Posted on 08/17/2019 7:13:58 AM PDT by george76
If the official definitions of renewable energy were logical, renewable energy would be defined as energy that does not emit CO2 and that is not using a resource in danger of running out anytime soon. But the definitions written into the laws of many states are not logical. Hydroelectric energy is mostly banned because the environmental movement hates dams. Nuclear is banned ... Both nuclear and hydro don't emit CO2. Hydro doesn't need fuel. Nuclear fuel is cheap and plentiful. A large number of prominent global warming activists, such as James Hansen, Michael Shellenberger, and Stewart Brand have declared that nuclear is the only solution for the crisis that they imagine is approaching.
For those of us who don't take global warming seriously, there is nothing wrong with using coal and natural gas to generate electricity. The CO2 emitted helps plants to grow better with less water, a great help to agriculture.
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Wind and solar are erratic sources of energy. The output depends on the weather. Solar doesn't work at night. Because they are erratic, there have to be backup plants
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For a natural gas plant, the gas to generate a megawatt-hour of electricity costs about $20. That $20 is the economic value of each megawatt-hour generated by wind or solar. Unsubsidized, wind or solar electricity, either one, costs about $80 a megawatt-hour to generate. The difference between $80 and $20 is the subsidy that has to be paid in order to use wind or solar.
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batteries are very costly for moving electricity. A megawatt-hour of solar electricity that costs, unsubsidized, $80 during the day ends up costing $270 when moved to the early evening via a battery... The $270 includes the cost of replacing the battery every five years. The batteries have to be air-conditioned
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Democrats are evil.
https://amp.ft.com/content/8b738eac-c024-11e9-89e2-41e555e96722?__twitter_impression=true
National Grid’s preliminary investigation into the blackout that caused widespread disruption in England and Wales last week has raised the possibility that it was caused by the world’s largest offshore wind farm accidentally going offline.
The provisional report, which was submitted to regulators on Friday, suggests for the first time that the Hornsea offshore wind farm, which is owned and run by Denmark’s Orsted, may have tripped offline seconds before an outage at a smaller, gas-fired station.
Nuclear is renewable. Just supernova a star every few billion years or so. :)
That being said, with safety accountability firmly ensconced, nuclear is an excellent option.
Hydroelectric is a storage device, not a power source.
The source is solar energy.
What environmentalists have a problem with is cheap energy for their human livestock so that can live free and independent of them.
As an non tech guy who reads a lot, the energy problem with renewables won’t be solved until the energy is safely, economically and efficiently stored.
We are not there yet.
I was involved in nuclear construction back in the day. It was killed by a thousand cuts made by whining antinuc cutters. They must not live through the next round.
I have come to believe that the future in America is the develpoment of small and relative simple power genetating units rather than a few humongous widely spaced units.
Clearly, wind and solar will be a viable replacement for fossil fueled generation after energy storage gets less expensive and the total cost per Mwh comes down.
That time is not quite here yet but advances are being made rapidly each year.
Once that happens the changeover to safe, non CO2 emitting generation is just a matter of time.
Is that true? I thought the released water flows through a turbine and spins it and generates electricity?
Sounds like I have misunderstood hydroelectric? Can you point me towards resources to better understand that?
Actually, other than geothermal and nuclear, pretty much every energy source works its way back to solar (and that includes wind).
All sources of energy are renewable, it just takes a hell of a long time to renew oil and gas.
It’s all about the batteries....
$2 per MCF of natural gas is what is killing all of these. Adjusted for inflation, this is about the lowest price ever recorded. Natural gas is quite abundant and will continue to be.
I can: https://pmm.nasa.gov/education/water-cycle
A hydroelectric plant consists of a generator connected to an energy storage device even though it may be called, for instance, “Lake Mead”. Without sufficient rain and snowmelt, there’s nothing to go through the turbines. Energy from the sun drives the water cycle.
Hydroelectric generation is actually a form of solar power attributed to the water cycle. Other than very minimal amounts of steam released into the atmosphere from geothermal and nuclear reaction, all rain that falls is due to the suns thermal effects.
You have to think further back in the cycle. The sun evaporates the ocean water forming the rain in the hills and mountains flowing to the rivers. The water behind the dams is the energy storage. So it is renewable in the long run.
“It’s all about the batteries....”
Yes, but the day is coming when renewables will work 24/7 for days or even weeks if needed. Then we will finally have a clean, reliable, economic answer. Our capitalist system will find it because the money is right.
Utility scale or distributed storage will be the answer which we need.
The upcoming California Solar crash will be similar to the stupid program they did for solar water and Water Heating Heat Pumps in the 80’s.
I would be surprised if 1% remain in use.
I made lotsa money for years as customers had to pay to decommission those useless systems.
The current solar panel crazzzz.... only exists because of wanna be greenies, tax deductions and predatory marketing by companies who are mostly inept mechanics and of course by legislators who are ignorant, Green brainwashed or filling their pockets from lobbyists.
These systems WILL ALL WEAR OUT over time.
Most parts are not interchangeable so repairs will be costly.
Few techs truly understand these systems as they are made to just drop in place by low skilled installers (different when needing to trouble shoot and repair)
There are so many brands, types etc that have already gone out of business .... good luck getting parts especially in California where warehouses have to pay inventory tax ! Why keep anything in stock?
The electric companies and greenies have been lulled into believing these systems are back filling power needs when if fact, when these systems begin to crash there will have been no pre planning to face the darkness.
Instead of building other traditional generation right now we will be years behind when this crashes. Yeah I understand power companies don’t wanna own transmission lines anymore. They just want to send out bills and have us subsidize their public relations messages and junk mail.
There are already safety issues with these systems and how they are tied to the grid. Just wait. High voltage electricity is Not Safe especially on the roofs of the typical California voter.
The Stupidity in thinking these 10’s of 1000’s of systems installed have reduced carbon footprint or other buzz-wordy nonsense will be fulfilled when they are eventually dismantled at great cost.
Land fill trash for these panels and components ? No this will be some expensive garbage even after dismantling expenses.
Silliest of all is these systems are owned by people who know Nothing about them high voltage systems that are atrophying on their roofs.
Few even know how to get on their roof. Good thing.
This coming problem is not on anyone’s radar except a few mechanical people who know better..... after all ... right now there’s money to be made continuing these stupid policies and plenty of roofs still waiting to have holes poked in them.
Go Green California ? Nope, going down Brown.
True. We're all just a small part of the solar system, and when the sun finally goes out, we're all doomed.
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