Political scientist Bjørn Lomborg is pushing back against claims solar and wind energy are cheap solutions to the “climate crisis.”Lomborg is a Danish environmental economist and president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center. He is the former director of the Environmental Assessment Institute in Copenhagen and author of the book The Skeptical Environmentalist.According to Lomborg, the true costs of renewable energy are significantly higher than often portrayed, primarily because green energy systems require expensive fossil fuel backups to provide reliable power when there is no sun or wind on any given day. .‘100% CLEAN ENERGY’: Feds set unprecedented climate target for 2025.In a recent opinion piece published in the New York Post, Lomborg analyzed how countries with higher shares of solar and wind power tend to have significantly higher electricity prices per household and industry, a fact corroborated by data from the International Energy Agency.“Ask families in Germany and the UK what happens when more and more supposedly ‘cheap’ solar and wind power is added to the national power mix, and they can tell you by looking at their utility bills: It gets far more expensive,” wrote Lomborg.“The idea that power should get cheaper as we get more green energy is only true if we exclusively use electricity when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing.”This results in using “two power systems,” he added, pointing to a study on China that showed solar power is double the cost of coal, and a second study on Germany compared to Texas, which showed “solar and wind are many times more expensive than fossil fuels.”.UPDATED: Carney pledges $35B to build millions of ‘sustainable’ modular homes.Germany, a country recognized as a frontrunner in the race to sustainable energy, has installed enough solar and wind capacity to produce twice its electricity demand in perfect conditions year-round — cloudy and still days reduce renewable output to less than 4% of what is needed.“In reality, on days with plenty of wind and sun, renewable energy produces close to 70% of Germany’s needs,” wrote Lomborg.“Such days get excited press attention.”Lomborg compared Germany to countries with little solar or wind energy, where the average electricity cost is a bit over 11¢ per kWh. In Germany, where sustainable energy is extremely prevalent, it costs 34¢ per kWh — more than twice the cost of energy in the US, and nearly four times higher than China.“Germany and the UK now have so much ‘low-cost’ solar and wind that their electricity costs have become among the world’s most expensive,” wrote Lomborg.He pointed to the latest data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which indicates a “strong and clear correlation between more solar and wind and much higher average energy prices for households and industries.”“For every 10 percentage points of solar and wind, the cost increases by more than 4¢,” wrote Lomborg in his analysis of the data.“The press hardly mentions the days that are dark and still. Twice this winter, when all of Europe was cloudy and nearly windless, solar and wind delivered less than 4% of the daily power Germany needed.” .INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Documentary ‘Generation Green’ examines pitfalls of wind energy in Alberta.In the case of cloudy days where there is no wind, solar- or wind-powered batteries have enough juice to last a mere 20 minutes, which leaves wide gaps for the second system to step in to replace the sustainable energy — “meaning fossil fuel plants must cover the remaining 23-plus hours daily.”“This dual infrastructure results in electricity costs averaging 34 cents per kilowatt-hour—more than triple the cost in China and far above the roughly 11 cents in the United States.”Lomborg for years has maintained his argument surrounding the costliness of maintaining two energy systems. In an interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson in February 2021, entitled, 12 Ways the Planet Could Truly Be Saved, Lomborg illustrated the dynamic in detail.“If you have to build both solar and fossil fuel plants to cover all your needs then the cost per kilowatt-hour isn’t just the price of solar — it’s the price of solar plus the price of fossil fuels,” Lomborg told Peterson.“Solar and wind look cheap when the sun shines and the wind blows, but that’s only part of the story — because you still need reliable power when they don’t.”“Countries like Germany have some of the highest electricity prices in the world because of the heavy reliance on intermittent renewables without adequate, cheap storage.”.UPDATED: Smith lifts renewables moratorium; wind and solar banned on prime agricultural land.Lomborg further warned the true costs of green energy are often obscured by subsidies and tax incentives in countries like the United States — the same applies to Canada — and that for poorer countries, the “cheap green energy” narrative can be especially misleading due to rising energy demands and lack the extensive fossil fuel backup infrastructure and subsidies available in richer countries.Consequently, coal remains the dominant energy source in countries like China, Bangladesh, and India, where new coal power plants outnumber new solar and wind installations despite ambitious renewable targets.Lomborg’s approach to climate policy is grounded in pragmatism and economic efficiency rather than alarmism or denial. His Copenhagen Consensus Center convenes global experts to prioritize solutions that deliver the greatest good for the lowest cost.On Peterson’s podcast, Lomborg emphasized, “It’s not about denying climate change, it’s about finding the smartest, most cost-effective ways to address it.”He said investment in research and development — such as advancing fourth-generation nuclear technology and developing more affordable, scalable battery storage — should take precedence over uncritically expanding current renewable technologies.
