Global CO2 emissions will never go down, they'll only get bigger. Any strategy to deal with climate change that isn't "let's figure out how to adapt to it" is truly ridiculous. And paying multiple times more for electricity that is derived from intermittent sources is literally the dumbest strategy possible because it can't possibly work…
Global CO2 emissions will never go down, they'll only get bigger. Any strategy to deal with climate change that isn't "let's figure out how to adapt to it" is truly ridiculous. And paying multiple times more for electricity that is derived from intermittent sources is literally the dumbest strategy possible because it can't possibly work and just makes everything more expensive.
China is building a new coal plant every two weeks, India is building a large number as well. Emissions are not going to go down.
We pay multiple times more when you account for the necessary backup power plants (fossil fuel powered) that are running in standby mode to kick in when the sun doesn't shine or there is no wind... which is a lot of the time.
I get a huge laugh when people talk to me about "capacity" of wind and solar as if it's meaningful when those things on average supply about 25% of their capacity and a lot of the time they're supplying power when demand is low. Wind and solar are stupid.
And Germany's prize for dropping emissions is to have the highest electricity prices in Europe, which is crushing industry and simply exporting CO2 emissions to China.
At some point you guys are going to have to understand that there is more benefit to CO2 emissions than any possible detriments (if there are any). If you think CO2-induced climate change is an actual thing then we shouldn't be dumping money into wind and solar, we should be spending money on adapting to a hotter climate.
Global CO2 emissions will never go down, they'll only get bigger. Any strategy to deal with climate change that isn't "let's figure out how to adapt to it" is truly ridiculous. And paying multiple times more for electricity that is derived from intermittent sources is literally the dumbest strategy possible because it can't possibly work and just makes everything more expensive.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/weather/topstories/global-energy-related-co2-emissions-hit-record-high-in-2023-iea/ar-BB1j9n1G
Re. "CO2 emissions will never go down" -- Emissions should, can, and might decrease; the IPCC lays out several pathways in detail ( https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/SR15_Chapter2_Low_Res.pdf ).
Re. "paying multiple times more" -- True perhaps if we compare offshore wind for the first-of-kind (in US) project discussed in this post to combined-cycle gas, onshore wind, or utility-scale solar, per the Lazard chart -- but not true for onshore wind or utility-scale solar, which are not "multiple times more" than anything, but on the contrary are best in show and continue to get cheaper along well-studied learning curves ( https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(22)00649-6?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2589004222006496%3Fshowall%3Dtrue ).
Re. "can't possibly work" -- If true, it is strange that, per International Energy Agency, "renewables [mostly wind and solar] are set to account for over 90% of global electricity capacity expansion" through 2027 ( https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2022/executive-summary ). Also very weird that "Germany’s power sector emissions dropped to their lowest level in 70 years in 2023 and passed the 50% threshold for renewable electricity production for the first time" ( https://www.euractiv.com/section/electricity/news/2023-a-bumper-year-for-germanys-renewable-electricity-sector/ ). And with higher reliability than US grids. The illusion that renewables work is indeed powerful.
China is building a new coal plant every two weeks, India is building a large number as well. Emissions are not going to go down.
We pay multiple times more when you account for the necessary backup power plants (fossil fuel powered) that are running in standby mode to kick in when the sun doesn't shine or there is no wind... which is a lot of the time.
I get a huge laugh when people talk to me about "capacity" of wind and solar as if it's meaningful when those things on average supply about 25% of their capacity and a lot of the time they're supplying power when demand is low. Wind and solar are stupid.
And Germany's prize for dropping emissions is to have the highest electricity prices in Europe, which is crushing industry and simply exporting CO2 emissions to China.
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2023-3-12-germanys-coming-green-energy-economic-miracle?rq=Germany
At some point you guys are going to have to understand that there is more benefit to CO2 emissions than any possible detriments (if there are any). If you think CO2-induced climate change is an actual thing then we shouldn't be dumping money into wind and solar, we should be spending money on adapting to a hotter climate.