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Another analysis of the impossibley high materials requirements of providing all power thru Unreliable Energy. Eg-- to build PV installations in Spain to provide electric power for Germany (15% of total EU demand) would require annually 30% of the world's silver production and 10% of it's silicon production...and cover 7% of the area of Spain....the article discusses other materials, their disposal problems and their unaffordable monetary costs. https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/...-and-batteries
Lacking from that (not) analysis. China is also taking its old (very dirty) Coal Plants off-line, keeping its overall use about flat for the last 10 years.
Meanwhile China is continuing to lead the world in both manufacturing and installing renewables.
By doing this, long-term, China will be able run mostly on Renewables, most of the time and have New (cleaner) Coal Plants standing-by for the next 40 to 50 years (service life of a new plant), but not running most of the time.
This allows China to manufacture Renewables for itself and the world (Profit), while continuing to reduce imports of other energy sources.
Summary: China = Smart.
US is doing something sort of similar, but losing money while doing to. US has been installing Renewables (mostly Solar), but we are too stupid to manufacture them.
We will also wind up with mostly renewable most of the time, but will have Gas (instead of Coal) standing-by for the next 40 to 50 years, but not running most of the time.
Another analysis of the impossibley high materials requirements of providing all power thru Unreliable Energy. Eg-- to build PV installations in Spain to provide electric power for Germany (15% of total EU demand) would require annually 30% of the world's silver production and 10% of it's silicon production...and cover 7% of the area of Spain....the article discusses other materials, their disposal problems and their unaffordable monetary costs. https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/...-and-batteries
This is complete nonsense. "IF Germany wanted to ONLY get electricity from Spain AND required 2 weeks of 100% back-up/storage?" Why do you even read and post such nonsense? You will rot your brain.
Germany is largely Wind and Local, and requires little-to-no backup / storage. And a Fresh batch of Sunshine comes up everyday, world wide. Been doing so for some Billions of years.
guido -- you seem bored? Want to do something useful? Solar PV has things going pretty well, now -- Always had three things to overcome:
Money, Politics and Looks.
1. The money is now good. Cheapest, Fastest, and Lowest Risk new generation, ever.
2. The politics are mostly favorable (will see if Biden renews the Trump Anti-Silicon Solar PV Punitive Tariff on 22 Feb 2022).
3. But the looks -- a lot is still Butt-Ugly.
That is where a busy-bee Anti-Renewable awrey olde hack comes in . . . I am thinking you would be perfect for this . . . putting together a study of where, what, and why looks ugly in Solar PV land. Maybe if you would like to post links to pictures of Ugly Solar PV -- that would be helpful?
This is complete nonsense. "IF Germany wanted to ONLY get electricity from Spain AND required 2 weeks of 100% back-up/storage?"
You continue to object to but not to refute the arguments.
The Greens' goal is to replace fossil fuels with Unreliables completely...Those parameters presented are reasonable and justified in the article, and rational analysis shows their goals are not attainable no matter how much bureaucratic babble denies it.
The Prime Directive of Bureaucracy-- "Protect your job & funding at all cost."
For CA to go all PV, they'd have to install 15x the present PV cpacity + daily storge coting $112B (half the state's annual budget), or 5x the present PV capacity with battery storage for 6 months, costing over $10 Trillion (if such battery storage were possible).....Land usage changes would not be environmentally friendly at all.
BTW- in regards the article in the OP-- He's right (except for his opening sentence). I've previously posted articles around here about the fantasies of materials acquisition vis-a-vis the New Green Deal. It will cause more environmental damge than just sticking with fossil fuel even if there is enough material for it.
And California is one of the most-ideal places for solar. Lots of sun, long daylight hours, generally modest temperatures, no snow in the populated areas. Places around 48 degrees north and above are an entirely different story-much shorter daylight hours, far more snow covering a solar array and the sun is much lower in the sky. All things solar proponents ignore. Good luck with solar/battery storage in Fairbanks, AK, where the sun doesn't come above the horizon for months.
You bring up all good points. Alternative, unreliable energy sources have their niche. It's not for everybody. It's not for most people. They have their own set of environmental problems that in the long run are worse than those of fossil fuels or nuclear energy.
You bring up all good points. Alternative, unreliable energy sources have their niche. It's not for everybody. It's not for most people. They have their own set of environmental problems that in the long run are worse than those of fossil fuels or nuclear energy.
I think there's a thread here on this very subject.
short answer-- petroleum "envrionmental problems" are grossly over-stated by those with a political agenda-- Weneed more co2, not less, to maintain a healthy biosphere; natural oil seeps account for 1000x more oil in the water than leaks from oil rigs...Enviro problems from solar & wind installations-- loss of habitat, bird & insect population effects, health effects on neighbors, dirty mining operations involved with material acquisition for solar cells, batteries, waste disposal problems for solar cells, batteries & wind mill blades, etc...
I think there's a thread here on this very subject.
short answer-- petroleum "envrionmental problems" are grossly over-stated by those with a political agenda-- Weneed more co2, not less, to maintain a healthy biosphere; natural oil seeps account for 1000x more oil in the water than leaks from oil rigs...Enviro problems from solar & wind installations-- loss of habitat, bird & insect population effects, health effects on neighbors, dirty mining operations involved with material acquisition for solar cells, batteries, waste disposal problems for solar cells, batteries & wind mill blades, etc...
Amazing, but you didn't explain how you know this.
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