from the site:
The Foundary
Solar Energy Embarrassingly Less Productive than Coal
_Rudy Takala_ (http://blog.heritage.org/author/rtakala/)
May 2, 2013
A map recently _released_ (http://thesolarfoundation.org/solarstates) by
the Solar Foundation highlights the industry’s claim that 119,000 Americans
are now employed in the solar industry. Its authors exclaim, “The United
States solar industry employs more workers than coal mining.” What the map
doesn’t touch on is whether solar energy is the most economical energy
source.
Solar advocates certainly think solar is economically beneficial. The
average salary for a solar panel installer is “between $30,000 and $40,000 per
year” _according_ (http://www.bls.gov/green/solar_power/solar_power.pdf) to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The average salary for those in coal
mining is _$53,000 annually_
(http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_212100.htm) .
Yet when we look at the productivity of solar energy, it suggests that
solar workers are going to have a hard time keeping pace with their
counterparts in the coal industry.
In 2011, the United States produced _1,094,300,000 tons of coal_
(http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec7_5.pdf) . Coal’s energy
content
is measured by British thermal units (BTUs). At coal’s production rate of
about _19,583,000 BTU per ton_
(http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec12_5.pdf) , it provided over
21 quadrillion BTUs of energy to the U.S.
in 2011. In contrast, solar energy provided a mere _158 trillion BTUs_
(http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec10_3.pdf) .
In other words, solar power provided 0.07 percent of the energy that coal
provided—not quite a full percentage point. That is in spite of the fact
that the industry employs more people than the coal industry—which provided
_87,500 jobs_ (http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_212100.htm#00-0000) as
of May 2012 according to the BLS.
Some simple math suggests that each worker in the solar industry produces
about one half of one percent as much energy as the average coal miner. If
workers were paid according to BTU output, solar workers would be making
less than $300 annually proportionate to coal miners. Alternatively, it would
require 21.4 million people in the solar industry to do the job that 87,500
coal miners are doing at present.
Considering the inefficiency of solar energy and the cost of creating jobs
in the solar industry, it seems like a wasteful use of tax dollars to keep
subsidizing solar to the tune of billions of dollars every year. It was
recently estimated by Congressional Budget Office senior advisor Terry Dinan
that _$7.3 billion in energy tax subsidies_
(http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/14/cbo-most-energy-tax-subsidies-go-toward-green-energy-energy-efficiency/)
would go towards renewable energy in 2013, with another $4.8 billion for
energy efficiency.
President Obama has urged that subsidies for traditional fossil fuels be
reduced or eliminated. That is a worthy goal, but to transfer that government
support to the solar industry makes no sense at all. It is an inefficient
boondoggle, and any jobs the industry “creates” are incredibly less
productive than jobs in the fossil fuel industry.
Disinterested observers cannot share the Solar Foundation’s joy over an
industry that has less than one percent the productivity of the industry it
would replace. The solar industry offers more work for a lot less output.
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