There is no market for power that cannot be delivered on demand. Which is why, in the absence of subsidies, there wouldn’t be a solar panel or wind turbine in sight. Sure, there are remote locations where a solar panel hooked up to a system of batteries and diesel generators make perfect economic sense.
Here though, we’re talking about the large-scale solar plants which are increasingly carpeting the countryside, from horizon to horizon.
The value of a power generator as a business asset ordinarily depends upon the value of the power it generates. With wind and solar, however, it’s all about the subsidies they generate.
Tom Shepstone takes a look at the sale of a large-scale solar plant in New Jersey, which reveals what an enormous scam the solar power generation business really is.
Solar Farm Sale Reveals Green Energy Sorcery
Natural Gas Now
Tom Shepstone
16 September 2021
A solar farm sale in New Jersey tells us everything we need to know about solar energy schemes, green eggs and scam and the real value of green energy.
A good friend and guest blogger here sent me a link yesterday to a post at EnviroPolitics that reveals some of the sorcery behind solar energy. The editor of that journal, Frank Brill, is a big fan of solar energy and ran what appears to be a news release from Cushman & Wakefield about their role in a 49-acre Warren County solar farm sale for $3.5 million. I’m would imagine Frank thought this sale was evidence of the growing value of solar and that’s why he published it. But, it demonstrates the opposite.
According to the release, which appeared in several places, these are the facts of the solar farm sale:
The 10-megawatt solar farm, installed and operated by NJR Clean Energy Ventures III, sits on 49 acres just off Exit 3 of Interstate 78 in Pohatcong.
The property is fully leased to NJR, a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources Corp. and the largest owner-operator of solar farms in the state, Cushman & Wakefield said.
The team of Andy Merin, Kyle Schmidt, Andrew Schwartz, Jordan Sobel, and Andre Balthazard represented the seller, RDG at Pohatcong, and procured the buyer, Turner Group, the firm said.
“Considering the enormous barrier to entry and the fact this site took 10 years of planning, negotiating, and constructing to ultimately come online in January 2020, it’s no surprise that we saw strong interest in the I-78 Solar Farm,” Schwartz said.
No information is provided on the buyer, the Turner Group, and there are several entities by that name operating in New Jersey, but it’s safe to assume the buyer invested for the sake of earning a return on its $3.5 million. But, here’s the thing. There was clearly no return for the seller.
That’s because a 10 megawatt facility costs a capacity-weighted $2,544 per kilowatt (that’s $25,440,000 per megawatt for those of you who live in never-never land) to build before considering the value of the land. Do the math and the seller probably put something on the order of $25 million in this 10 MW facility that will only generate power about a quarter to a third of the time and still require 10 megawatts of natural gas fueled power generation available as backup at all times.
The land the facility sits upon is worth at least $16,000 per acre in a vacant condition based on comparable sales in the immediate vicinity (two parcels totaling 57.9 acres sold in 2016 and 2018 for an average of $15,976/acre), so if we deduct that from the sale price we are left with $2.7 million or so, which represents a likely return of capital in the range of 10-11¢ per dollar.
It’s probably a lot less given the 10 years of time it took NJR Clean Energy Ventures III to get the project done, but let’s just go with 10¢ on the dollar. This is the real hard core value of the finished project produced by this solar farm sale. Everything else is phony money with Phil Murphy’s picture on it. Murphy, of course, is the second Goldman Sachs guy out of the last three governors elected by Garden Staters and he knows green eggs and scam inside out. Moreover, Murphy and Corzine (the other Goldman Sachs governor) were separated by a pompous buffoon whose favorite activity was selling out every friend and principle he ever had when he wasn’t saving the solar industry.
If you read that link you’ll see it’s all a shell game. Oh, yes, the good people at NJR, which is primarily a natural gas supplier, will surely pretend it makes economic sense to sell an asset for 10¢ on the dollar. They’ll talk about Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), SRECs, tax credits and every other form of direct and indirect subsidy that arguably makes this a smart financial decision for NJR. It may well be so on paper, of course, because they have no choice but to participate in a pay to play rigged market where renewables are forced onto them to be able to sell natural gas.
That’s how the other 90¢ of this solar farm sale deal was covered and it’s all your money, one way or another; rent grabbed from the government to allow true green believers to signal their virtues but, much more importantly, to make a pile of real money on green eggs and scam for the likes of big money firms invested in selling green bonds and the like. Solar farms make no economic sense whatsoever but they are being forced on all of us to benefit a very few, using unsettled global warming as the excuse. It is disgusting corruption and this solar farm sale at 10¢ on the dollar proves it.
Natural Gas Now
STOP THESE THINGS 
The people of the united states are being ripped off by two evil political parties. They are being whip sawed.
Reblogged this on whatyareckon and commented:
Selling the Farm to “save” the planet.
After reading this article that exposes the whopping waste of green dollar energy these electric generator systems provide, I developed a new way of describing it that is better as it makes it clearer that it’s not farming the sun or wind like where cotton farms grow cotton as farming wind and solar does not provide wind and solar, it’s crop is that it provides electricity AT GREAT COST TO US……so from now on we all refer to it as Green Renewable Energy Electric Development (GREED)
Couldn’t agree more. The dumming down of America and fool the stupid suckers.
right
Think there’s an arithmetrical slip – 2.5k per kWh is 2.5M per MWh. It’s in this para:
>>That’s because a 10 megawatt facility costs a capacity-weighted $2,544 per kilowatt (that’s $25,440,000 per megawatt for those of you who live in never-never land)<<
Feel free to delete this comment when you've dealt with it. ttfn.
Hi Nigel,
Thanks for your comment. But you have confused energy (kWh/MW/h) and power (kw/MW). The article refers to capacity in terms of kilowatts and defines the cost of that capacity (weighted) at $2544 per kilowatt. Scaling up to megawatts (1,000 kW per MW) gives the figure of $25,440,000 per megawatt of solar capacity. Which is correct. Those figures do not relate to output (energy) in terms of kilowatt/hours or megawatt/hours, only the rated capacity of the 10MW solar unit considered. Hope that helps.
The more you describe it, the more it smells like what it really is. Like P.T. Barnham said. A sucker is born every minute, except in America it is even faster. The sheeple will fall anything their elected representatives dream up feed them. Try all the phony stock bull shit and maga and positive confession.etc. Just take a look at the phony mega church hypocrites and the corrupt politicians.