Quote:
Originally Posted by Table 5
The EIA (US Dept of Energy) report is here if anyone wants to dive deeper into the data, however Azure, to answer your question, total subsidies to renewable were $15.6 Billion in 2022. $41M of that went to hydro.
Chart based on that data that shows Renewable energy subsidies by type:
Another chart that shows subsidies per unit of production (ie $/megawatt hour). Solar generation was subsidized 76 times more, and wind 17 more, than nuclear electricity production on a unit-of-production basis.
Keep in mind this was only one year (2022) and only Federal subsidies... so no state or local, and it does not include the mother of all American subsidies that was enacted in late 2022...the Inflation Reduction (lol) Act, that is directing about $400 Billion towards "clean energy". Although this does now at least include nuclear.
Take from it what you will, but either way, plenty o' subsidies to go around! |
This is the trouble with this kind of argument is that it's far more complex and is missing a lot of context. For example, is it a subsidy if the government in Georgia allowed the Georgia power company to collect $3.8B from rate payers to fund the construction of vogtle? The rate payers can't opt out or choose another supplier. If you live there, you paid for it for over a decade before the reactors were finished. Or the $12B in Federal loan guarantees that are highly unlikely to be paid back for that one plant? Or the $6B in funding to be given to nuclear plants that are uneconomic as part of the Civil Nuclear Credit Program?
Is it fair to compare renewables production tax credits to gas electricity generation but ignore subsidies for the actual production of the gas? That's just silly