Sun is Always Shining for Solar Power Proponent

Michael Giberson

Under the headline “Nobel Prize winner: Don’t rely on wind technology” comes this explanation of the superiority of solar power over wind power:

“It is only windy enough 40 to 45 percent of the time. Often, you will not be able to satisfy European energy needs using wind. In the desert, the sun is shining perhaps 95 percent of the time, which of course is much more stable,” Jack Steinberger argues, according to Berlingske Tidende.

Hmmm, 95 percent of the time?  That’s almost 23 hours a day of sunshine.  I guess that explains why it is so hot in the desert.

But if Steinberger (assuming quoted correctly) means 95 percent of the daytime then we cut that in half and get about 47.5 percent of the time, which is only a little better than 40 to 45 percent.  And obviously we are not yet to an apples-to-apples comparison, so this comparison remains not-at-all useful.