[higherpurpose]

It seems unlikely we'll ever put a price on coal's impact on people's health (and therefore the cost of healthcare) and on the environment. But the very least we could do is cut the subsidies, and let it compete fairly against solar and other renewables. Eventually we'll chase it out of the market, because solar ill keep getting more cost-effective.

[ghouse]

World-wide, in 2010, the IEA calculated that fossil fuel subsidies were $409 _billion_! http://www.iea.org/publications/worldenergyoutlook/resources...

[strictnein]

Compete fairly against solar by eliminating coal's subsidies but not solar's?

[ProAm]

> cut the subsidies, and let it compete fairly against solar and other renewables

Almost all those other industries have massive subsidies. Solar would have gone no where without the government the last 10 years.

[jes]

Would you be willing to have a truly level playing field, where no energy technology was awarded subsidies?

[lkbm]

A truly level playing field would mean internalizing all externalities. If that were possible, yes, that would be ideal, but as he just noted, it's really unlikely, partly because it's enormously complex.

[fleitz]

That's actually just your definition of a level playing field, there is no 'true' level playing field. (Well, other than literal playing fields that are level)

[danielharan]

Not only would that be very difficult to do, nuclear and coal have had decades of subsidies, giving them quite an unfair head-start.

In any case, by 2017 solar will be at grid parity in most of the US. By 2020 this won't even be a topic.

[msisk6]

It doesn't seem possible for solar to make that much progress in that short a time.

It takes forever to get transmission capacity approved and built to areas where solar is really cost-effective and we still don't have grid-scale energy storage.

[danielharan]

By grid parity, I meant people would be able to save money by installing it on their rooftops.

As for utility-scale, it's also smashing records, but that's a different discussion. $6c/kWh in UAE was a figure that surprised a lot of observers.

Regarding storage... solar coincides very well with peak A/C load, so the main use case doesn't require it.