A Bit of Renewable Energy Rancor
An angry gentleman from Australia posted this story, explaining how “solar and wind don’t work.”
Insofar as this claim is so outrageous, I succumbed to temptation and got a tad sarcastic:
Craig: OMG, solar and wind don’t work? Thanks for the tip. Btw, have you shared this with the 6.5 million people who work in the renewable energy industry worldwide whose weekly paychecks put food on their families’ tables? Those must have been some interesting conversations. How about the electric utility operators in the U.S. who, as we speak, are integrating 87 million kilowatts of wind (times the capacity factor, for a total of about 5%) into the national grid-mix? They too must have been at least somewhat surprised at your “finding.”
The Guy: LOL, hilarious to see you pretend employing more workers, and producing less power, is a selling point. In fact your claims reiniforce the conclusion that austrailian greens have screwed up the country’s grid power reliability, and large numbers of workers, producing less energy means that energy must carry the overhead burden of all that employment, unlike coal and natural gas. Please continue to be a vindictive, ignorant hypocrite. It’s what I have come to expect from you liars.
Craig: What’s your theory that explains why the world’s largest banks: Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, etc. are investing tens of trillions of dollars into the clean energy sector now and over the next decade? They’re getting the math, physics and economics all wrong? They’re closet socialists? They need to be looking to you for clear-headed advice? Seems a bit hard to accept.
The Guy: Investing in energy independence is a good idea. Puking out false propaganda conforming to the goron hoax removes your credibility, as does being a coward and a back biting factless shit head who turns simple economics upside down in an attempt to make a point, aligned with a false, politically driven propaganda campaign intended to rob the middle and lower classes with a carbon tax scam.
Craig: Dynamite. Thanks for your input. Bye now.
Craig,
Wow ! Your photo really does depict the tenor of your conversation, both guys yelling at each other, neither listening !
Unfortunately, Keith Delacy’s article was published in the Murdoch owned Australian, so most readers without a subscription won’t be able to read the full context of his opinion.
When Keith Delacy wrote “solar and wind don’t work, not here not anywhere”, he made it clear he was not referring to the actual technologies, nor the ability for the technologies to work on a limited or specialized scale.
His argument focused on the inability of intermittent power generation to provide economically viable power on demand on a global scale capable of replacing fossil and nuclear power generation.
His complaint that figures and justification for the economic viability of Wind and Solar are often distorted by government subsidies, incentives and simple rigging the figures, are widely held and easily validated.
Your response to Kieth Delacy’s article is typical of the sort of irrational and fanatical reaction expected from “true believers”.
Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, even Warren Buffet have all stated quite candidly, they are not lending on the value of the technology, but the government guarantees.
As Warren Buffet admitted, “the profit is from the Taxpayers and consumers, not the technology”. Remove the government, and the industries would retract dramatically, also investment would disappear.
Just because I have solar panels on my house, doesn’t mean I believe solar or wind generation can provide adequate power for a Cement works !
Even the island of Malta (lot’s of Wind and sunshine) has discovered, despite massive EU subsidies, Wind and Solar are inadequate and unsuitable for their small island.
Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Bank of Zurich and the EU bank are all suing the Spanish government for reducing certain subsidies and mandated rates which caused the Solar and Wind industries in Spain to become unprofitable.
One of the ways to make Solar and Wind more viable is to reduce the amount of industrial demand. But that only means somewhere else the demand will increase.
None of this means Solar and Wind have no role to play, just that most of the wilder claims are untenable.
Perhaps if both of you spent more time objectively reviewing the progress of these technologies, and less time shouting bloody minded advocacy, you both might learn.
Actually, if you met Keith and Yvonne De Lacy you would find you both share many similar social values and political views.