Renewables: Myths and Realities

The Trump administration’s impressive efforts to reboot traditional, reliable energy in the US are a godsend not only for Americans but for people around the world. Whether reversing Biden-era prohibitions against offshore drilling or fast-tracking permits for natural gas exploration and extraction, President Trump’s devotion to utilizing the most abundant and affordable energy sources on earth will keep Americans prosperous. healthy and free, reports Gary Abernathy. ⁽¹⁾

Solar and wind are technologically incapable of replacing hydrocarbons across the full spectrum of human needs. Moreover, solar and wind depend on weather, geography, and diurnal cycles. A cloudy day in Germany or a calm night in India slashes output. ⁽²⁾

The big government push for wind and solar power began back in the mid-to-late 1990s. The federal government started shoveling billions of taxpayer dollars at the ‘renewable’ industry, and states were passing the first renewable energy mandates. The public was told the wind and solar would be good for the environment, and government support would only be needed until the nascent technologies became competitive with other energy sources.

The claims were myths and lies. Documented results over the years showed that wind and solar power have done and can do nothing to prevent climate change, and they positively cause more environmental harm, to species, to landscapes, to water quality and health, than other sources of power. ⁽³⁾

Supplying 80 percent of the world’s primary energy, coal, oil and natural gas make up the lifeblood of modern civilization. Yet, there continues to be calls for abandonment of these necessary fuels.

As policy debates in Washington continue to circle around whether coal, gas, and nuclear should be sidelined in favor of wind and solar, the economics of renewables and expanded tariffs on imported wind and solar hardware, combined with the removal of federal subsidies, exposes the real costs of intermittent energy. Once the redundancy requirements and price stability are factored in the ‘cheap’ power narrative evaporates.

You’ve probably heard it before: Solar and wind are now cheaper than fossil fuels. This is a falsehood supported by a misleading metric—the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).

LCOE purports to present an apples-to-apples comparison between various energy sources. However, the measure is meaningless because it ignores key costs such as those of providing backup power to compensate for the intermittency of solar and wind. Something must be available to step up when the wind and sun are not available for power generation. ⁽²⁾

A 2022 study exposes LCOE’s flaws. First, LCOE assumes constant output, but solar and wind produce only 20%-30% of their designed capacity compared to 80%-90% for plants running on coal, natural gas, or nuclear fuel. ⁽⁴⁾

Second, integrating solar and wind requires expensive infrastructure, including new transmission lines between population centers and remote industrial installations of wind turbines or solar panels, or to natural gas plants standing by as backups.

Third, LCOE ignores more subtle but, nonetheless, important operational considerations. For instance, as the output of solar and wind rises and falls with changes in the weather or the daily westward progression of the sun, fossil fuel plants must ramp up or down as back-ups, reducing efficiency and raising costs. ⁽²⁾

The rosy numbers of LCOE don’t reflect the reality of electricity bills. In California, where so-called renewables make up more than 50% of electricity generation, residential rates hit 30 cents more per kilowatt hour in 2023—more than double the US average.

One dirty little secret is that, on a state-by-state basis, nine of the top 10 states in electricity prices in the United States in 2024 required renewable energy as part of their electricity mix. The bottom 10 states generally did not require renewable energy. ⁽⁵⁾

It can cost utility companies more to provide people with electricity using intermittent sources than continuous sources such as natural gas, coal and nuclear power. The utility company is likely to need to put other energy sources in place to provide back-up should demand not be met when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.

Tax payers are paying multiple times for renewables. In their electricity bills, they pay not only for wind and solar, but for the backups to the wind and solar. In their tax bills, they pay for the energy tax credits. They also give up faster economic growth when electricity prices rise.

Another dirty secret is that renewable energy is often neither green nor clean. About 70 percent of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and their components are made in China, which remains reliant on coal-fired power plants to fuel its industries.

With the end of tax credits, Americans may well discover that the true costs of renewable energy are higher than utility companies are willing to bear. Developers are already saying that they will halt projects without the tax credits. ⁽⁵⁾

Australia

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has finally quietly admitted that they’ve given up on wind and solar power becoming cheaper than coal. Instead, renewables are so uncompetitive they will need another ten years of subsidies, or however long it takes until the last coal plant shuts off. ⁽⁶⁾

After 20 years of telling folks how wind power was absolutely, definitely cheaper, for the first time an official admitted the blasphemy, wind is becoming too expensive.

Coal will be needed to stabilize the energy grid until 2049 under an extraordinary 12-year extension of the fossil fuel that threatens Labor’s net-zero target, as the green energy revolution leads to a 100 percent explosion in power transmission costs. ⁽⁷⁾

United Kingdom

Subsidy costs, which includes wind farms and biomass plants added up to 658 million pounds, all of which was added to UK electricity bills. The cost for the last four quarters of 2025 was 2.4 billion pounds, equivalent of over 80 pounds per household. ⁽⁸⁾

Summary

Any country that uses renewables has absolute uncertainty around consistent energy stability.

Wind and solar generators can’t be relied upon to deliver power on demand and are unable to set the electrical systems frequency or maintain their reliability, unlike the central reliable services previously used.

Wind and solar projects that generate electricity under favorable conditions only exist because of government subsidies that finance capital, as there is no return on such investments. Claims that renewables are cheaper overlook the costs of backing up those sources when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow. When included, costs are much higher. ⁽⁹⁾

The so-called renewables of wind and solar only exist in the few wealthy countries that can afford to subsidize an oxymoron fantasy. Most people in the wealthier developed nations are oblivious that 80% of the 8 billion people on planet earth are living on less than $10/day and cannot subsidize themselves out of a paper bag; thus, any suggestion that heavily subsidized solar and wind systems are viable is simply stargazing. Those more than 6 billion on this planet are incapable of financing a delusion of renewable energy. The majority of this planet would be delighted to have access to the products. Transportation fuels, infrastructures, and affordable electricity that are enjoyed by less than 2 of the 8 billion on this planet. ⁽¹⁰⁾

References

1. Gary Abernathy, Pumping the brakes on alternative energy,” realclearenergy.org, July 17, 2025
2. Vijay Jayaraj, “The dishonest crusade for solar and wind,” americanthinker.com, July 10, 2025
3. Sterling Burnett, “Recent headlines prove wind, solar still aren’t ready for prime time,” heartland.org, June 26, 2025
4. Roberrt Idel, “Levelized full system costs of electricity,” Energy, Volume 259, November 15, 2022
5. Diana Furchgott-Roth, “The renewable industry’s dirty little secret has just been exposed,” yahoo.com, July 2, 2025
6. Jo Nova, “Renewables will need subsidies until we get rid of coal says government- another ten years,” joannenova.com.au, October 16, 2025
7. Jo Nova, “AEMO drops a bomb: Australia’s renewables plan now includes coal all the way until 2049,” joannenova.com.au, December 11, 2025
8. Paul Homewood, “UK renewable subsidies rise to 657 million pounds,” principia-scientific.com, October 16, 2025
9. Lady Carla Davis, “The great renewable energy deception,” principia-scientific.com, September 16, 202510.
10. Ronald Stein, “The greatest oxymoron statement of all time: renewable energy,” heartland.org, June 18, 2025

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