Pickering Post: Every day some green energy promoter or a battery salesman tells us how green energy with battery backup will supply Australia’s future electricity needs.
A battery stores energy. Energy can be stored using lead-acid, nickel/cadmium, lithium, molten salt, pumped hydro, hydrogen, flywheels, compressed air or some other smart gizmo. But NOT ONE battery produces new energy – they simply store and discharge energy produced by other means. They all deliver less energy than they consume. Moreover, to manufacture, charge, use and dispose of batteries consumes energy and resources.
The idea of producing reliable grid power from intermittent green energy backed up by batteries looks possible in green doodle-diagrams, but would be absurdly inefficient and expensive.
Solar works a six hour day
Consider a solar panel which is rated to collect say 100 units of energy per day at full capacity, in full mid-day sunlight, with a clean panel, properly aligned to face the sun.
No solar energy arrives overnight and only minimal amounts arrive during the three hours after dawn or before dusk. That means that solar energy can only be collected for about 6 hours per day, providing it is not cloudy, raining or snowing. No amount of research or regulation will change this – MORE HERE
Hell, nobody will listen to him, he doesn’t have any rainbows or unicorns in the story.
Solar & wind are not ready yet.
Solar is only 20% efficient.
Giant wind turbines because of their
unbalanced designs have tremendous pressure
on their bearings.That is what you see when they
catch on fire.The forced oil bath that flows
across and cools the bearings fails…
The gooberment MORONS here with their socialist government
owned energy plants want to do that here at OUR expense. The
morons think it’s a good buy.
Phucktards never met a bad product to waste our taxes on.
Currently, the best option for base load power is Nuclear. Unfortunately, those college educated idiots at Westinghouse can’t figure out how to replace the toilet paper rolls. Basically, if Westinghouse can’t find a buyer in the next 30 days, we are looking at a “Stimulus package”.
Not totally on topic but hey, Random is the name
40+ years after Carter’s tax credits and Solar still isn’t ready.
Wind is fine for some locations but not much ROI and not a national solution.
Underground petroleum serves no useful purpose other than to be consumed for human benefit and quality of life.
Scarcity or Abundance? Next question.
“The idea of producing reliable grid power from intermittent green energy backed up by batteries looks possible…”
The idea of providing reliable global transport from sail power backed up by compressed air canisters looks possible…
Rube Goldberg was unavailable for comment.
Apart from lightning and eels, electricity of any form isn’t a source of energy any more than money is a source of wealth.
Thanks for article. Continually ask friends if they’re still glad they went solar. For the first year or so they were absolutely sure. Now, they keep to themselves and don’t want to talk about it. They still have years worth of payments. Realtor pals strongly discourage solar if we ever plan to sell.
Oh, for fuck’s sake … Solar will NEVER be ready … 160 W/sq.m. (ave) is what the Sun provides. We cannot capture the sunshine over the oceans (7/8 of the Earth’s surface) or over the miserably uninhabited regions of the hard surface.
People need to face some physical facts and quit grasping rainbows.
Hydro-Carbons and Nuclear are the most inexpensive, readily available power sources we have. Sorry – that’s just the way it is.
You just can’t get something from nothing – except for masses of BULLSHIT out of the empty heads of “liberals.”
izlamo delenda est …
Tesla’s new home battery will run your A/C for about 30 min then its lights out. So, for that reason, I am out.
And those progtards should knock off describing oil and gas as *fossil fuels*. Since when did the Dino’s live 5 miles beneath the surface? Oil will never run out as long as the planet continues to survive. Oil (carbon in liquid form) is created at the earths core, and finds it’s way up towards the surface in the process. We may reach a point of equilibrium where our consumption equals production, but that day is way off. Advances in efficiency will take care of most of the supply deficit.