ten years, and use this cost decline to project even steeper cost declines in the future. However, this is a problematic assumption because the recent decrease is only partially due to improvements in the solar panels. The other reason the cost of solar panels fell is because China became a major producer of solar panels, lowering the cost of production. One reason why China became a major producer of solar panels is because it subsidizes many of its industries, including steel...

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on January 14, 2019

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Natural Gas, Not Wind or Solar, Is the Main Cause of Reduced CO2 Emissions

Written by Isaac Orr

in Climate, Energy, Environment

61 percent of the declines in CO2 emissions have been achieved by switching from burning coal (which emits about twice as much CO2 as burning natural gas) for far less cost than wind and solar....

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on January 08, 2019

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Peter Foster: Another Report Reluctantly Admits that ‘Green’ Energy is a Disastrous Flop

Written by Isaac Orr

in Energy, Environment, Minnesota Economy

Despite being the beneficiaries of billions of dollars in subsidies, wind and solar compose just a tiny fraction of overall energy use in the United States. The pie chart below is from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and it shows that oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear power provide far more of our energy than wind and solar, which together account for about 3 percent of our total energy consumption....

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