But while renewable energy has been making great strides,
conventional power sources such as coal are going to be around for quite some time yet, despite their carbon dioxide - emitting properties.
I recently spoke with an M.I.T. nuclear physicist, Andrew Kadak, who said the engineering challenges were so great and the costs so high that it would be more practical to
pursue conventional power sources.
Indeed, that is why Big Renewables fight tooth and nail for renewable power mandates — because they can not compete with
conventional power sources on a level playing field.
Geography — if you've found your little slice of heaven here on earth that's too far to feasibly plug in to the grid — is often a good motivator, but ethical, environmental and altruistic choices drive many an off - gridder to unplug
from conventional power sources; producing and using your own clean energy can be a wonderfully empowering, liberating experience, and it sure can be nice to not receive all those bills.
It also entails the advantage of eliminating the need to connect it to
a conventional power source.
Subsidies ALEC also claims that solar power receives substantially more subsidies than
conventional power sources.
They won't produce electricity at night, and, as with
conventional power sources, some of the energy they generate will dissipate as it flows over hundreds of miles of transmission lines.
You can rely on this strong battery case during emergency, when you are away from
the conventional power sources.