To the Editor:
The Yorkville church featured in the Aug. 4 issue has installed 30 solar panels producing 16,890 kilowatt-hours per year to furnish about 30% of its needs. It gets help from the state “solar rebates” from ComEd and church members’ donations in addition to a $10,000 grant to defray the costs of installation.
My most recent ComEd bill was almost 20 cents per kWh. Omitting fixed costs, this indicates a church savings of $3,300 a year. At $1,000 per installed kw for solar farms, 30 panels at 410 watts per panel might cost $13,000. Roof installations of 10-15 kw are more expensive.
The cost of 20 cents per kWh on my bill includes 6 cents per kWh for “energy.” The other charges are for infrastructure maintenance and cost recovery. These fixed costs are divided by system kWh and billed per kWh – a practice that penalizes use by forcing high-consumption customers to bear disproportionate fixed costs. The energy cost also includes the fixed costs of pipeline gas transmission or coal plant operation. A solar kWh should “save” generating and transmitting electricity. This requires a million BTUs to produce 100 kWh. At $75 a ton of coal or $3.00 per million BTU for gas, 3 cents per kWh. A realistic return on the $12,000 installation: $500 a year. Twenty-four years to pay off? It is a very generous taxpayer/ComEd’s other customers subsidy the church is getting.
Finally, the bottom line: What are the odds we will meet goals for 2050, let alone sooner? Will we eliminate emissions by mid-century? If we do, unless the rest of the world does also, our efforts are for naught. Are the models predicting warming correct? Could we not adapt to higher temperatures at the same cost? “Unsettled” by Koonin, an Obama administration staffer, might be a good read.
Windmills and solar panels have operating ratios of 25% (wind less than full power speed; panels producing peak power only at mid-day). Nuke and thermal: 90% plus. The church installation: 16% operating ratio. ComEd won’t buy power when excess to church needs?
Our current climate hysteria has replaced religious “awakenings,” medieval witch hunts and crusades. Peter the Hermit’s children’s climate crusade?
Alphonse I. Johnson
Lisbon
Source: The Daily Chronicle
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