Chile Has So Much Solar Energy It’s Giving It Away for Free

[hunter]

4. People speak as this is a good and amazing thing...

... to me it seems much more like farmers throwing food away as people starve because prices are too low.

The actual costs of solar power, including the environmental costs, are being neglected.

Ultimately these "free electricity" days will be harmful to solar development.

Solar, as it is currently being installed and financed, will not support the high energy industrial society we are accustomed to. Even nations like Germany that have supported aggressive solar and wind development still rely almost entirely on fossil fuels to power their heavy industry.

I'm thinking especially about the increase in air-conditioning worldwide. How much would an air-conditioner really cost if one had to pay for the solar power systems and some kind of storage to keep cooling into the night?

What if air-conditioners were taxed at a rate that would pay for non-carbon energy sources and storage? Would they be affordable?