New York’s wind-power giveaway

[Madmallard]

I'd like to know how much they donated to FUAC's reelection fund.

Gov. Cuomo doesn’t like nuclear energy.

Last month, he finalized a deal that will prematurely shutter the Indian Point Energy Center, the twin-reactor facility that supplies about 25 percent of New York City’s electricity.

Cuomo doesn’t like natural gas, either. In 2014, after a years-long moratorium, he banned fracking, the process used to get oil or gas from underground rock formations.

But there’s one thing the governor just loves: wind energy. Indeed, three days after the Indian Point closure was announced, Cuomo’s appointees at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority provided details on $360 million in subsidies for a handful of renewable-energy projects.

Roughly 80 percent of that money will be doled out to two wind companies: Florida-based NextEra Energy Inc. and Illinois-based Invenergy.

Plus, when the new subsidies are combined with existing federal cash, the amount in subsidies NextEra and Invenergy will be collecting will exceed the prevailing wholesale price of electricity in the state by nearly $13 per megawatt-hour.

Even more remarkable: those same subsidies, on an energy-equivalent basis — comparing the amount of energy we get from different sources — come to four times the current market price of natural gas.

Here’s the math. In 2016, according to the New York Independent System Operator, the average wholesale price of electricity in the state was $34.28 per megawatt-hour. NYSERDA, which gets most of its funding from surcharges added to New Yorkers’ electric bills, will pay $24.24 per megawatt-hour for the electricity produced by two new wind projects being built by NextEra and Invenergy.

The federal production tax credit is worth $23 per megawatt-hour. The total of those two subsidies: $47.24 per megawatt-hour.

That means the wind subsidies will exceed the 2016 average wholesale price of power in New York by $12.96.

Now let’s look at those same subsidies on an energy-equivalent basis. One megawatt-hour of electricity is equal to 3.4 million BTU. Therefore, the combined state and federal wind subsidies total $13.89 per million BTU. The NYMEX spot price for natural gas is currently about $3.04 per million BTU. Hence, on an energy-equivalent basis, wind-energy subsidies in New York are more than four times the spot price of natural gas.

What makes NYSERDA’s largesse even more remarkable is that much of it will go to NextEra, the biggest wind-energy producer in North America. Sure, NextEra generates electricity, but its real business appears to be subsidy mining. According to Good Jobs First, a Washington, DC-based group that tracks corporate welfare, NextEra has collected some $2.3 billion in federal subsidies since 2007. (Invenergy has collected about $532 million in federal cash.)

http://nypost.com/2017/02/10/cash-in-the-wind-new-yorks-wind-power-giveaway/

 

[Saltwater60]

It's trumps fault. Or bush's fault.
Honestly I'm all for saving the environment, but it has to make sense and this crap does not make sense. Way too much money for nothing. The upkeep on these wind turbines is insanely expensive.

 

[Podmonkey]

Nor do the produce much electricity. Natural gas burns clean and we plentiful reserves of it, that's where we shou l d be putting our energy dollars.

 

[Burzum]

Energy is like any other industry, the entrenched interests always win, there may be a more efficient wind turbine but that one will never get the chance, like you stated these guys must have donated a ton to the re-election.

Wasn't Indian Point leaking radioactive water, a guy running for the 2020 Dem nomination cannot have that on his precious record, Senator Pocahontas would shred him in a debate on it.

 

[Bozo]

...The upkeep on these wind turbines is insanely expensive.

Actually, compared to other renewables, the lifetime cost on wind farms is much lower. A huge expense to get them up and running, same as any power plant, but then it falls off dramatically over the years. That of course makes the subsidies all the more ridiculous.

Our neighbors to the north in Ontario are years ahead with this little experiment, and their current mess could be a useful lesson if anyone in Albany were actually competent and paying attention. Ontario gets the vast majority of power from nuclear and hydro, so they were already pretty green and were a net energy exporter. When the liberals took office they decided it was not enough, and set about subsidizing renewables projects. After sinking $100 billion into the bottomless pit, they are stuck with contracted rates for power from wind and solar farms that are far above the market rate. In particular, the calculations were that solar providers needed the subsidies to be profitable at all, but the wind farms were like cash machines. Their operating expenses were comparable to the the nuclear and hydro plants, so the subsidized rates would be pure profit, and they are locked in for 20 years. The govt slapped a hefty surcharge on the customers of the far cheaper hydro power to pay for this mess, so much so that many can no longer afford to pay. There's a good old-fashioned revolt brewing up there.