New Study Shows Renewable Energy May Always Need Government Support

The Heartland Institute discusses renewable energy sources inability to be competitive in the marketplace with Myron Ebell. 

Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, points to the Ivanpah solar power plant, which is located near Las Vegas, Nevada and is about to be shut down by regulators, as a good example of why green-energy investments should be watched carefully to see if their promises are fulfilled.

“The [Ivanpah] plant received around $1.6 billion in federal loans, and over $535 million in tax credits, so taxpayers are already into it for over $2 billion, and it’s about to go bankrupt,” Ebell said. “Of course, the environmentalists will say we need to invest more money into the system and tight-fisted conservatives need to release more funds so they can keep the project running.”

“The price of some [renewable] technologies came down, but if you go back to the 1970s, when these renewable energy sources started being touted as the clean solution to our energy needs, they were over-promoted as to when they would be competitive,” said Ebell.

“They predicted renewables would be competitive in just a few more years, and that prediction never came true,” Ebell said. “You can go back and look at all the studies on renewable power, and [you’ll find] their predictions never turn out to be true.”

Read the full article at the Heartland Institute.