I sent this reply about Moore's film to a friend of mine, but I will reproduce it here:
Well, I have had it with Michael Moore. At an earlier time I was somewhat annoyed when he went DEF CON 1 about a Governor who wore blackface 20+ years ago when he was in college (yes, a very stupid thing to do), but who had a very good civil rights record and was well supported by the black community, and, who after this blackface revelation, will likely be even more conscious of civil rights. But he failed to satisfy Moore’s absolute purity test. But now, Moore, while he did not direct this film, was a part of the production and fully supports an assault on renewable energy. Mind you, this is NOT a criticism of the environmental damage that some renewable energy causes: that is fair game. He is opposed to the very IDEA of renewable energy: that it is basically a con game supported by the wealthy. I watched ¾ of the movie “Planet of the Humans”, and found at least 8 or 9 glaring lies or misrepresentations that destroy the purported claims. But here is just one: that solar PV is less than 8% efficient, and it would take the space of a football field to power just 10 houses. Average solar PV panels are typically 17% efficient, but those from SunPower, while about 15% more expensive, are 21-22% efficient, and there are many net-zero solar houses which produce as much solar energy as they use, with less than 1/2 of the roof covered by solar PV. There are also a number of net positive energy houses and buildings such as the Bullitt building in Seattle whose rooftop solar panels produce 60% more energy than is used, despite the fact that it uses energy to treat all the water (that is, rain water) that the building uses, and nearly all the garbage as well. Bur there is more. His film does not address the long life of electric cars, such as a Tesla Model 3, which is by far the best selling electric car in the world, where the drive train lasts 2-3 times as long as a gas car, and with minimal maintenance, which itself is a major environmental benefit, plus the fact that this high performance electric car uses drastically LESS energy (4-5 times less) than a gas car driven the same distance at the same speeds. Some time ago I made a presentation at the Seattle Electric Vehicle Association (SEVA) in which I showed that, even in the Seattle area which has the worst solar energy in the USA (other than Alaska), by combining 3 existing technologies: (1) electric cars, like the Model 3, (2) the European Passive House Design, and (3) a 10 kW solar panel, that the combination of house+cars not only is net positive in terms of energy, but reduces the total amount of energy use by a factor of 9-10, even when you include the energy needed to manufacture and install the 10 kW solar panel. At the end of this presentation, one of the SEVA members got up and said that he had actually done what I merely calculate and talk about, and that my figures are very close to what he has observed in reality. So we don’t just replace X amount of dirty energy with X amount of clean energy, we replace it with 1/10 the amount of (clean) energy. This huge reduction in energy use is also a very major environmental benefit and moves us toward a more sustainable civilization without sending us back to the 18th century. With some additional changes, such as a 1200 sq. foot houses vs 2000 sq. feet, and replacing one of the 2 electric cars with a micro car that handles most of the city driving, I can reduce the energy to 1/20 of the amount in Seattle, and to 1/30 of the amount in average places in the country. There were many other false claims, such that solar PV only lasts 10 years (30-40 is more like it), batteries need to be replaced every 2 years (Tesla batteries retain 80% of their capacity after 500,000 miles, about 30 years of driving), that it takes more energy to create solar and wind turbines then they create (wind turbines produce 18-20 times more energy then they consume, solar at least 6 times more), that there is no renewable solution to the variable output of solar/wind, etc. This is such an important issue for our future that such misinformation is a tragedy. d On Tue, May 5, 2020 at 7:24 PM Mark Laity-Snyder via EV <[email protected]> wrote: > Ok so I been doing thinking about Planet of the Humans. I haven't seen it > yet but have read a lot of reviews on it. What do you folks think? > I also read this > https://www.caradvice.com.au/845775/electric-car-batteries-environmental-cost/ > that > someone posted. Sorry I couldn't find who and I watched this Why > renewables can’t save the planet | Michael Shellenberger | TEDxDanubia > > | > | > | > | | | > > | > > | > | > | | > Why renewables can’t save the planet | Michael Shellenberger | TEDxDanubia > > Environmentalists have long promoted renewable energy sources like solar > panels and wind farms to save the clima... > | > > | > > | > > What do you guys think about the full life cycle of renewables (solar and > wind) versus nuclear? Obviously EVs are still important for > transportation but what about Nuclear for the grid? > I bought solar so I am sold on it for myself. I can't build a nuclear > plant anyway. So don't think I am pro Nuclear. > Mark. > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20200506/77a504b1/attachment.html > > > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html > INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA ( > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > > -- Larry Gales -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20200505/7159bbb3/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
