Well, yesterday I said I may write about renewables and so I thought why not? I’m not against renewables - why would anyone be against energy from the sun and the wind or the tides? I just have a bit of a problem with the idea that,
We can get rid of fossil fuels and nuclear for base load generation,
Serve everything with renewables and batteries while,
Adding incredible demand for power with EV’s and all the other electric items they appear believe we can add to the grid,
Without killing the grid.
See, if you look at the numbers, it never makes any sense. They never count the extra power needed in anything like the quantity needed and they are in too much of an unholy rush.
I am a believer in human ingenuity. Where there is money to be made, humans can solve almost any problem. That is my belief and I am sticking with it. Where there are politicians with a narrative who are deaf to experts, there lies only disaster.
I could go on about the un-environmental nature of windmills and solar panels. The damage to ecosystems of solar farms and wind farms - the dead birds, the felled trees, the use of diesel to start the windmills, the massive amounts of landfill required to dump the windmill blades after their short life and so on. But that isn’t my point. I could show you how there isn’t enough metals now and even with massive investment, won’t be enough in the future to make all the batteries needs for EVs, battery storage and so on. Frankly, I don’t for a minute think they want us driving anything anywhere so its just talk and arm waving anyway - just to keep you in the narrative until its too damned late.
i do believe that with time and careful innovation, with changes in how people think and behave, renewables can play a massive role in a future world that relies less on fossil fuels. However, to me this would necessitate a switch to a local energy strategy. It would require an adaptive infrastructure and regulations that allowed people to be self-sufficient in energy - offering excess generation to the grid or to batteries and capable of obtaining power from batteries or grid when needed. Each of us would be encouraged to manage our own energy - perhaps solar panels, geothermal, tidal, wind or whatever was locally available - tied in with batteries. The utility would need to take on a different function. Its remit would be to find mechanisms and infrastructure to allow everyone to be power independent yet connected.
In an era where personal responsibility and independence is viewed as right wing and you are supposed to increasingly rely on a central Government, the above is a pipe dream. Yet, I do think this could be a way.
What has convinced me is my Van. My VW Camper is armed with a solar panel on the roof, a leisure battery and power generated by the van’s movement when driving. I am basically self-sufficient and can go off grid for long lengths of time so long as the sun shines sometimes or I can fill with diesel and drive. It has proved to me that for a certain level of existence however, I can survive on solar and battery. So if I can do that for my van, I can do that for my home and everyday life - more solar, a windmill, larger battery. So long as my needs are relatively modest, I can do it.
Of course, the problem becomes the winter when the sun doesn’t shine and I need to warm the house. But, with a bit of ingenuity and money, even that can be solved I think.
Again, the issue is that this independence goes against the narrative. They want you dependent not free. Furthermore, most politicians playing in energy have no real clue what it takes or how it works. The greens neither. They will find out when like the rest of us, they hit the light switch and nothing happens. And that day is coming for some of us much faster that you may expect because who needs expertise in a world where you can simply identify as energy independent and pretend all will be well?
You’re right, there are many other ways to better energy production. Ie, they could unlock the zero point energy patents and the other 6000 patents we are not allowed to have. Says Nicola Tesla.
My grandfather didn't have electricity upstairs (S. Wales 1970s), I recall as a kid going to bed with a candle. It was freezing in that house. I have long considered a hot bath or shower a luxury. In short I think the populous have been made too comfortable. My Dad would stand there shouting one of his mantras 'if I stood here burning pound notes, you'd think I were mad, turn the bloody lights off!!' I too when out in my California Ocean (bereft of solar panel) tend to overnight near rivers as this serves my washing needs, it is the old boy scout in me. The leisure batteries work well for at least 3-4 days.
As a mechanical design engineer, necessity is the mother of all invention, the human spirit is highly adaptable, conformity kills creativity, therein lies the problem of State involvement. I hate design by committee under corporate 'protocols'. I'd often lauded the notion and quite loudly , usually when brewing at the tea station, so as to have an audience, that said directives were little more than communistic diktats. I do agree the renewals thing is a grift currently. More 'wind and piss' yet another of my father's mantras!