Forty-one years ago, I co-authored a law review article in the Harvard Environmental Law Review promoting the use of wind energy. You can see it here:
Carl Oppedahl & Mary E. Tarduno, Wind Energy Conversion, 5 Harv. Entl. L. Rev. 431 (1981).
Bluesky: @oppedahl.com Mastodon.social: @ant-like
Good article, Carl.
I used to live in Hawaii (Oahu) where it’s sunny 99% of the time and it’s windy 99% of the time. Electricity prices are the highest in the nation. But solar and wind were only cost competitive when federal and state tax credits and other incentives were factored in. Several wind or solar facilities were shut down in the past 20 years. So that tells me we still need to do some R&D on storage and reliability.
The electric power in Hawaii is mostly generated from expensive fossil fuels that are shipped to Hawaii by barge at great expense. I am astonished that solar or wind energy would be even more costly than the fossil-fuel generation. If there were ever a place where solar or wind energy ought to be helpful in reducing electricity costs, I would expect Hawaii to be the place. I am astonished that it would be this way in Hawaii.