alt.energy - a two-fer

First: Ellensburg is a delightful small college town in Central Washington. It seems that they are seeing the light when it comes to alt-energy. From the Ellensburg Daily Record:

City of Ellensburg removing wind turbines
Ellensburg will pull the plug on parts of the Community Renewable Park, ending a smart-grid demonstration project and tearing down the park�s experimental wind turbines.

Energy Services Director Larry Dunbar told the Ellensburg City Council Monday completing the project could add $500,000 to $800,000 to a project that has cost about $1.5 million. About $800,000 of the total came from grants, with the rest from the city.

The Council unanimously approved the city Energy Services Department�s plan to end work and remove parts of the renewable park, specifically those built through the smart-grid demonstration project, which includes the turbines.

The solar panels from previous projects at the park will remain, and more may be added, but all eight remaining turbines and some other equipment will be removed.

�We think that the completion costs outweigh the benefits of completing the project. We don�t really know what the ongoing operation and maintenance costs are going to be, but we think it�s going to be significant to keep these machines alive,� Dunbar said. �We�ve learned a lot at this point, and we think now is the time to focus on what works best, in the future.�

Very wise -- it was a fun experiment when they were spending OPM (Other People's Money) but now that the cost of upkeep and operation has to come from the city's tax base, no... Second: From the Denver, CO Business Journal:

BLM holds solar auction for Colorado public lands � and no one shows
The nation�s first federally run auction for a chance to develop solar power projects on public lands was a bust.

No bidders showed up for the auction by the federal Bureau of Land Management, which was held Thursday in Lakewood.

�We did not have any bidders come to the sale and we did not receive any sealed bids on the sale,� BLM spokeswoman Vanessa Lacayo said.

Stick a fork in it -- now that the government subsidies are slowing down, solar and wind is simply not profitable. There is a whole back infrastructure that needs to be installed that the general public is not made aware of. The actual cost of solar and wind is very very high and neither of these represent a baseload source.