Where I live, there are many square miles of abandoned industrial properties and indeed many old industrial buildings each with acres of empty roof. Those properties are owned, privately by real people. Now imagine that it was true that you could “make a profit” by installing solar panels, that fundamentally they were a good idea, that they were a worthwhile investment to generate ‘some’ electricity. If that were so, then no one would have to encourage the property owners to install solar. The profit motive would do that.
But that will not happen. Not today, not five years ago when the same argument was being made. Not ten years ago when the same argument was being made. Not fifteen or twenty or twenty five. Because it is NOT economical.
However if you spend that same capital on refurbishing Pickering B. Then you get lots and lots of affordable low-carbon safe clean grid-scale electricity 24/7 for at least several decades.
Germany by the beginning of 2025, in the electricity sector alone, will have spent €520 BILLION on Energiewende. That is fluffy wind&solar projects the first generations of which are already reaching end-of-life. Had they instead put that capital to use building and refurbishing nuclear power plants, they would have depreciated coal in their electricity sector years ago. Instead, coal remains 16% of German energy. Indeed wind&solar in Germany realistically have only replaced low-carbon nuclear. 75% of Germany’s energy still comes from fossil fuels and the hypnotic allure of wind&solar are responsible for that failure.
