Wind, solar wouldn’t work at night, right?

Walter F. Wegst, Las Vegas

Monday, Sept. 1, 2008 | 2:02 a.m.

The recent National Clean Energy Conference held at UNLV prompts me to write. First, I assume we can all agree that the sun goes down every night and that the terrestrial (i.e., ground-level) winds diminish or stop blowing at night.

In that case, if Al Gore’s challenge to produce all the electricity in the United States from wind and solar were to be implemented, where would the nighttime electricity come from?

If Sen. Harry Reid is successful in shutting down coal-fired generating plants in Nevada and elsewhere, where will the nighttime electricity come from?

If the enviro-greens and their pandering politicians continue to oppose and prevent the construction of new nuclear power plants, where will the nighttime electricity come from?

Why is nighttime power so important? Lots of people turn their lights and TVs on at night.

Working people come home and in the winter turn on the central heating system and in the summer turn on the central AC system. Lots of people cook dinner on an electric stove and, of course, refrigerators and freezers are powered by electricity.

Oh, and let’s not forget the new plug-in all-electric vehicles, the majority of which will be plugged in at night.

Perhaps I have missed something in the debate over using renewable energy sources to replace coal, oil and nuclear. Can anyone help me out here?