The much-touted claim that “renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels” is based on the flawed concept of levelized cost (LCOE).
Here’s a little analogy that explains why it’s BS:
You’re heading out on Saturday night and you need a babysitter...
You shop around a bit - there are plenty of options - and eventually come across a nice young lady, let’s call her Wendy. At just $10/hour she looks to be way cheaper than the other options. Bargain. Wendy is hired.
Saturday arrives and you’re all dolled up, ready to hit the town Wendy turns up on time but, just as you’re leaving, she casually mentions she won’t be able to watch your kids the whole time you’re out. “What? Why not?” you ask… “I need to pop out a few times”
“When?”
“I don’t know”
“For how long?”
“Not sure”
“Errr OK, will you’ll find a friend to cover for when you have to leave?”
“Nope, sorry”
“Right, so I have to find another babysitter and have them on standby for when you leave?”
“I guess so”
“But I’ll have to pass that cost onto you”
“Nope, not my problem. You want a standby babysitter, you pay for it buddy”
So, you head to Google and find a back-up, Simon.
Simon is reliable. He’s there whenever you need him. But, at $20, he’s a tad more expensive.
You can’t leave the kids alone for even a minute. They're terrors. Imagine the chaos
You have no choice but to hire Simon too, & pay him even when he’s on standby, regardless of Wendy’s comings and goings
Total babysitting cost: $30/h
Not $10/h as Wendy had you believe.
This is the folly of renewable power cost claims.
They don’t consider the cost of their own unreliability. A cost that must be paid.
If you want to run a modern economy then reliable power is priority #1, not an afterthought.
Time to be honest, Wendy.
Good analogy. But it's worse than that. No sane person would hire Wendy. That would be crazy. But you have to hire Wendy because she's the daughter of your wife's boss and she will take offense if you don't hire her. And Simon finds having to zip over to fill in for Wendy adds more travel costs for him so its actually more expensive than if he just babysits the entire night, nix Wendy. But your wife insists so you end up having to pay an additional $10 daily fee to Simon for extra travel costs.
And your wife's boss will state that it's still good to do so Wendy will get trained up on babysitting and therefore will become more proficient at it. But now it's 10yrs you've been paying triple using Wendy, with no end in sight. And she's not getting any better at the job.