Wait a moment—aren’t these projects supposed to be renewable? Just asking, because we’ve been told for years that Mother Earth gives us this energy as some sort of divine handout—a celestial free lunch. Sunshine and wind, manna from heaven, no sacrifice required. Except, of course, that this fairy tale collapses the moment you look at an actual balance sheet.
It’s astonishing how few people understand full-stack calculations—the total cost of making something work, not just the cost of worshipping it. And by “full-stack,” I don’t mean the imaginary accounting that climate zealots conjure up to demonize conventional energy. That’s a theater of invented harms and moral arithmetic, where oil rigs are evil but 600-foot steel turbines are “pure.” The numbers they brandish are ideological, not empirical.
Reality, unfortunately, isn’t so easily bullied by slogans. Energy is fleeting. You don’t have it until you can capture it, transport it, store it, and use it—all while keeping the system stable, affordable, and sane. And when you finally add it all up, the so-called “free” energy turns out to be the most expensive illusion of all.
Yes, the sunlight is free. The panels, the rare-earth mining, the shipping, the land grabs, the transmission networks, the subsidies, and the replacement cycles—those are not. The wind doesn’t charge you rent, but the turbines, the maintenance, the backup systems, and the fires sure do.The heavens may offer the energy for free, but the invoice arrives here on Earth—and it’s written in steel, copper, cobalt, and delusion.