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There will not be a decarbonized economy running on wind an and solar. It's less than 1% of the worlds energy consumption and won't be more than 3% in 2040. Nu

There will not be a decarbonized economy running on wind an and solar. It's less than 1% of the worlds energy consumption and won't be more than 3% in 2040. Nuclear doesn't us "lots of concrete" in any meaningful way especially not when you start factoring in the energy density. Wind and solar require huge areas, lots of rare earth metals and there is no plan for how to decommission plus, wind and solar are unreliable which means they still need backup from something else like coal, nuclear or oil. In other words there will be no decarbonized economy without nuclear or fusion or thorium.

TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
I have no idea where your figures come from, but they appear to be wildly inaccurate. https://www.iea.org/renewables2018/ https://www.iea.org/renewables2018/
- ThomPete 8y ago
  No they are quite accurate. You are conflating electricity with energy. Energy is much more than just electricity. Furthermore, when you hear countries like Denmark and Germany talk about x amount of percentage being wind or solar you need to remember a few very very important things. 1) They are talking about what that specific country produces, not what it consumes. 2) What it consumes includes what it imports. 3) Wind and solar only produce electricity which is only part of our energy consumption 4) You also have to factor in the capacity factor which for wind and solar is between 20-40% and nuclear is more or less 100%. In other words, those high numbers only come from ignoring the entirety of energy needs. The renewable energy sector and its proponents are very disingenuous when they present their "success".
  - pfdietz 8y ago
    Your 3% prediction for wind/solar for 2040 seems dubious. Here's BP projection: https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/uncategorized/snapshot-bp-world-energy-outlook-2018/ https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/uncategorized/sna... They have renewables (excluding hydro) supply about 15% of world primary energy demand (not just electric energy demand) in 2040 (although that also includes biomass, waste, and geothermal). The other consideration is what the wind/solar displaces. 1 joule of wind or solar displaces several joules of primary fossil fuel energy, if the latter were being used for electric power generation. No one benefits from the fraction of fossil primary energy that gets dissipated as waste heat.
pfdietz 8y ago
Where does this 3% projection come from?

TheOtherHobbes 8y ago

I have no idea where your figures come from, but they appear to be wildly inaccurate. https://www.iea.org/renewables2018/ https://www.iea.org/renewables2018/

ThomPete 8y ago
No they are quite accurate. You are conflating electricity with energy. Energy is much more than just electricity. Furthermore, when you hear countries like Denmark and Germany talk about x amount of percentage being wind or solar you need to remember a few very very important things. 1) They are talking about what that specific country produces, not what it consumes. 2) What it consumes includes what it imports. 3) Wind and solar only produce electricity which is only part of our energy consumption 4) You also have to factor in the capacity factor which for wind and solar is between 20-40% and nuclear is more or less 100%. In other words, those high numbers only come from ignoring the entirety of energy needs. The renewable energy sector and its proponents are very disingenuous when they present their "success".
- pfdietz 8y ago
  Your 3% prediction for wind/solar for 2040 seems dubious. Here's BP projection: https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/uncategorized/snapshot-bp-world-energy-outlook-2018/ https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/uncategorized/sna... They have renewables (excluding hydro) supply about 15% of world primary energy demand (not just electric energy demand) in 2040 (although that also includes biomass, waste, and geothermal). The other consideration is what the wind/solar displaces. 1 joule of wind or solar displaces several joules of primary fossil fuel energy, if the latter were being used for electric power generation. No one benefits from the fraction of fossil primary energy that gets dissipated as waste heat.

pfdietz 8y ago

Where does this 3% projection come from?