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Originally Posted by echinatl
Dante, maybe right now it's expensive but that's bound to change over the next few years. And also how much more expensive is it then paying people, and building and maintaining trucks, and paying for fuel costs to drive gas around. Or the cost to pipe hydrogen around. The numbers you quoted are one time fees that 'should' pay for themselves eventually. Plus advances in solar panels and wind turbines continue to make the tech cheaper, and more efficient, while also making them look better. Bladeless wind turbines and solar panels that look like shingles. Things are looking pretty good so far.
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I think the price of transmission lines go up over time gradually and consistently, but I think it is worth it so you don't have to convince me. However there are two problems that the scientists need to solve with wind and solar.
First wind power kills thousands and thousands of birds. Blade-less turbines have the issue of very, very low power output per land use and the technology was just patented last week. The second issue is that solar power costs more than electricity in every region except where electricity is otherwise exceedingly expensive.
The issue with both forms of power is that on a large scale they greatly alter the environment and solar power shingles are only useful for a small number of Americans. Effective renewable energy should be transported and efficiently harnessed to maximize output and minimize impact.
The South's form of renewable energy is wood and biomass and in Georgia wood actually beats out hydro as the largest form of renewable power. I currently support offshore wind and biomass for Georgia as replacement forms of energy. We don't have coal mines here so I feel like we should at the very least replace the coal with natural gas.