Academic

CHASING THE SUN: But there is a big if in this scenario of urban transformation. It will happen ?

By Glenn Reynolds

CHASING THE SUN:

But there is a big if in this scenario of urban transformation. It will happen only if Exelon receives the generous loan guarantees for renewable-energy projects promised in this year’s federal stimulus bill–funds that in this case would cover 80 percent of the project’s costs. Barely viable with the loan guarantees and a handful of other federal and state subsidies, the $60 million solar plant would not be possible without such government support. . . .

Even with the federal subsidies, says O’Neill, the solar plant won’t offer the double-digit returns usually required by investors in large energy projects. It would cost $6 a watt to build, whereas wind and natural-gas plants cost roughly $2 a watt and $1 a watt, respectively. And its 10 megawatts will contribute an insignificant amount of electricity to Exelon’s vast generation capacity of 36,000 megawatts. But, says O’Neill, the project is “tailor-made” for some of President Obama’s goals in the stimulus package. It would create jobs (250 people would be needed to construct it), and it would demonstrate that solar power can be “brought to the Midwest and to the inner city.”

I’d like to be a fan of solar power, but too many of the stories sound like this one.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on June 25, 2009 (boomark / email).