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Those of us actually working on the energy transition will be aware that behind this issue is the interconnect queue backlog. There’s plenty of renewable energy
by mbgerring 3y ago
Those of us actually working on the energy transition will be aware that behind this issue is the interconnect queue backlog. There’s plenty of renewable energy capacity in the US ready for construction that would help solve issues like this, but the approval and permitting process for connecting those renewables to the grid is so onerous, it’s become the major bottleneck for getting renewables on the grid.
Here’s a recent episode from the consistently great, technically in-the-weeds podcast Catalyst, on this subject: https://www.canarymedia.com/podcasts/catalyst-with-shayle-kann/fixing-interconnection https://www.canarymedia.com/podcasts/catalyst-with-shayle-ka...
Renewable energy FUD sells ads, and there’s a lot of money to make if you just ignore it and learn what the real issues are, so that you can go to work on them.
- mbgerring 3y agoAlso worth pointing out that new solar has been cheaper than existing coal for at least several years: https://energynews.us/newsletter/renewables-are-now-way-cheaper-than-coal/ https://energynews.us/newsletter/renewables-are-now-way-chea...
- gjsman-1000 3y agoYes, and 45% of the global polysilicon supply that solar panels are made from, comes from the Xinjiang region of China, according to Bloomberg. If you don't mind that it possibly comes from concentration camp labor, it's great.
- mbgerring 3y agoUnfortunately, solving the many problems of this century requires us to walk and chew gum at the same time. Oil and gas extraction also leaves an enormous amount of social destruction in its wake, such as the massive increase in homicide, drug abuse and sex trafficking in the Bakken Shale region in North Dakota during the boom in the 2010s. Social issues created by resource extraction are not unique to renewable energy, and highlighting those problems only when they relate to renewables is deeply intellectually dishonest.
- gjsman-1000 3y agoWhy is this not "whataboutism?" It's okay if it happens again because it happened previously?
- fluoridation 3y agoI think what the GP is saying is that neither thing is okay, but if one is acceptable (in the sense that it's not so terrible that using the resource is untenable) then the other should also be. Sometimes the difference between whataboutism and pointing out inconsistencies can be very small.
- Turing_Machine 3y agoSorry, roughnecks voluntarily spending their money on prostitutes and drugs is an entirely different thing from state-run forced labor camps. > deeply intellectually dishonest. Umm... okay.
- fluoridation 3y agoIf the Chinese don't mind, then why should you?
- defrost 3y agoIf only there was a once great industrial country willing to reverse its trend of outsourcing dirty filthy production factories overseas to the cheapest labour. That'd stop the disingenuous hand wringing.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y agoIf it's for a specific factory, can you just... not put it on the grid?