Why rush to renewables?
Toolbox
Published: September 26, 2009
I can appreciate the prudence exhibited by Rutland City to the proposal of erecting solar panels on a portion of the city's landfill. They obviously want to ensure this project is in the best interest of the taxpayers and neighbors. So why is there such strong sentiment to having a foreign company erect the largest wind farm in Vermont into one of the smallest towns in Vermont, using our tax dollars (disguised as "incentives") to blast away the mountains and provide electricity that they haven't found a buyer for?
The Regional Planning Commission had a presentation from a CVPS person recently. The presenter told us that there is plenty of capacity in the regional grid, and the price is really low; in fact the spot market price is lower than Vermont Yankee's price, and in response to a question about what would happen if Vermont Yankee shut down, he said CVPS's cost would go down because what they pay for electricity from Vermont Yankee by contract is higher than they could buy on the spot market. He said that the low price of electricity and abundance of it right now are hurting renewables, and there is essentially no market for new generation. He also said he doesn't expect that to change for several years.
So why are we willing to obliterate our mountains and fill our night sky with flashing red lights for something we may not even need? And why does covering a landfill with solar panels get more attention from government than blowing the tops off our mountains and erecting 500 foot turbines whose aesthetic and health detriments fall very short of the perceived benefits they might offer us?
ROBERT BASSALIN
Ira
59