Re: [Marxism] The Reason Renewables Can't Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant To

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 5/8/19 2:33 PM, DW via Marxism wrote:

The UK has
decided to build around 8KWs of new nuclear. This might eliminate the need
to repeat the failure in Germany.


So what if it did?

This fixation on energy is what drives me nuts about the Jacobin/DSA 
left and the David Walters/Leigh Phillips/George Monbiot glow in the 
dark brigade. The answer to our problems is socialism, not a more 
efficient light-bulb. Unless we address all of these calamitous threats 
to the world, which range from dying insects to plastics in the ocean, 
we are fucked.

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Re: [Marxism] The Reason Renewables Can't Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant To

[DW via Marxism]

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Shellenberger's article is excellent and spot on. People should read it. So
a few things...

On Britain: there are only about 8GWs of installed capacity right now
anyway, of coal. Thanks to both natural gas and nuclear, coal is on it' way
out regardless of what happens elsewhere in terms of new generation in the
country. I really want folks to take a look at the "Electricity Map" to see
real-time carbon footprint of each country or region. It is very
enlightening:
https://www.electricitymap.org/?page=country=false=true=false=GB


Secondly, MM is absolutely correct. The key difference this last week was
natural gas. Natural gas and wind/solar go together perfectly since all
countries with wind and solar need some sort of back up for the make up of
generation daily depending on the time of day and the weather. And all this
made possible by...fracking.

The UK is the one country in western Europe with a large and influential
anti-nuclear/pro-wind/solar lobby. They *do* have a strong wind lobby but
it's not organized politically as it is in other countries. The UK has
decided to build around 8KWs of new nuclear. This might eliminate the need
to repeat the failure in Germany.

Shellenberger has an excellent series on Germany and it's failed "
*Energiewende*" policy.

David
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Re: [Marxism] The Reason Renewables Can't Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant To

[MM via Marxism]

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> On May 8, 2019, at 12:50 PM, William Quimby via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> And yet Britain just experienced an entire week without coal-generated 
> electricity...without mass panic,
> it would seem?

They did it by burning enormous amounts of natural gas — 45% of the total mix 
during the period in question: 
https://news.sky.com/story/uk-sets-new-record-for-days-without-coal-power-11713755

And despite what you may have heard, natural gas is far more dangerous for the 
climate than coal in the relatively near term: 
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/why-natural-gas-makes-global-warming-worse

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Re: [Marxism] The Reason Renewables Can't Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant To

[William Quimby via Marxism]

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And yet Britain just experienced an entire week without coal-generated 
electricity...without mass panic,

it would seem?



But I am not sure if what is happening in Britain is a direct 
contradiction to the drift of the Forbes
article - it may be that Britain has had much greater success than 
Germany with off-shore wind.


- Bill

On 05/08/19 07:48 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:

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Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk proclaimed that a rich, high-energy 
civilization could be powered by cheap solar panels and electric cars.


Journalists reported breathlessly on the cost declines in batteries, 
imagining a tipping point at which conventional electricity utilities 
would be “disrupted.”


But no amount of marketing could change the poor physics of 
resource-intensive and land-intensive renewables. Solar farms take 450 
times more land than nuclear plants, and wind farms take 700 times 
more land than natural gas wells, to produce the same amount of energy.


full: 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/05/06/the-reason-renewables-cant-power-modern-civilization-is-because-they-were-never-meant-to/

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[Marxism] The Reason Renewables Can't Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant To

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk proclaimed that a rich, high-energy 
civilization could be powered by cheap solar panels and electric cars.


Journalists reported breathlessly on the cost declines in batteries, 
imagining a tipping point at which conventional electricity utilities 
would be “disrupted.”


But no amount of marketing could change the poor physics of 
resource-intensive and land-intensive renewables. Solar farms take 450 
times more land than nuclear plants, and wind farms take 700 times more 
land than natural gas wells, to produce the same amount of energy.


full: 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/05/06/the-reason-renewables-cant-power-modern-civilization-is-because-they-were-never-meant-to/

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