"Wind and Solar" are not viable without energy storage and transmission. Both provide opportunistic energy. It is sustainable but not available when and where you need it. It is available when and where it is available. Storage can solve the "when". Getting it to "where" is the other half.
"Wind and Solar" are not viable without energy storage and transmission. Both provide opportunistic energy. It is sustainable but not available when and where you need it. It is available when and where it is available. Storage can solve the "when". Getting it to "where" is the other half.
When we consider lifecycle costs and impacts, burning coal looks "clean". Storage has come a good ways in the last dozen years but is still not scalable to where it can support opportunistic sources on the scale needed. Transmission infrastructure exists, but generally not where wind and solar conversion is possible requiring massive infrastructure build out. Which has a rather large negative environmental impact (look into copper mining....)
Don't even ask about PV. If you look into what goes into making it, and what you end up with as wasted after the useful life (20-30 years right now), it's very, very ugly.
In short, we have to ask, is Wind and Solar as an usable energy source really sustainable? While the Sun and the Breeze are expected to outlast humans, the stuff you need to capture it, translate it, and use it requires a lot of resources that are finite.
Which means these opportunistic sources will continue to be expensive and damaging token efforts and dead dinosaurs will continue to be needed. The irony here is that natural gas is very friendly to the environment in ways that matter like spewing stuff toxic to humans and cute furry animals. Not as clean as nuclear power of course, but the second best. The killing of nuclear energy is another example of bad politics blocking good science.
And you're probably right, it is deliberate. We're been mandates for solutions that don't really work. If we are allowed solutions that work then there isn't a profound crisis that requires total submission to combat.
Even storage - even if technologically possible - cannot solve the inconsistency of supply from wind/solar.
For example, pumped water storage works because fossil fuel/nuke power is continuously available, so spare off-peak output can be used to pump water back up to the reservoir of a hydroelectric scheme. During the day the stored water is run through turbines to assist day time peak demand, then pumped back at night from off-peak supply. This is a continuous cycle possible because power to pump back the water is always available on demand.
Now suppose wind replaces fossil fuel/nuke for this. Water is pumped at night and stored. The wind drops during the day, the stored water is released to provide power, but the wind stays calm so there is no night time power to pump the water back up into the reservoir.
Now what?
In order for storage to work, the power source must be despatchable, otherwise availability of stored power will be no more reliable than its primary wind/solar source.
The presumption of ‘wind always blowing/sun always shining somewhere’ assumes a very complex, well coordinated network of inter connectors linking massive storage and generating arrays over a huge area, including internationally. This fantasy inevitable must include layer upon layer of redundancy and transmission of power over long distances.
"Wind and Solar" are not viable without energy storage and transmission. Both provide opportunistic energy. It is sustainable but not available when and where you need it. It is available when and where it is available. Storage can solve the "when". Getting it to "where" is the other half.
When we consider lifecycle costs and impacts, burning coal looks "clean". Storage has come a good ways in the last dozen years but is still not scalable to where it can support opportunistic sources on the scale needed. Transmission infrastructure exists, but generally not where wind and solar conversion is possible requiring massive infrastructure build out. Which has a rather large negative environmental impact (look into copper mining....)
Don't even ask about PV. If you look into what goes into making it, and what you end up with as wasted after the useful life (20-30 years right now), it's very, very ugly.
In short, we have to ask, is Wind and Solar as an usable energy source really sustainable? While the Sun and the Breeze are expected to outlast humans, the stuff you need to capture it, translate it, and use it requires a lot of resources that are finite.
Which means these opportunistic sources will continue to be expensive and damaging token efforts and dead dinosaurs will continue to be needed. The irony here is that natural gas is very friendly to the environment in ways that matter like spewing stuff toxic to humans and cute furry animals. Not as clean as nuclear power of course, but the second best. The killing of nuclear energy is another example of bad politics blocking good science.
And you're probably right, it is deliberate. We're been mandates for solutions that don't really work. If we are allowed solutions that work then there isn't a profound crisis that requires total submission to combat.
Even storage - even if technologically possible - cannot solve the inconsistency of supply from wind/solar.
For example, pumped water storage works because fossil fuel/nuke power is continuously available, so spare off-peak output can be used to pump water back up to the reservoir of a hydroelectric scheme. During the day the stored water is run through turbines to assist day time peak demand, then pumped back at night from off-peak supply. This is a continuous cycle possible because power to pump back the water is always available on demand.
Now suppose wind replaces fossil fuel/nuke for this. Water is pumped at night and stored. The wind drops during the day, the stored water is released to provide power, but the wind stays calm so there is no night time power to pump the water back up into the reservoir.
Now what?
In order for storage to work, the power source must be despatchable, otherwise availability of stored power will be no more reliable than its primary wind/solar source.
The presumption of ‘wind always blowing/sun always shining somewhere’ assumes a very complex, well coordinated network of inter connectors linking massive storage and generating arrays over a huge area, including internationally. This fantasy inevitable must include layer upon layer of redundancy and transmission of power over long distances.