Why Renewables Can’t Save the Planet - DEBUNKED

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[maxpelletier]

Painting 1 blade black on a Wind Turbine reduces significantly the number of birds killed.

[fluitfluiten]

1 problem for new nuclear reactors compared to solar/wind is that it is VERY expensive to build a new reactor and it takes a very long time before it can generate revenue.
Solar and wind can be built in phases and some revenue can be generated almost immediately.

[ebaab]

Noted, no one wanted to know how many Eagles and Owls are killed by cars.

[anthonydyer]

He talks about sun being a "dilute energy source"

So here's some facts:
I live in Scotland, which is 57 degrees north - widely considered to be "far north" in North American terms.
I have a 9kW Solar Array, generating 7MWH electricity annually - entirely located on the roof of my bungalow, and I'm subjected to partial shading conditions.
That electricity is abundant for 6 months of the year March to September for charging my car, running my heatpump and my 10kWh battery will keep keep that apparatus going through the night

Now it comes up short during Autumn and Winter, but it's contribution is still significant. All told I still need the grid, but the UK grid is now dominated by supplies of wind power in the winter time.

Without subsidies, I've now returned half of my £11k original investment back into my bank account within four years.

Now if I can make that happen, then everyone else south of my latitude has no excuse.

Not a bad result for a "dilute energy source"!

[cyrusf.]

I still don't understand the idea of solar farms when the southern US urban centers are rife with giant parking malls that heat the cars and cities. Everyone gets into their hot car and then turns on the AC. Couldn't covering these areas be advantageous in that cars would be cooler under the shade of these solar panels (using less AC and less energy), there is less black asphalt heating the surrounding air and lastly eliminating the need to make solar farms that supposedly harm wildlife.

[slowercuber]

The age of that Ted talk really puts the speaker at a disadvantage with respect to today’s criticism. Price and availability of solar PV in particular, and more importantly, stationary energy storage have improved significantly and look to be continuing to improve.

[charleslord]

Ben, not all wind turbines affect birds the same. The large slow turbines now being installed allows birds to just fly around the blades like many other obstacles they encounter daily.

[leroyharder]

As a homeowner with a very small farm, renewables are fun to work with not only for reducing our energy use, but also to sustain our business during power outages, especially around fire season. Our main goal is to reduce our net energy use to near 0, but if our local utility became more flexible, and gave us wholesale prices that we deserve, we could really help the grid during peak and low demand periods.

We have an EV which makes the trip to town inexpensive and we have some solar panels on our roof. We are putting heat pumps in our new meadery. We can put more panels on that structure and well as more on our home. We have fairly hot summers so having panels does provide some welcome shade for the roof. I keep bee boxes in a container and I need to shade it. Why not use solar panels? We will need a covered sitting area. Should we use solar panels for that as well? I might be able to be a net exporter of electricity if the right regulatory setup was in place.

There are so many use cases for roof top solar for the home and landowner. This talk by Shellenburger is hardly an example of debunking renewables. If my example of regular investing in renewables (and energy efficiency) can be scaled up where does this lead us.

There is a much harder case to make against renewables and I believe its around long term storage of electricity, longer than a few days. This is not so important in the south, but where I live, where nights are long in the winter and it gets cold, its more of an issue. The last few days around here, not so much wind and its cloudy. I would like to hear talks about this subject by creative solution oriented people. I dislike "can't do" arguments.

[decimal]

His point about solar panels on houses is not correct: even in the cloudy UK modern solar panels can power homes and businesses. In the USA, it will be much more economical to install solar. And there is no need for new grid connections with domestic solar. Plus your EV can be charged up from solar, so there's not even a grid connection required for that either!

[Yanquetino]

Rooftop solar electricity is twice as expensive? Huh. That's news to me. But in truth my array completely paid for itself years ago, and now is pure "gravy." As for solar farms and their land use… has he not heard of agrevoltaics? They are a win-win for both energy and food production.

[gregbailey]

Agrivoltaics is also an excellent dual use of farming land, where the shading effect of the panels actually improves the productivity of the farmland! It has been found that crop outputs actually increase, despite the increase in shade. Less water loss due to evaporation reduces irrigation needs, and animals can use the shade under the panels on hot days. It also provides stable extra income for the farmers!
Farmers love them!

[ScrappyDoodad]

Funny how people never stand behind their 'One' car while it is running an consider exactly how much exhaust is being released in the environment and to realize what is in it, a half dozen poisonous gasses

Then consider how many cars are spewing pollution and then think that it isn't a big deal

[markumbers]

I know this. 1) The price of roof top solar in the U.S. is ridiculously expensive and 2) I own a house with a 200 sq metre roof. If that roof was flat, slightly tilted towards the winter sun and was completely covered in solar panels it would generate enough power to keep 13 EVs charged each doing 20, 000 klms per year for 20 years. All for a cost of $16, 000 U.S ( $24, 000 Australian).

[SamWulfign]

The problem I have with Renewables is the production of Renewables isn't actually renewable, solar panels the kind you espouse require rare earth materials which if you knew how they were dug up tells you the environmental impact of them is actually quite damaging and so is the large scale batteries we are currently using. Just because it isn't happening in your own backyard does not discount the impact that it requires to source those materials. Imo, I think we need a better mix of power generation, "Renewables" of course do need to be a option but we also need other options as well to diversify the grid, because as it is heading right now, it seems we'll be going all in on renewable and battery storage.
And that is honestly going to be a problem going forward in the future as it stands if we only use the current battery storage solutions, there has been multitude of instances of the grid being unstable during peak use times, and in some regions they have had to load shed to keep it stable. Talk to any Electrical engineer or Grid technician/manager and they will tell you their not happy about the current situation.

We need to embrace all solutions if they can help, not just a few choice ones.
For example there has been a few engineers who have suggested Hydrogen gas generators as a on Demand solution to offset the intermittent power that renewables generate, and honestly I have no idea why no one is pursuing this as you can convert current Gas power plants to hyrdogen.

[genieb]

With solar, if you go to agrivoltaics, where the land underneath the (bifacial) solar panels, actually benefit the land use underneath. Studies show better biodiversity, better crop yield, reduced evaporation, better animal shielding (from the elements) etc. etc. In other words, with agrivoltaics, the land can still mostly be used as before, while generating electricity. That is why agrivoltaics are becoming more popular.
As for windfarms, we (I work for a renewable energy developer) do everything we can to minimise, offset, compensate for environmental impact. This means that the impact on birds and other wildlife is minimized and with compensation and offset, it sometimes results in better than before conditions for wildlife.
The biggest impact on wildlife comes from climate change, period. By reducing climate change, we are making the biggest positive impact on wildlife and the environment in general.

[DCuerpoJr]

Installing solar panels with a battery to store excess electricity on your home or business just makes economical sense. Even in Seattle (my location) where it’s cloudy 200+ days a year. Drastically reduces my energy bill and helps out during power outages.

[justViewerFun]

@16:30, citing a recent LA Times article, " Solar power glut in California is a bane here, but a boon elsewhere, " one of the reasons for higher electricity costs in California has been that we have had to pay to send excess solar energy to other states. Why? because the grid operators don't have mass storage.

[mauricemunsie]

The comment about Australia considering nuclear power needs clarification.
It is not the government who are committed to renewables. It is a kite being floated by the opposition with no details as to cost, timetable or storage of waste.

[graemetunbridge]

2:30 '...rooftop solar is more expensive' - most of the 'electricity bill' is grid maintenence - with rooftop solar/battery I avoid this whole catastrophy and consume no additional land.

[gulfpapa]

We painted stripes on airplane propellers 40 years ago to prevent bird strikes. Haven't seen any stripes on wind turbines, why not?