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This article is a good example of "those who can't do, preach." Author doesn't seem to have any subject expertise beyond journalism and academia. Also, UK ener

This article is a good example of "those who can't do, preach." Author doesn't seem to have any subject expertise beyond journalism and academia. Also, UK energy source is 73% fossil. Wind/solar will never be able to produce more than a fraction of what we need. And this is not even mentioning the energy and materials demand that such "renewables" require. "Renewable" technology is simply not renewable because there's a finite amount of resources available on the planet. The high price tag of the technology is also a blocking factor. If everyone went out and purchased EVs, the power grid would collapse. Plus there is a finite amount of lithium we need to make all the batteries we need. If demand for EV was higher, we'd need to slash and strip far more of the earth's surface than "green" energy activists would admit. Some estimates put our lithium available at 50MM tons, and we'd run out by 2040 if EVs were adopted at the same level as CV. They may not preclude EV, new battery technology can be developed, but you still need to charge them. Unless there is some major breakthrough, the solution for this is nuclear. But these facts doesn't stop those pushing the green energy, lobbying for "research" and selling products they know are flash-in-the-pan, with no long term viability. On the contrary, the "green" energy industry, lobbyists, and talking heads act more like religious zealots than those who engineer and propose practical, affordable, & sustainable solutions.

me_me_me 5y ago
Just FYI, "Those who can't, teach" is the saying
jillesvangurp 5y ago
I'm not sure what you are talking about? The electricity sector is getting pretty clean in the UK. Lots of wind, a bit of solar, a bit of imported hydro. Coal is all but gone. Gas is the big remaining polluter on the grid. The transport sector is going electric quite rapidly, just like elsewhere. Basically a done deal in the UK. Probably over with by 2035-2040 time frame. So "never" has largely already happened and will have completed happening on a pretty predictable timescale. As for your numbers, you might want to check them. Reality and your numbers don't seem to line up. Your predictions are worth even less. We're not even close to running out of lithium. There's plenty of it and we can recycle it endlessly once we get out of the ground. Also arguing for nuclear with weak arguments like you are presenting here is probably not helping that case. You are basically doing what you are (wrongly) accusing the journalists that wrote this article.
ben_w 5y ago
• UK grid is currently 50.9% fossil, 23.7% renewable • There’s a finite amount of everything, the point of renewable resources is that we don’t literally set things on fire and then have to dig out more • The sticker price for EVs is high in the west, not so much in China, e.g.: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56178802 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56178802 — PV however is the single cheapest power source around, any difficulties you may have installing it are more to do with local building regulations and import duties than the actual cost • I’ve definitely seen people simultaneously hold the positions that (1) lithium mining bad (2) combustion vehicles bad (and yet also (3) “poverty is a crime against humanity”), because people are complicated. • The source of electricity to charge an EV makes no difference whatsoever to any concerns about the storage mechanism inside the EV; nuclear, solar, Lovecraftian horrors from beyond, bees, whatever. • Tile cars in PV, in most parts of the world they get 75-90% of their needs with realistic assumptions; grid no longer has a problem with the remainder that they need to be plugged in for.
- ephbit 5y ago
  > UK grid is currently 50.9% fossil, 23.7% renewable Parent poster was likely not referring to the electric grid but overall energy use of which the electrical energy is only a portion.

me_me_me 5y ago

Just FYI, "Those who can't, teach" is the saying

jillesvangurp 5y ago

I'm not sure what you are talking about? The electricity sector is getting pretty clean in the UK. Lots of wind, a bit of solar, a bit of imported hydro. Coal is all but gone. Gas is the big remaining polluter on the grid. The transport sector is going electric quite rapidly, just like elsewhere. Basically a done deal in the UK. Probably over with by 2035-2040 time frame. So "never" has largely already happened and will have completed happening on a pretty predictable timescale. As for your numbers, you might want to check them. Reality and your numbers don't seem to line up. Your predictions are worth even less. We're not even close to running out of lithium. There's plenty of it and we can recycle it endlessly once we get out of the ground. Also arguing for nuclear with weak arguments like you are presenting here is probably not helping that case. You are basically doing what you are (wrongly) accusing the journalists that wrote this article.

ben_w 5y ago

• UK grid is currently 50.9% fossil, 23.7% renewable • There’s a finite amount of everything, the point of renewable resources is that we don’t literally set things on fire and then have to dig out more • The sticker price for EVs is high in the west, not so much in China, e.g.: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56178802 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56178802 — PV however is the single cheapest power source around, any difficulties you may have installing it are more to do with local building regulations and import duties than the actual cost • I’ve definitely seen people simultaneously hold the positions that (1) lithium mining bad (2) combustion vehicles bad (and yet also (3) “poverty is a crime against humanity”), because people are complicated. • The source of electricity to charge an EV makes no difference whatsoever to any concerns about the storage mechanism inside the EV; nuclear, solar, Lovecraftian horrors from beyond, bees, whatever. • Tile cars in PV, in most parts of the world they get 75-90% of their needs with realistic assumptions; grid no longer has a problem with the remainder that they need to be plugged in for.

ephbit 5y ago
> UK grid is currently 50.9% fossil, 23.7% renewable Parent poster was likely not referring to the electric grid but overall energy use of which the electrical energy is only a portion.