No wind, no solar, no power. Can’t argue with that. What about backup batteries ? Here’s what: When in use, the batteries only last four hours. Then what? The batteries need to be recharged. Can you imagine how many batteries it might take to fill the gap left by the the loss of wind and solar power? A considerable amount! Not only that, but it could take a considerable amount of time to complete the recharging. At the same time, there are huge requirements for recharging electric vehicles. Not an encouraging scenario.
That’s not all, and it’s not good. Batteries have been know to explode without any notice. Battery fires are extremely difficult to extinguish. They eventually become hazardous waste, as do solar panels. Where will all this waste be stored? Wind turbines are not recyclable, so they are continuing to be buried in massive landfills.
Recently, I had conversations with two separate home solar salesmen who both agreed there is no reason imaginable to expect renewable energy sources to keep up with the ever increasing demand for electricity.
The New Green Deal is no deal at all. The anti-nuclear fear mongers continue to demand the closure of Diablo Canyon, but that would actually create an immense shortage of clean, sustainable, emission-free energy and increasing the amount of unclean fossil fuel energy to maintain a reliable grid. Nuclear power is green energy. Fossil fuels are not.
The answer is for each power source be brought together and create a solution to this long-standing dilemma before it gets way out of hand and we are left with sitting in the cold and dark and in our vehicles waiting hours to recharge the batteries. Think about it!
Ellie Ripley
Arroyo Grande
This article appears in Volunteers 2023.
“They eventually become hazardous waste, as do solar panels. Where will all this waste be stored? Wind turbines are not recyclable, so they are continuing to be buried in massive landfills.”
As if we don’t already have massive landfills that deal with hazardous waste.
I’m certain the nation will figure out these problems in the next 30 years, because the alternative of continuing to rely on fossil fuels or the volatility of nuclear are simply not palatable. The “Green New Deal” (not New Green Deal) is the best path forward. The Biden Administration has already taken the first step in realizing the goals of that initiative. Much work is left to be done, but the U.S. has no shortage of ingenuity. Sad that the naysayers continue to cling to the past.
I’m pretty certain you’ll never have to sit in the “cold and dark.”
Mike, you are displaying “magical thinking” when you declare that the problem of energy storage must be solved within 30 years simply because the current situation is unacceptable. Science proceeds at its own pace, regardless of how we feel about it or how badly we need it. Difficulty will not yield to desire, no matter how much we wish it otherwise. We are putting a lot of effort and money into the effort, but it will happen when it happens. For example, we have been searching for a cure to HIV for 40 years, and still don’t have one. Like most grand schemes announced by politicians, Biden’s efforts are just another blast of political hot air, designed for the consumption of the gullible to beguile them into voting for his party. The difficult environmntal issues of securing the materials for storage will also have to be confronted, and can not be banished by a politicians decree.
There is no viable way to black-start the electric transmission system with batteries and weather dependent wind and solar. How do you restart a totally dead electric system? Hydro is used as the first resource to provide startup power to natural gas powerplants for their startup (nil ductility heat up rates) before they come online. Knowing that they had no future culpability, It was irresponsible for legislators and bureaucrats funded by their green corporate constitutes and their own investments to push their “techno optimism” onto an electric system that they don’t have the training to operate. If the grid goes down, the last lines to be energized will be the undersea cables (ie. SF Transbay cable and future offshore wind). Battery rating was done by bureaucrats because it was a better marketing gimmick to use a 4 hour rating rather than a 24hr rating. Anything less than a 72hr rating is not a true way to rate a startup source in the real world. At 72hr without power social unrest is common in disasters. Look at the CAISO website and you will see batteries are being topped-off with Washington hydro power from 1am-4am. Then there’s a real argument that rotating mass generators can withstand large intensity line faults where solid-state devices are prone to have more conservative relay protection and trip faster to mitigate damage and become an Achilles heal for a once robust system against phase-to-phase faults.