LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME



[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]

Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

Get weekly updates
RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Stripe

Donate via Paypal

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

News Watch Home

‘All renewable’ not viable alternative to fossil fuel 

Credit:  By Dennis Higgins, Guest Commentary | The Daily Star | August 7, 2020 | www.thedailystar.com ~~

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act calls for all state electricity to be carbon free by 2040 and for an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Interpreting these targets to mean we must achieve “100% renewable” electricity would be a mistake.

Over the last several decades, Germany has shut down nuclear power and made massive investments in solar and wind, which now make up about 20% of the country’s energy mix. Sour grapes or sauerkraut? Germany is consuming fossil fuel at the same rate it did in 1992, its carbon emissions are more than 10 tons per person annually, and it is increasingly dependent on foreign gas. Meanwhile, France – which relies on nuclear power for most of its energy—has the lowest carbon emissions and cleanest air in Europe.

Ugly ducklings don’t generally turn into swans. California is also shutting down nuclear power and although 30% of its electricity comes from non-hydro renewables, it remains heavily dependent on gas. Why? The “duck curve” tells part of the story. Solar peaks midday while everyone is at work. People return home at dusk and gas power plants kick into high gear. As a result, California dumps excess electricity on sunny days and burns fossil fuels at night.

What’s happening in New York? When Indian Point Unit 2 stopped generating this spring, we lost an annual 8,000 gigawatt-hours of carbon-free electricity. That’s more energy than is produced by all of the wind turbines and solar panels deployed statewide. Giant new gas plants – CPV and Cricket Valley Energy – have fired up and old gas and oil plants in the greater metropolitan area are running more than before to keep the lights on in NYC. If Indian Point’s remaining reactor shuts down as scheduled next year, the metro region will be powered 90% by fossil fuels. Does this sooty start lead to a green future or is New York reading the roadmap upside down?

Can’t electricity be stored for use later? Yes. And also, no. The biggest battery in the world, a 1200 MWh lithium-ion storage facility under construction in California, could supply about a half an hour of Indian Point’s energy. Prior to IP2’s shutdown, a quarter of New York City’s electricity came from Indian Point. So, if New York had to rely on wind and solar alone, it would need a battery about two hundred times larger than the biggest battery anywhere – costing over $30 billion – just to survive one sunless, windless day.

Grid operators understand that in the real world, firm generating capacity must be available in case wind and solar aren’t. Typically, this means “partnering” intermittent renewables with gas. But that defeats the goal of carbon-free electricity. To make matters worse, relying on gas as “backup” often requires using inefficient gas plants designed for peaking, or running efficient generators in “hot standby”— meaning that they burn gas even when they’re not making electricity. For Germany and California, this cancels out much of the environmental benefit of “clean” renewables. Of course, the manufacture, deployment and disposal of solar panels, wind turbines and chemical batteries also have significant environmental and health impacts.

Renewables alone won’t solve our climate crisis. New York can’t significantly increase hydropower. Should we shut down functioning nuclear facilities that produce zero combustion emissions? Should we ignore the potential benefits of safe, energy-dense, next-generation reactors, including those that could run on today’s spent fuel rods?

We get to decide whether nuclear or fossil fuels will supply baseload electricity to the grid. So far, it looks like the state plans to run old gas power plants more, build new ones, and expand pipelines or use compressed natural gas “bomb trucks” to fuel them. This is the wrong path to achieving state energy goals.

It’s not just the United States that faces climate catastrophe. We can pretend we are addressing global warming here at home. But unless we will support – and perhaps export – solutions for parts of the world that need energy and aspire to a better quality of life, the planet will be cooked anyway.

Yogi Berra said “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.” If the state Energy Research and Development Authority insists on following a “100% renewable” path, we will reproduce the results of an experiment that has already failed.

Let’s be smarter tomorrow than we were yesterday.

Dennis Higgins is a resident of Otego.

Source:  By Dennis Higgins, Guest Commentary | The Daily Star | August 7, 2020 | www.thedailystar.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Contributions
   Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)
Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI M TG TS G Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook Wind Watch on Linked In

Wind Watch on Mastodon Wind Watch on Truth Social

Wind Watch on Gab Wind Watch on Bluesky