Science writer Martin Robbins has written about the Koch Brothers today, telling us how the new-found "grid parity" of solar energy in some parts of the world is going to give them and other fossil fuel barons a "kick in the balls".
Last year, a small solar revolution happened across Europe, as Spain, Italy and Germany reached "grid parity’" – the point at which the cost of producing electricity from solar energy becomes cheaper than the cost of buying it from the national grid. Just a few years ago, solar installations needed massive government subsidies to be cost effective. Now – in three countries, at least – they can compete on equal terms with their dirtier cousins.
And this spells trouble for big oil:
For Big Energy, it’s a nightmare. Slow to innovate, lumbered with vast national infrastructures to maintain, and selling a product that gets more expensive to produce each year, fossil fuel companies are facing what could be a massive disruption to their market – one that they look set to be on the wrong side of.
The problem is that Robbins hasn't really understood the maths. You see, grid parity is defined (by Wiki) as:
...when an alternative energy source can generate electricity at a levelized cost (LCoE) that is less than or equal to the price of purchasing power from the electricity grid.
And as readers at BH know, you should never ever use levelised costs for intermittent energy sources because it's grossly misleading to do so. (In essence, solar generators earn money for at best 12 hours out of 24, so they are completely outcompeted by dispatchable generators, which can earn for 24 hours a day, even if their levelised costs are the same).
Nobody even tries to argue that levelised costs are not misleading - the maths is so trivial that it would be suicide to do so. The best they seem to be able to come up with is to say that "everybody uses it".
So contrary to Robbins' expectations, solar is not about to assault the Koch brothers. And as if you needed any proof, take a look at this recent report from Spain, one of the countries about which Robbins is so excited. There, the government has had the temerity to suggest cutting subsidies to solar power operators.
The squawking is something to behold.
So just whose balls is it that are being kicked?