THE DOLLAR COST

The dollar investment for wind power is high, though not as high as for electricity converted from solar energy. It is particularly cheap when the government pays for it, for they will buy you a windmill out of your neighbor's taxes, while your neighbor is given one out of yours, so that finally everybody gets one for free, right? California's Energy Commission, for example, packed with Jerry Brown-out's cronies, has an $800,000 budget for pushing wind power, and a commitment to more than $1,600,000 for next year. Very likely it will not be used for windmills, however; it is too tempting an item to be axed by California's latest convert to government frugality. We would not be surprised to see this chameleon campaign in 1980 under the slogan "A plutonium breeder in every home."

Also from California: A DoE sponsored solar-to-electric power facility; cost $1,700,000, output 60 kW, or $28,333.33 per installed kW¾roughly 30 times the cost per kW of a nuclear plant, even inflated as the latter cost is by artificial delays and obstructions. And from the New York Times: Yet another piece by Lovins, assuring us that "soft" technologies are several times cheaper than conventional power plants and that to follow soft path principles is to follow cost-minimizing principles.