LogFAQs > #979992466

First recognizing that there is already a massive push for renewables and has been for a few decades now. I think the posts in this topic have already covered that.

We still live in a capitalist system with regulatory controls and property rights. You can't just decide to build a solar farm anywhere and start breaking ground the next day. The government does provide pretty lucrative subsidies to the renewable industry (though not even remotely to the scale of oil and gas). But to actually build a project you still need 1) a return on investment (companies don't do this for free), 2) regulatory approval from the grid (can't just tap into the power lines), and 3) federal, state, county, and local government approval to build (not everyone wants your project in their backyard). It takes YEARS to go from "lets build a wind farm here" to figuring out how it'll work financially, getting a power purchase agreement, obtaining financing if needed, going through all the interconnection approvals, getting landowners to sell/lease their land, feasibility studies, atmospheric measuring, environmental surveys and agency coordination, permitting applications and public hearings, getting the materials, labor negotiations, designs then changes to design, then mobilization to construct.

There's about 700 steps in the process that can kill the project. I'm on a solar project in California right now where we're supposed to start construction NEXT WEEK and I'm told the project may not start because we don't have some necessary items yet.