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There is enough wind, solar, and batteries in our interconnection queues right now to make a net zero electric grid: https://emp.lbl.gov/queues https://emp.lbl.
by LUmBULtERA 2y ago
There is enough wind, solar, and batteries in our interconnection queues right now to make a net zero electric grid: https://emp.lbl.gov/queues https://emp.lbl.gov/queues.
Many of those specific projects will not be built, but others will as some of those drop and others are added.
Check out CAISO.com right now to see the massive decline in natural gas use on a daily basis in April of 2024 vs. April of 2023 -- batteries are already crushing natural gas use in the afternoon peak, in just one year.
As others point out, switching to EVs will result in an overall decline in energy use, and those EVs can also be set to charge when renewable resources are abundant and might otherwise be curtailed.
- sqeaky 2y agoI would prefer all green energy, but there is a lot of natural gas in the US. Likely, closing down a coal plant and replacing it with a gas plant will happen in more than a few places.
- LUmBULtERA 2y agoI don't doubt that will likely occur in more than a few places. I just doubt the need for it to happen. As natural gas use diminishes and those interconnection queues start cranking through the massive traffic jam of renewables and batteries trying to get on the grid, that means less and less volumes of natural gas paying for all of the fixed-cost infrastructure. Gas rates will consequently go up and up in a spiral, making short-run decisions to build more gas infrastructure very short-sighted and likely to cause a significant amount of stranded assets in the future.