Where will Canada be without Oil? The companies are Leaving thanks to JT now what?

[AlbertaFarmer5]

TASFarm

In what it says is a cost-saving move, the Kentucky Coal Museum is moving to solar power, according to the Associated Press. The museum is having 80 solar panels installed, which it expects will cut $8,000 off its annual electricity bill.

US coal employment is barely holding steady at its lowest levels in a century
In 2016, US coal mining jobs hit a historic low of around 75,000 people. (As is frequently noted, Arby’s employs more people than the entire coal mining industry. The US solar industry employed roughly 3.5 times as many people in 2016, adding 51,000 jobs.)

Yes let's follow the money!!

Yes, follow the money. solar is less than 1.3% (EIA 2017) of US electricity production, coal is 30%, that is 23 times more, not including coal for coke or export.

So it only takes 3.5 times more labor to produce 23 times less power, that is over 80 times less efficient than coal. So based on your stats, of 3.5 times 75000 employees making 1.3% of US electricity, to get to 100% would only require just over 20 million employees. That should fix unemployment in a hurry. And drive the cost of electricity up by 80 times if those employees expect to get paid.

Can anyone else see the absurdity in claims such as this? It is impossible that an energy source can require that much more labor, and still come out cheaper in the end.

Of course coal is requiring less labor per unit of production, it is called efficiency, trucks are bigger, shovels are bigger, operations are automated, just like any other industry, well except for perhaps solar if they are adding almost as many employees as coal had to start with, to produce a miniscule amount of power. That seems to be going the other way, as anything bloated with government subsidies would tend to do.

[foragefarmer]

Ab5

"And drive the cost of electricity up by 80 times if those employees expect to get paid.

Can anyone else see the absurdity in claims such as this? "


Not according to:

"The Kentucky Coal Mining Museum in Benham, owned by Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, is switching to solar power to save money. The museum, which memorializes Kentucky's history in coal mining, is modernizing with a new form of cheaper energy." Pasted from Googel

The Technical College doesn't seem to agree with your claims, so rather than posting on Agriville give them a call and debate them on the issue! Maybe they'll go back to coal, who knows.

Just Google it, I'm only passing on what the Kentucky COAL Mining Museum has done!

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Ab5

"And drive the cost of electricity up by 80 times if those employees expect to get paid.

Can anyone else see the absurdity in claims such as this? "


Not according to:

"The Kentucky Coal Mining Museum in Benham, owned by Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, is switching to solar power to save money. The museum, which memorializes Kentucky's history in coal mining, is modernizing with a new form of cheaper energy." Pasted from Googel

The Technical College doesn't seem to agree with your claims, so rather than posting on Agriville give them a call and debate them on the issue! Maybe they'll go back to coal, who knows.

Just Google it, I'm only passing on what the Kentucky COAL Mining Museum has done!

They aren't my claims, I was simply extrapolating from the employment numbers you posted earlier. So either those employment claims are false, Everyone in the solar industry is a volunteer, Government subsidies pay the majority of their wages, Or else solar is going to be much more expensive than coal.

That is just math.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I keep hearing similiar claims from proponents of solar. Solar is much cheaper than fossil fuels, and solar will create vastly more jobs than fossil fuels. One or the other is probably true, but not both. The true cost of either of them is the sum of the labour required to extract, build or service for every aspect. We don't pay mother earth and she gives back coal, we pay people to run equipment, and supply fuel and service for that equipment. Solar is no different, but according to claims such as these, it will require an order of magnitude more people to make it happen.

I know math is hard, but this seems quite basic. More employees per unit of energy produced=higher cost per unit of energy.