The left does not want abundant energy. They want to be the ones rationing a limited supply, rewarding their friends and punishing their opposition.
The lede says it all.
Of course, the left “leadership” knows that their power will remain on, their pools will remain filled, and their limousines will run.
Until we take care of them.
Permanenetly.
And bury their remains below those wretched windmills and polluting thrown away electric car batteries.
Wind and solar have never been the solution. Or, electric cars.
But, we can expect incredible breakthroughs in the relatively near future. Technology is advancing so rapidly in all areas.
Until then, gas and oil are plentiful and necessary.
Only petroleum products provide enough energy to support our industrialized civilization. The left wants to eliminate petroleum products because it wants to eliminate our industrialized civilization.
Excellent article....
That reminds me, I have to go up on my roof and shovel the snow off my solar panels sometime this week.
I learned quite recently that European railroads are all electric
I seriously doubt that all the wind and solar capacity in Europe is great enough to even run their railroads
Think of wind and solar as a hydroelectric dam where the river is 1000 miles wide and an inch deep. There is energy there but it is too dilute and dependent on rainfall to be economical or practical.
I always tell people that you can’t effectively run an industrialized country like the USA on solar panels and compost patties.
Yes, I appreciate the value and benefits of solar power and other new energy sources, but all they can ever really be is a supplement to our power grid, not the foundation of it.
folks, if there is a serious collapse to our energy availability—then all bets are off. Yeah, this world can currently sustain our 8+ billion people—but that’s because of our energy independence—if we have no energy, then several billion of those people won’t be here anymore simply by default.
On a small personal scale it does work if you are willing to make some lifestyle changes and add some labor to your routine and learn to do without central heating and cooling. But the utility companies and government regulations will never give up that “control” over folks and let them be truly independent. Most states won’t even let you add battery storage to a solar system for BS environmental reasons, it is self defeating. And without storage it is completely useless.
These ideas of the left would be impressive if they could only create a “green” solution that didn’t require 100% reliance on fossil fuels.
Another issue, with regard to storage is that you have to have energy available to store. In other words, you have to be able to produce enough EXCESS energy during generation to be able to fully cover all energy needed during peak demand.
It’s either too windy or not windy enough, or too cold or too hot to run those windmills; with solar it’s either way too cold, freezing, or cloudy, or rainy or ....
And PS: those windmills need power to produce power.
We need to at least credit Pootie-poot with again making this clear.
Stick your solar power where the sun don’t shine!
Liberals push Alaskans to opt for solar power since the sun shines 24 hours a day in the summer. (when the need for energy is at rock bottom)
In the winter they can burn snow. /s
it is unilateral disarmament redux
remember those crazies?
I have a solution. Take an area in the world (Sinai) which has abundant sunlight, near a water source and build a Palestinian State. The entire country will b run off of alternative energy solutions. This means nothing containing petroleum will be used. Build several water desalination facilities and pipelines to carry water inland. Plant new gardens, trees and other greenage which will be used for farming, setting up a new economy. All infrastructure will run on solar power, vehicles of electric power only.
This will be the model for the world to see. Every country will bring its expertise and innovation to the table to build this new country. In a show of solidarity, the UN will move its offices to this new city. Palestinians will flock to this new country and be welcomed as the pioneers for the future.
Then nuke the place from orbit, just to be sure.
Good but wordy article which almost reaches the concise point:
When the buffer batteries drain, “green” power stops.
Batteries are expensive.
The more batteries you buffer with, the more storage costs, the less likely you’ll need the additional storage, and you’ll still encounter blackout scenarios - usually under worst-case conditions.
Yes, other power sourcing can stop, causing blackouts. Those conditions don’t happen literally every day, like with solar.
1 square meter of solar panel will produce, on long-term average, 10 watts.
(Yes, 10 watts. There isn’t as much usable sunlight as people think.)
10W buffered requires 240Wh of storage for one day (50W in for 5 hours, 10W out for 24 hours).
1000Wh needed for 4 days, storing excess input literally for a rainy day - and 4 rainy/cloudy/blizzard days in a row is common.
Yes there’s light on cloudy days, but not enough to not plan on. I’ve tried.
1m^2 panel + 1kWh storage = $1000
A thousand dollars to have 10W run for 4 days and 4 hours.
One hour (minute?) longer, and you’re at 0 watts.
If the storm is continuing, that’s a bad time to hit 0W.
Another 1kWh battery costs another $1000. Odds of needing it drop, but not enough to not have it.
Ask Texas & Chicago about month-long freak weather. Buy a month’s worth of battery storage: near $10,000 to buffer 10W for a month. That’s barely enough for one LED light bulb.
Odds of need for long darkness drops, but cost to cover that period is constant per-day.
I really like solar. I’ve been accused of being a Lefty over it. It’s great for AUGMENTING home energy production, and a fantastic opportunity to go off-grid (even powering vehicles now) as methinks every conservative should (to the dismay of Progressives), but we MUST have a steady stream of high-power instant-on sourcing to balance it.
Nuclear is the only viable “green” choice. Given enough demand, by building enough safe (!) reactors, we’ll be able to support extracting uranium etc from seawater. Build homes with solar roofs, and connect them to a nuke-powered grid. Anyone got a better idea?