The Sunny Side of Solar

October, 2020

Every year the US government hands out what is conservatively estimated as $20B in subsidies to fossil fuel energy companies. That’s right. Our tax dollars are used to pay the most profitable and polluting companies in the history of our planet. Why? The real reason has to do with the ability of these industries to successfully lobby politicians to keep the subsidies in place. The stated reason has to do with affordable energy. Of course, when we talk about affordability, we are not calculating the economic, social and soul-sucking costs of the climate crisis.

So, I got curious. If that same $20 Billion was used to invest in, say, solar farms, what could happen? Well, in just 10 years, we could power every home in the US with affordable, clean energy and build a sustainable energy infrastructure. We could create a completely new energy system that is free from dangerous pipelines, tankers, hazardous waste and pollution. Since the lifespan of solar farms, for example, exceeds 10 years, there would be enough money at that time to stop the subsidies, continue to improve the infrastructure and reduce energy costs to consumers. It’s a win for our country, our citizens and our planet. 

For my fellow the math junkies, here’s how the numbers work out: Right now, a solar farm costs about $1M per mega watt which powers 200 households. $20B would power 4 million households. If each household were to pay the same amount for their electricity (of course, there are huge regional variations) taking the national average amount of $0.12 per KW Hour, 908 KWh per month average usage for a total of $1307.52 per year in electricity cost. So, the 4 million homes would generate $5,230,080,000. If you re-invested the $5.23B to the following year’s $20B investment in solar farms, in year 2 you’d have a total investment of $25,230,080,000 in solar farms, powering 5,046,016 homes generating revenue of $6,597,766.32. So, in 10 years, the annual $20B investment plus what the revenue generated from the solar farms would be enough to power over 140M homes. Currently, there are 128,580,000 homes in our country. 

I’m not proposing that this is the only way to realize a greener, cleaner, more equitable and sustainable future. I’m challenging the notion that it’s too expensive, too hard, too impossible. The jobs generated by creating a carbon neutral energy infrastructure would be high quality jobs and would provide our freedom-loving country with some really big freedoms: freedom from dependence on foreign oil, freedom from the pollution and dangers of fracked gas, oil, coal and nuclear energy, and freedom from lobbying and special interests that puts corporate interests far above the interests of our people and our planet. 

We have technology. We have the money. We just need the personal and political will to make it happen.