Iron Bru › Forums › Non Football › The Problems with Renewable Energy
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October 3, 2022 at 4:03 pm #246029
The drive to net-zero has created huge problems for the western world. Renewable wind and solar energy sound great in theory but their inherent intermittency makes generating electricity at the levels required for national grids both wasteful and expensive.
First, national grid supplies require a steady base load, which renewables cannot provide without hugely expensive battery support. Second, changes in demand mean high levels of capacity are required at very short notice, which means back-up for renewables must be maintained at high ‘spinning levels’ to accommodate the unpredictability of their supply. Third, drops in wind and/or sunshine can happen unpredictably over prolonged periods of time, during which even the biggest batteries would be unable to cope, meaning total capacity back-up is required. In simple terms, all of this means creating two national grid supplies. As well as being uneconomic this is also hugely wasteful in resources and energy.
On top of this, wind turbines require large quantities of materials, from steel to cement that need huge amounts of energy to manufacture and build as well as to site and secure. Offshore they damage large areas of the seabed while the harsh environment in which they operate demands high levels of maintenance. Onshore and offshore wind turbines kill significant numbers of birds. Solar panels are well-suited to domestic use but at national grid levels require large amounts of land, which takes valuable farmland and destroys habitats.While renewables can provide useful sources of electricity, at the scale required for national grids they are unlikely ever to become economic, even given likely developments in battery and other storage technology. The only practical and viable source to fossil fuels for producing electricity is nuclear power.
It will be many decades before fossil fuels can be phased out.
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October 3, 2022 at 4:03 pm #246030Yawn
October 3, 2022 at 4:11 pm #246035I’d rather use those fossil resources to make renewable resources for many years than burn them once to heat my living room .The drive to net zero has to happen before we run out of fossil fuels to build renewables.It doesn’t matter weather or not you beleive in man made global warming or not,you cannot deny the fact that fossil fuels are a finite resource an d as they get scarcer they will get more expensive in countries that have privatised their resources
October 3, 2022 at 4:19 pm #246039The drive to net-zero has created huge problems for the western world. Renewable wind and solar energy sound great in theory but their inherent intermittency makes generating electricity at the levels required for national grids both wasteful and expensive.
First, national grid supplies require a steady base load, which renewables cannot provide without hugely expensive battery support. Second, changes in demand mean high levels of capacity are required at very short notice, which means back-up for renewables must be maintained at high ‘spinning levels’ to accommodate the unpredictability of their supply. Third, drops in wind and/or sunshine can happen unpredictably over prolonged periods of time, during which even the biggest batteries would be unable to cope, meaning total capacity back-up is required. In simple terms, all of this means creating two national grid supplies. As well as being uneconomic this is also hugely wasteful in resources and energy.
On top of this, wind turbines require large quantities of materials, from steel to cement that need huge amounts of energy to manufacture and build as well as to site and secure. Offshore they damage large areas of the seabed while the harsh environment in which they operate demands high levels of maintenance. Onshore and offshore wind turbines kill significant numbers of birds. Solar panels are well-suited to domestic use but at national grid levels require large amounts of land, which takes valuable farmland and destroys habitats.While renewables can provide useful sources of electricity, at the scale required for national grids they are unlikely ever to become economic, even given likely developments in battery and other storage technology. The only practical and viable source to fossil fuels for producing electricity is nuclear power.
It will be many decades before fossil fuels can be phased out.
Tell that to those that have been in power in this country for the last decade and a quarter.
October 3, 2022 at 4:58 pm #246043“It will be many decades before fossil fuels can be phased out”.
Did you tell Thatcher this?
October 3, 2022 at 5:47 pm #246045Amazing opening post – one could be forgiven for thinking it was a cut and paste propaganda job.
‘wind turbines kill significant numbers of birds.’
Anything up to 100,000 in the UK isn’t it? What you going to do about the 55m birds killed each year by cats? Set up another Tufton St ‘think tank’ to deal with them? Simpler solution – make them safer. Oh, it’s already being looked in to!
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October 3, 2022 at 6:35 pm #246048Well at least it distracts from the lying two faced Tory government he can’t even make excuses for anymore, just amuse him or ignore altogether.
October 3, 2022 at 7:05 pm #246051Don’t need to cut and paste anything, Deerey, 100% my own words. All you’ve revealed is how little you understand by dissing it. Same as 64, who clearly doesn’t have a clue about the hundreds of years of fossil fuels still in reserve. Either way, what I’ve written is indisputable and anyone who thinks otherwise is in cloud cuckoo land. Very happy to debate with anyone who disagrees, though having a constructive argument on here is pretty much impossible.
TW is absolutely correct, of course, although it’s not just those in power but also those in opposition who don’t get it. Hence the complete mess we and the rest of the Western World are now in.
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October 3, 2022 at 7:19 pm #246055‘what I’ve written is indisputable and anyone who thinks otherwise is in cloud cuckoo land.’ Lol, haven’t you said that about numerous other topics and been proven wrong? I think so. At least you’re humble about it
October 3, 2022 at 7:28 pm #246058Another well constructed argument from one of the usual suspects. Lol indeed.
October 3, 2022 at 7:35 pm #246064hundreds of years? they took thousands to create . We will run out,better to try now and not be at the whim of greedy markets,it wouldn’t be so bad had the Tories not flogged our national assets of mind you
October 3, 2022 at 7:36 pm #246065Thatcher ditched fossil fuels, she obviously disagreed with you on energy Buck’s.
October 3, 2022 at 7:36 pm #246066There may be hundreds of years of oil reserves in existence, but there isn’t currently hundreds of years worth that is currently exploitable. Yes, efficiency in extraction may improve, but not to the level of the total percentage of reserve.
Now to await to be told that I don’t know what I am talking about, because I haven’t followed Bucks’s line exactly. Somehow we’re all sheep for disagreeing with him and valuing experts, yet question him and he comes down on you with fury, because he expects to be taken as an expert.
October 3, 2022 at 7:57 pm #246071hundreds of years? they took thousands to create . We will run out,better to try now and not be at the whim of greedy markets,it wouldn’t be so bad had the Tories not flogged our national assets of mind you
We will never run out of oil, as such, because we can’t currently easily extract every drop of oil from an oil reserve. Technology allows us to extract more from a reservoir, but as we have to use more challenging technologies to bring up yield, the costlier it will be and eventually it will be far less costly to use alternatives. The idea that we can rely on oil for hundreds of years is still one to to be sceptical of, but it’s not because every drop of oil will have been depleted.
October 3, 2022 at 8:03 pm #246073He has taken the same geology course as Re-smog.
October 3, 2022 at 8:06 pm #246074Oh, and discovery of new fields is on the decline, so we can’t rely on new reserves, with more easily and cheaply extracted oil, forever either.
October 4, 2022 at 4:24 pm #246105I thought the opening post by BI was pretty reasonable and accurate. It led to the conclusion that the only currently realistic source of sustainable energy for a modern economy if we are to rapidly eliminate the use of fossil fuels is significant dependence on nuclear power. I found two books really helpful in relation to this. ‘Cool it’ by Bjorn Lomborg and ‘Apocalypse Never’ by Michael Shellenberger. Both are particularly enlightening as regards a ‘cost/benefit’ analysis of different approaches and also the concept of ‘energy density’ as per different means of generating power. I remember a young lady with a striking name … Zion Lights … advocating for Extinction Rebellion in a TV interview three or four years ago. She listened to Shellenberger, analysed his arguments and left XR to advocate for Nuclear energy. I would recommend either book if anyone is prepared to be challenged on what is surely the most pressing issues of this particular time.
October 4, 2022 at 4:33 pm #246106It should be noted that said authors are not without issue:
A closer examination of the fantastical numbers in Bjorn Lomborg’s new book
However, I am not interested in conspiracies about elites trying to silence dissent, from defenders who can’t tolerate criticism, and see such as silencing.
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October 4, 2022 at 4:35 pm #246107Nuclear is still very viable for the future but the way Buck’s dismisses greener options out of hand is so blinkered IMO, refusing to move forward to newer ways of providing our energy is just the way the next generation want to do it. Like others before we have to move forward and not stick in the past vegetating, if it wasn’t for progress we would not be communicating in this way now.
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October 4, 2022 at 4:57 pm #246110To be fair, Sidey, not many ‘out of the box’ thinkers will be without some element of controversy … especially on this particular topic which is riddled at every turn with financial and political interests of every hue. I want to see a practical solution … too many people, both in the developed world and especially the developing world, will suffer if we don’t get this right. The UK are about to taste the fruits of ill thought out energy policies this coming Winter … and particularly the poor … and this sits in a global context. Maybe the Shellenberger book?
October 4, 2022 at 5:08 pm #246113“We must be careful not to believe things simply because we want them to be true”.
Physicist R P Feynman
October 4, 2022 at 5:10 pm #246114I think we’re in danger of monopolising the issue. I am not denying things like the immobility to nuclear for a role, but it’s multifaceted, so to say this is solely because of energy direction is too simplistic.
Also, those who have flaws in their work won’t be without controversy. You can’t just dismiss criticism because it comes from many sources.
Contrarianism does not equal greater credibility. I have seen this claim come often from many, including on here (alcazar a prime culprit). The idea that those who are on the side of a majority position or mainstream position are somehow being gullible sheep. As if you’re being a radical free thinker for being different, it means you’re thinking outside the box. It doesn’t. Blindly rejecting more mainstream opinion for some fringe view is as illogical and gullible as blindly trusting anything someone says.
I am not stating you are doing this here, but it’s worth bearing in mind when praising people because they go against a more common position. It doesn’t automatically put you in some enlightened position or make critics wrong.
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October 4, 2022 at 6:13 pm #246117What a ridiculous comment, IA. I have nothing against renewables per se. Why on earth would I? We have solar panels on our house and they work well. Who wouldn’t want a source of energy that was environmentally friendly, secure and cheap. All that I’ve done is explain the problems associated with renewables, which are not as environmentally friendly, secure of cheap as many have claimed. In fact they have a lot of problems associated with them.
I’ve said on numerous occasions on this board that we would sleep-walk into massive problems if we believed the hype around renewables; and that is precisely what’s happened and will continue to happen if we don’t accept these problems are real. The ‘experts’ who claim otherwise all have vested interests, either political, ideological or, increasingly, financial. People believing otherwise are just ignorant or naive. I’m sorry if that sounds unfair but it’s the reality we’re facing.
IF renewables were as good as they’ve been made out to be we wouldn’t now be facing crippling energy costs. Businesses wouldn’t have needed incentives or subsidies to build them if they were genuinely commercially viable. In truth they’re not. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use them but people deserve to be told the truth about what they really cost when everything that’s needed to support them — and without which they wouldn’t be viable — is taken into account.
Btw, 64 and Siderite, I’ve checked on the coal reserves available and for the USA, which has the biggest reserves, the recoverable amount equates to 470 years at current consumption (https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/coal/how-much-coal-is-left.php). This would almost certainly increase over time as the economics change and technology improves.
Also Siderite, I don’t think that I’m an ‘expert’ at all. What I am is someone who checks the facts for themselves. I would urge everyone to be cynical about ‘experts’ and double-check for themselves what they’re being told. The reality is often very different.
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October 4, 2022 at 6:17 pm #246118I was admittedly talking about oil, but that is true. There are of course reasons we should ween ourselves off such, but I am not going to get into that roundabout again.
Suffice to say, I have mostly disagreed with you on this ’roundabout’, less so on renewables, before you start crowing.
October 4, 2022 at 6:19 pm #246121“Also Siderite, I don’t think that I’m an ‘expert’ at all.”
It really doesn’t come across like that to me. I am sceptical, which is why I am sceptical of you, yet I get berated. If you don’t want me to think like this then address the concerns, or just accept I am a person who might not view you positively in some regards, fairly or not. I try to be reasonable, but personal opinions won’t be changed without demonstration. Which means less dismissiveness and smug pronouncements for me. If you don’t think you need to change, fine (it is just my opinion), but you can’t police how I view your demeanour.
October 4, 2022 at 6:24 pm #246122Oil is more difficult to estimate because there’s so much of the stuff that could be removed depending on the economics and technology used to extract it, which I think you referred to earlier, Siderite. However, even based on what we know now there’s at least 50 years, which would almost certainly increase massively if companies were encouraged to search for and recover it.
Whatever King Charles, Joe Biden, David Attenborough or Greta Thunberg might like to believe this is going to have to happen unless nuclear is ramped up massively. I genuinely wish it were otherwise, but it isn’t.
October 4, 2022 at 6:28 pm #246123Your demeanour doesn’t bother me in the slightest, Siderite. You’re perfectly entitled to your views and I respect your right to have them, regardless of how negative or positive they might be towards me or anyone else. I would simply ask you to understand that as someone whose political views are different to the vast majority on this board I’ve taken a lot of abuse. Some might think I deserve it, which is up to them, but either way it explains why I take the position that I do.
October 4, 2022 at 6:32 pm #246124I wasn’t saying 50 years is a definitive figure. I was pointing out that the issue over oil is less to do with volume of reserves in total, mote total economically extractable.
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October 4, 2022 at 6:52 pm #246127Your demeanour doesn’t bother me in the slightest, Siderite. You’re perfectly entitled to your views and I respect your right to have them, regardless of how negative or positive they might be towards me or anyone else. I would simply ask you to understand that as someone whose political views are different to the vast majority on this board I’ve taken a lot of abuse. Some might think I deserve it, which is up to them, but either way it explains why I take the position that I do.
Tbh I can see how others may have aggravated you same as the other way round. Everything is polarised right now. I have an idea I might share tomorrow to improve things, though it will probably achieve little, so stay tuned if you want to laugh at how naff it is.
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