Gaslighting is one of today's most popular political buzzwords. It means to manipulate someone by psychological means into questioning their own sanity. Unfortunately, most of the clueless babies that use it incessantly have no idea what it really means, although many of them may be quite insane.
The environmental movement, which may have been a good thing 50 years ago, has grown into an entitled brat that lies constantly. In this blog, we're going to examine the two biggest lies the "clean energy" brat tells you. While it doesn't make me question my sanity, it can make your logic center feel like you've just eaten a bad mushroom.
Clean Energy fills up its gas tank like this.
The environmental movement, which may have been a good thing 50 years ago, has grown into an entitled brat that lies constantly. In this blog, we're going to examine the two biggest lies the "clean energy" brat tells you. While it doesn't make me question my sanity, it can make your logic center feel like you've just eaten a bad mushroom.
Clean Energy fills up its gas tank like this.
This summer, the Midwest faced a heightened risk of blackouts due to a supply shortfall that could’ve been filled if only a fraction of the projects stuck in limbo had been online. Luckily, we made it through the summer without major incident, but no one should be complacent—new supply is urgently needed. Fossil fuel dead-enders complain that we’re shutting down dirty power plants too quickly. In reality, the clean energy to replace them is ready and waiting, stuck in utility bureaucracy.
Lie number one: All the renewable energy projects waiting in regional transmission interconnection queues will deliver 24/7 at their nameplate capacity.
Nameplate capacity is the amount of energy a generator could produce if it produced at its maximum capacity. No generator produces its nameplate capacity all the time, however, some generators are better at it than others. Fossil fuel and nuclear generators run very close to their nameplate capacity, only being forced to shut down for repairs or maintenance. Renewable generators, on the other hand, can only produce electricity when their fuel is available. It's never 100% of the time. In fact capacity factors for wind and solar average 36%, and 24.5%, respectively. That means that wind and solar only produce their maximum capacity one quarter to one third of the time they operate. So, even if we thought we could add 13,000 gigawatts of renewables to the grid if all interconnection requests were granted by magic today, the reality is that less than a third of that capacity would actually produce electricity.
Lie number two: We need to build more renewables and transmission to shore up reliability.
If you want to increase reliability, you need generators that can run when called. That means when needed, not when there is fuel available. You cannot count on a wind turbine or solar panel to produce power at the exact moment you need it. Storage is not yet mature enough to provide more than a brief backup. Adding renewables will not increase reliability.
We ARE shutting down "dirty" power plants too quickly... much quicker than renewables can backstop. And this creates a problem for the unicorn utopia idea that supposes that an area where renewables fail to produce enough energy to meet demand can simply "borrow" extra electricity from the renewables of another area. What happens when those renewables are also failing to produce? Pass the buck until you find an area with excess power. But when all the "dirty" power plants have closed, there will be nothing but endless buck passing while you shiver in the dark eating your healthy government-issued insect protein.
The reliability crisis has been created by too many government-subsidized, unreliable renewables that put financial pressure on reliable "dirty" power plants to close. More unreliable renewables and less reliable "dirty" power plants equals unreliable power. Adding more unreliable sources of power isn't going to fix that.
If that doesn't sound logical to you, you may be insane.
Nameplate capacity is the amount of energy a generator could produce if it produced at its maximum capacity. No generator produces its nameplate capacity all the time, however, some generators are better at it than others. Fossil fuel and nuclear generators run very close to their nameplate capacity, only being forced to shut down for repairs or maintenance. Renewable generators, on the other hand, can only produce electricity when their fuel is available. It's never 100% of the time. In fact capacity factors for wind and solar average 36%, and 24.5%, respectively. That means that wind and solar only produce their maximum capacity one quarter to one third of the time they operate. So, even if we thought we could add 13,000 gigawatts of renewables to the grid if all interconnection requests were granted by magic today, the reality is that less than a third of that capacity would actually produce electricity.
Lie number two: We need to build more renewables and transmission to shore up reliability.
If you want to increase reliability, you need generators that can run when called. That means when needed, not when there is fuel available. You cannot count on a wind turbine or solar panel to produce power at the exact moment you need it. Storage is not yet mature enough to provide more than a brief backup. Adding renewables will not increase reliability.
We ARE shutting down "dirty" power plants too quickly... much quicker than renewables can backstop. And this creates a problem for the unicorn utopia idea that supposes that an area where renewables fail to produce enough energy to meet demand can simply "borrow" extra electricity from the renewables of another area. What happens when those renewables are also failing to produce? Pass the buck until you find an area with excess power. But when all the "dirty" power plants have closed, there will be nothing but endless buck passing while you shiver in the dark eating your healthy government-issued insect protein.
The reliability crisis has been created by too many government-subsidized, unreliable renewables that put financial pressure on reliable "dirty" power plants to close. More unreliable renewables and less reliable "dirty" power plants equals unreliable power. Adding more unreliable sources of power isn't going to fix that.
If that doesn't sound logical to you, you may be insane.
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