Latin America is a region worth exploring to see what they’re doing with regards to renewables adoption. They’ve been heavily reliant on hydro in the past, and with a drying climate the focus is switching to solar. But their adoption has been really impressive.
Large scale RE will do what rooftop solar already does here in Australia - top out above all demand. Our household solar + battery (smaller and more expensive than most installed now) typically produces 2-3 times the energy our household uses and 10-20 times what our household purchases from the electricity grid. We were not impoverished by that investment; on the contrary.
Solar is already delivering the cheapest electricity ever produced - as problems go finding ways to take full advantage of that abundance and matching the time of use to demand look like the sorts of problems we could do with more of.
Batteries? A decade ago the household solar battery was barely a thing - now a large portion of new rooftop installs include it. Add in EV's with smart, interactive charging and V2H2G and a lot of the intermittency "problem" goes away.
Only 7 years ago the first Big Battery got installed in South Australia; enormous battery factories have been built and 20X the capacity in batteries from them have been built here and are in operation since then. More in the pipeline. Turns out batteries deliver a lot more usefulness than was immediately apparent.
The scale of investment in battery factories is staggering, with "warnings" of potential oversupply. The scale of investment in battery R&D is staggering - was it Bill Gates that suggested a 5x increase in clean energy R&D was needed? I don't know the numbers but battery and other storage R&D surely exceeds that now - and the tools and techniques of science used have never been better fitted to advancing them.
Whilst I swing wildly from deep pessimism to cautious optimism I do thing we have good cause to be hopeful about the technologies, despite the persistence and enduring influence of Doubt, Deny, Delay climate politics.
I am sorry …but your position appears to be wishful thinking…
Many experts have documented that so called renewables are unnecessary, technologically unattainable, economically unviable and extremely foolish.
This is clear for many reasons such as low reliability making efficient connection to the grid not worthwhile, to difficulty in scaling and securing the supply chains, to the vast real estate required, to life cycle and maintenance issues, and much more damage to the environment than say nuclear or modern fossil fuel solutions.
To many experts its become a fad and a hobby thing that will not stack up well when the real economics are reviewed and the foolish subsides are removed.
Plenty of horror stories…. such as Germany energy costs versus others, the high and crippling cost of energy in the UK.
I suggest you talk with others on Substack that have opinions 180 Deg from yours.
you have been a big light in my life when i’ve been having so many dark fears about the state of the world. thank you for all you do ♥️
Latin America is a region worth exploring to see what they’re doing with regards to renewables adoption. They’ve been heavily reliant on hydro in the past, and with a drying climate the focus is switching to solar. But their adoption has been really impressive.
Large scale RE will do what rooftop solar already does here in Australia - top out above all demand. Our household solar + battery (smaller and more expensive than most installed now) typically produces 2-3 times the energy our household uses and 10-20 times what our household purchases from the electricity grid. We were not impoverished by that investment; on the contrary.
Solar is already delivering the cheapest electricity ever produced - as problems go finding ways to take full advantage of that abundance and matching the time of use to demand look like the sorts of problems we could do with more of.
Batteries? A decade ago the household solar battery was barely a thing - now a large portion of new rooftop installs include it. Add in EV's with smart, interactive charging and V2H2G and a lot of the intermittency "problem" goes away.
Only 7 years ago the first Big Battery got installed in South Australia; enormous battery factories have been built and 20X the capacity in batteries from them have been built here and are in operation since then. More in the pipeline. Turns out batteries deliver a lot more usefulness than was immediately apparent.
The scale of investment in battery factories is staggering, with "warnings" of potential oversupply. The scale of investment in battery R&D is staggering - was it Bill Gates that suggested a 5x increase in clean energy R&D was needed? I don't know the numbers but battery and other storage R&D surely exceeds that now - and the tools and techniques of science used have never been better fitted to advancing them.
Whilst I swing wildly from deep pessimism to cautious optimism I do thing we have good cause to be hopeful about the technologies, despite the persistence and enduring influence of Doubt, Deny, Delay climate politics.
I am sorry …but your position appears to be wishful thinking…
Many experts have documented that so called renewables are unnecessary, technologically unattainable, economically unviable and extremely foolish.
This is clear for many reasons such as low reliability making efficient connection to the grid not worthwhile, to difficulty in scaling and securing the supply chains, to the vast real estate required, to life cycle and maintenance issues, and much more damage to the environment than say nuclear or modern fossil fuel solutions.
To many experts its become a fad and a hobby thing that will not stack up well when the real economics are reviewed and the foolish subsides are removed.
Plenty of horror stories…. such as Germany energy costs versus others, the high and crippling cost of energy in the UK.
I suggest you talk with others on Substack that have opinions 180 Deg from yours.
The Net Zero Scandal | Ben Pile | Substack