As a child, I was fed a steady stream of well-meaning propaganda at school — on a number of topics, not just solar power — and I could not understand my dad’s simple counter-argument that solar power was more expensive than conventional power.
I just watched the recent NOVA episode, Saved By the Sun, and I was shocked by the utter economic illiteracy of its analysis — comparable to my analysis at age eight.
For instance, it applauded the fact that Germany has a thriving solar industry. All it took was a government price guarantee of 50 cents per kilowatt-hour for energy sold back to the grid — when that energy from the grid costs 20 cents.
Of course people bought up solar panels to earn “free money” from the government. That’s quite different from actually producing wealth.
Incidentally, Germany’s energy prices are roughly double America’s.