It happens to me that earlier than shifting on from my obsession with vitality storage and and its manifest limitations, I ought to handle the coverage implications of this example. I apologize if these implications could seem terribly apparent to common readers, or for that matter to individuals who have simply thought of these points for, say, 5 minutes. Sadly, our powers-that-be don’t appear to have these 5 minutes to determine the apparent, so we’ll simply should bash them over the pinnacle with it.
Listed below are the three most blatant coverage implications that no one in energy appears to have found out:
(1) Increasingly more wind generators and photo voltaic panels are basically ineffective as a result of they will by no means absolutely provide {an electrical} grid or present vitality safety with out full dispatchable backup.
Right here within the U.S. the so-called “Inflation Discount Act” of 2022 offers some a whole bunch of billions of {dollars} of subsidies and tax credit to construct extra wind generators and photo voltaic panels. Concurrently, the Biden Administration, directed by a collection of Government Orders from the President, proceeds with an all-of-government effort to suppress the dispatchable backup generally known as fossil fuels. Does anyone assume this could really work? It might probably’t.
After which there’s the December 6 press launch from the UN’s Worldwide Power Company, touting how renewable vitality sources (wind and photo voltaic) are being “turbocharged” to supply nations with “vitality safety.” The headline is: “Renewable energy’s development is being turbocharged as nations search to strengthen vitality safety.” Excerpt:
The worldwide vitality disaster is driving a pointy acceleration in installations of renewable energy, with whole capability development worldwide set to virtually double within the subsequent 5 years. . . . “Renewables have been already increasing shortly, however the worldwide vitality disaster has kicked them into a rare new part of even quicker development as nations search to capitalise on their vitality safety advantages. The world is ready so as to add as a lot renewable energy within the subsequent 5 years because it did within the earlier 20 years,” mentioned IEA Government Director Fatih Birol.
Fully ridiculous. Wind and solar energy present the other of vitality safety. Again in the true world, just some days after the IEA issued that nonsense, on December 11 the UK obtained a style of the form of “vitality safety” supplied by wind and solar energy, when a chilly snap on the darkest a part of the 12 months got here together with a protracted interval of calm within the winds — a typical winter incidence. From the Guardian, December 11:
Stay information from the Nationwide Grid’s Electrical energy System Operator confirmed that wind energy was offering simply 3% of Nice Britain’s electrical energy era on Sunday [December 11]. Gasoline-fired energy stations supplied 59%, whereas nuclear energy and electrical energy imports each accounted for about 15%.
And what was the inevitable consequence of the wind conking out simply when it was wanted most?
UK energy costs have hit document ranges as an icy chilly snap and a fall in provides of electrical energy generated by wind energy have mixed to push up wholesale prices. The day-ahead worth for energy for supply on Monday reached a document £675 a megawatt-hour on the Epex Spot SE alternate. The value for energy at 5-6pm, usually across the time of peak energy demand every day, handed an all-time excessive of £2,586 a megawatt-hour.
2,586 kilos/MWh could be equal to about $3 per kWh (wholesale), in comparison with a typical U.S. worth for electrical energy of round 12-15 cents per kWh retail. Congratulations to the UK on attaining this stage of “vitality safety.”
(2) The so-called “all the above” vitality technique is equally disastrous.
Within the U.S., Republicans sensibly seeking to blunt the disastrous vitality insurance policies of the Democrats and the Biden Administration have one way or the other provide you with one thing they name the “all the above” technique is their proposed different. For instance, right here is the webpage of the Republicans on the Home Committee on Pure Sources, led by one Bruce Westerman of Arkansas. Excerpt:
Republicans assist an all-of the-above vitality strategy that features improvement of other vitality sources resembling wind, photo voltaic, hydropower, nuclear, geothermal and biomass, together with clear coal and American-made oil and pure gasoline. A complete plan will assist shield the setting and enhance our financial and pure safety.
No, no, no and no. Due to the impracticability and price of vitality storage, constructing increasingly wind and photo voltaic amenities can not result in any discount, not to mention elimination, of the fossil gasoline infrastructure. You’ll inevitably find yourself with two absolutely redundant vitality techniques, each of which have to be paid for though every provides solely about half of the ability to the grid. Thus on the minimal you could have doubled the price of electrical energy to customers. However the worst case is much worse than that, the place the federal government suppresses the fossil gasoline backup (as within the UK). In that case, when the fossil gasoline backup has been diminished however is all of a sudden wanted, the patron could should pay 10 or 20 or 30 or extra instances an affordable worth for electrical energy. All due totally to authorities folly. Can the U.S. Republicans keep away from the disastrous blind alley into which the UK Tories have pushed their nation? That is still to be seen.
(3) A carbon tax is a horrible thought.
Over on the GWPF (the place I’m the President of the American Mates affiliate), they’re within the means of sponsoring a back-and-forth debate as regards to carbon taxes as a approach to handle the difficulty of local weather change. Professor Peter Hartley of Rice College has taken the aspect of advocating for a carbon tax. William Happer of Princeton and vitality analyst Bruce Everett have taken the adverse.
The gist of the Happer/Everett piece is that CO2 is just not a pollutant and poses no hazard to humanity, and due to this fact a tax designed to suppress it’s unjustified. I agree with that argument. However an equally legitimate and impartial line of reasoning is that, due to impracticability of vitality storage and the resultant futility of attempting to make wind and photo voltaic era work with out fossil fuels, a carbon tax can solely serve to drive up the worth of vitality to customers with out meaningfully altering the usage of carbon fuels.
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