I received quite a response to my last letter. How dare I say solar does not make much power in the winter? Yep, it makes some but again nothing during the long winter nights when the sun does not shine. During this time of highest need, when the nights are longer than the days, solar makes none, zero, zilch power. This leaves us totally dependent on the power from the cables during the time of year where power needs are highest. This is inarguable.

OPALCO talks about using batteries to bridge this gap. I love the improved battery technology. OPLACO’s proposed battery program costs $4.4 million and will power about 600 homes for a few hours, less in the winter. Grants for this program come from our tax dollars. It is only a question of which pocket the money is coming from. Is it worth 4.4 million for a few hours of power to 600 homes? Batteries will obviously not bridge the gap between days and nights in the winter.

The initial cost of electrical generated by the Solar Farm project is more than it currently costs to buy from the mainland and the cost savings come in if the rates triple or quadruple over the next 10 years. These OPALCO projections are based on the assumption that there will be no new energy sources. I think OPALCO is wrong in this assumption. More on that later. Turn your eyes on the economics. OPALCO projects a 22-year payback and 25-year life expectancy for the solar farm. Let’s make sense of this jargon. Remember the grant comes from increased taxation or rates. $4.4 million for batteries and $8.5 million for the solar farm divided by 11,751 members means the initial cost of this project is over $1,000 for each OPALCO member not counting any extra expenses OPALCO incurs. What do you get for your $1,000 investment. OPALCO is saying that you will lose money for five to 10 years, then gradually get paid back but it will take 22 years before your $1,000 is paid back. You will then make money for three years at which time the Solar Farm will need replacing. The cost of decommissioning will then likely eat up your three years of profit. These numbers are crude calculations as OPALCO has not been forthcoming when I have asked for more details, but they are generally accurate based on OPALCO’s public information.

Let us look around the country and world. Germany makes excessive solar-generated power in the summer which they export. They just approved spending $16 billion to build four major natural gas plants to deal with winter and the energy fluctuations. England, which has also been aggressive with alternative energy, had a spell this winter when the wind was quiet and being the winter minimal solar electricity and had to put all of the traditional plants into full generating mode. Their clean energy programs have been unable to eliminate traditional sources and there has been one very unfortunate outcome. It has resulted in Germany and England having some of the most expensive electricity rates in the world. Most readers are probably aware of the recent grid failure which has occurred in Spain, Portugal and part of France where their dependency on solar and reduction in other energy sources was a major factor in destabilizing the grid. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that solar does not reduce dependency on traditional sources during the winter when there is limited sunshine, and do not let OPALCO tell you otherwise.

I am in complete agreement that the issue of the energy needs for the entire country is a pressing one. It is becoming even more critical with the increasing demands for electric cars and artificial intelligence. It is a logical fallacy for OPALCO to say this means we need to build a solar farm. The question is not if the country needs new power sources it is only whether this particular project makes sense. Does this project stand on its merits and save the members money? The generated energy will cost more than buying from the mainland, which is bad. It will save money if mainland rates increase as OPALCO projects, which is good. Overall it will reduce the amount of electricity we need to bring from the mainland which is good. Batteries do not have the ability to help through the long winter nights so it is a false claim that either batteries or the solar farm will reduce our dependency on power from the mainland. That is obviously not true. I am not against the project per se but rather offended that to sell the project, OPALCO is conflating reducing the amount of electricity we will need to buy from the mainland on an annual basis with reduction in dependency. These are two distinctly different issues.

OPALCO challenged me about the country’s energy needs. It is patently obvious that solar and wind cannot supply the ever-growing energy demands until we have a storage mechanism to supply power when the sun is not shining and wind is not blowing. This is where battery technology is so exciting. Unfortunately, this technology is not to the point where it can fill this role ($4.4 million for 600 homes for a few hours). Until that time, we will need other sources of energy and methods to stabilize the fluctuations associated with solar energy. It is a demonstrable falsehood that renewable sources can fulfill all of our power needs on either a local, regional or national level. No mandate from the State can change this reality. Natural gas is incredibly clean and its expanded use is the primary reason we have seen reductions in carbon dioxide emissions over the last decade as it replaces dirtier alternatives. Due to its clean burning, Germany has declared natural gas to be a green source of energy and is spending billions to bring new plants online. I have been leery of nuclear due to concerns about safety and long-term storage of waste but the technology has advanced immensely, and I just read that the first Small Modular Reactor in the United States is under construction. Gasification to produce clean energy from waste may well develop into an attractive alternative, and there are several sites up and running. Tidal holds attraction. Hydrogen has generated a lot of buzz. There is geothermal potential. Who knows what other sources innovative minds may come up with?

To answer OPALCO’s question: Our country is going to desperately need more electric power in the coming years. It is inevitable that we will see new systems coming online and to argue otherwise is to deny the reality of our country’s increasing electric needs. Battery storage is rapidly improving which has the potential to change everything. If we play our cards right we will see cleaner and less expensive electricity in the years ahead combining a multitude of sources, which will give the grid stability and redundancy.

Burk Gossom,

San Juan Island