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Most of The World Could Be 100% Powered With Renewables by 2050

From your post #3192,
"Gas peaker plants stand ready to be immediate backup power that can go from stop to full power in 10 minutes and shutdown when the wind starts blowing again."
This is not 100% renewable, as the natural gas plant is waiting as backup!
As I said the infrastructure is no where near ready.

Exactly my point as well. We currently are not even close to 100% renewables, and we won't need renewable backup for 10 to 20 years. As mentioned, Iowa gets more than 35% of their power from wind, without backup, and they continue to add more, without backup. Texas, who boasts more wind energy than any other state, can add a lot more wind energy, before they reach 35%.

Also, let's suppose you are correct, and we don't reach 100% renewables by 2050. If we are at 95%, with a backup natural gas "peaker" plant here and there, I think that would be a very star-deserving NICE TRY!
 
No. I just don't waste time on irrational rants.

I'm not the one who posted a lying article about wind energy (i.e. Wind did surpass coal for 3 months in Texas).

Also, let's suppose you are correct, and we don't reach 100% renewables by 2050. I'll agree that this may happen, as our country is so addicted to fossil fuels. If we are at 95% renewables, with a backup natural gas "peaker" plant here and there, I think that would be a very star-deserving NICE TRY!
 
I'm not the one who posted a lying article about wind energy (i.e. Wind did surpass coal for 3 months in Texas).

Also, let's suppose you are correct, and we don't reach 100% renewables by 2050. I'll agree that this may happen, as our country is so addicted to fossil fuels. If we are at 95% renewables, with a backup natural gas "peaker" plant here and there, I think that would be a very star-deserving NICE TRY!
What you do not understand is that it will not just be a peaker plant here and there, but 100% of capacity that has to be at the ready all the time.
The cost of maintaining both will cause costs to increase.
 
I'm not the one who posted a lying article about wind energy (i.e. Wind did surpass coal for 3 months in Texas).

Also, let's suppose you are correct, and we don't reach 100% renewables by 2050. I'll agree that this may happen, as our country is so addicted to fossil fuels. If we are at 95% renewables, with a backup natural gas "peaker" plant here and there, I think that would be a very star-deserving NICE TRY!

If we're lucky, renewables will remain marginal fringe players.
 
If we're lucky, renewables will remain marginal fringe players.
I disagree a bit, I think there is a real role for rooftop solar, for offsetting peoples cost of living.
I think wind power in it's current form will have maintenance issues, and will eventually abandoned, or improved.
 
I disagree a bit, I think there is a real role for rooftop solar, for offsetting peoples cost of living.
I think wind power in it's current form will have maintenance issues, and will eventually abandoned, or improved.

Until there is a worldwide seamlessly integrated grid, solar will be a supplementary source only.
 
[FONT=&quot]wind power[/FONT]
[h=1]Collapse of Wind Power Threatens Germany’s Green Energy Transition[/h][FONT=&quot]From Die Welt Via The GWPF Hardly any new wind turbines were built in Germany in the first half of the year. Turbine makers call it a “punch in the gut of the green energy transition” and blame environmentalists. The expansion of wind power in the first half of this year collapsed to its lowest…
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What you do not understand is that it will not just be a peaker plant here and there, but 100% of capacity that has to be at the ready all the time.
The cost of maintaining both will cause costs to increase.

I was talking 30 years into the future. At that point, fossil fuels will be more and more expensive, opening the door for other storage technologies. There are many, many options being looked at.

Overview of energy storage in renewable energy systems - ScienceDirect

•The state of art of chemical, electrochemical, mechanical, electric or thermal storage is presented in this work.

•Storage technologies can be applied for energy management and power quality in electric power systems.

•Storage mitigates power variations, enhances system flexibility, and enables storage and dispatching of renewable energy.

•The advantages and drawbacks of different storage technologies in renewable energy are examined.

•Major obstacles to market entry of storage systems are the actual costs, material stability and safety.

•Relatively low costs can be obtained by using PHES and CAES systems. The battery is less competitive than PHES, but can be considered as a relatively cost efficient solution.

•Heat storage system costs depend on the size and the technology.

Eventually ALL power will have to be renewables. So we need to learn to deal with it.
 
Until there is a worldwide seamlessly integrated grid, solar will be a supplementary source only.
There is potential for simple usage offset, but I think storage is more important until technology would allow sunlight from the other side of the world to be used at night.
 
There is potential for simple usage offset, but I think storage is more important until technology would allow sunlight from the other side of the world to be used at night.

Bingo. A seamless global grid would allow the sun side to power the dark side.
 
Bingo. A seamless global grid would allow the sun side to power the dark side.
I think that technology, and the government agreements to go with it are many years away, perhaps further out than fusion,
which has been 30 years away for 50 years.
 
I think that technology, and the government agreements to go with it are many years away, perhaps further out than fusion,
which has been 30 years away for 50 years.

That's why I see a bright future for fossil fuels.
 
There is potential for simple usage offset, but I think storage is more important until technology would allow sunlight from the other side of the world to be used at night.

That would take some amazing superconductors to be able to accomplish that, without all of the voltage being lost. Currently superconductors are only feasible at very low temperatures, near absolute Zero. Although they have found a superconductor that works at room temperature. The trouble is that it only remains a superconductor for a few millionths of a millisecond.

Physicists Achieve Superconductivity at Room Temperature

But then the physicists from Max Planck decided to see what would happen if they irradiated the YBCO ceramic material with infrared laser pulses. They found that for a fraction of a second, the ceramic becomes superconducting at room temperature. And when we say “a fraction of a second”, we mean a fraction. “It was only a few millionths of a millisecond
 
That would take some amazing superconductors to be able to accomplish that, without all of the voltage being lost. Currently superconductors are only feasible at very low temperatures, near absolute Zero. Although they have found a superconductor that works at room temperature. The trouble is that it only remains a superconductor for a few millionths of a millisecond.

Physicists Achieve Superconductivity at Room Temperature

But then the physicists from Max Planck decided to see what would happen if they irradiated the YBCO ceramic material with infrared laser pulses. They found that for a fraction of a second, the ceramic becomes superconducting at room temperature. And when we say “a fraction of a second”, we mean a fraction. “It was only a few millionths of a millisecond

I am thinking we will have fusion power before a planet wide electrical grid,
I am not sure which is bigger, the technical limitations or the political one?
 
Overshoot Day: German ARD Public Television Calls For Consumers To Be Punished By “So Damn Expensive” Prices

By P Gosselin on 31. July 2019
Green hubris: ARD German public television commentary labels its audience “consumption addicts” – mentally ill – and pleads they be punished with “so damn expensive” prices.
Germany’s equivalent of the BBC, publicly (forced) funded ARD Broadcasting aired a commentary on Monday evening by journalist Lorenz Beckhardt. The commentary was to respond to the latest Earth Overshoot Day report. Eckhardt’s angry commentary was a scathing tirade against western society’s “addiction to consumerism” and an unveiled call for a collective punishment so harsh so as to lead to submission.
According to international sustainability organization Global Footprint Network, humanity has already used up nature’s resource budget for the entire year. According to the organization, this means that humanity needs almost 2 earths to satiate the human demand for her resources.
Over the years, Germany’s massive ARD public broadcasting network has increasingly moved to the left, and has since embraced extreme environmentalism and climate protection. And if anyone had any doubts about this, Beckhardt’s anti-free market tirade last Monday night puts these doubts to rest. . . .

In his angry 1-min 41 sec. tirade, Beckhardt tells the audience how he’s fed up with hearing year after year how western societies are consuming way beyond the limits and that nothing is being done about it. He demands that policymakers take action to punish the ARD audience.

Consumption junkie
To drive home his point, Beckhardt admits how earlier in the evening he too had “a nice piece of meat on the grill” and that this is something he has “often”. He also tells the audience he often uses his car and flies all over the world because he loves coral reefs. He admits: “I’m a consumption junkie” and that he cannot help it.
He says he does it because “it’s fun, rewarding, enjoyment, lust and everyone else does it.” Next he indirectly calls the entire audience mentally ill, addicts who are in need of extremely harsh medicine.
Beckhardt’s “so damn expensive” medicine
Beckhardt then characterizes western consumption as a disease, telling the nationwide audience:
Everybody knows addicts need help. The problem is that no doctor is able to cure environment-damaging consumption addiction. This can only be done by courageous policymakers. That’s why the request: make meat consumption, car driving and flying so damn expensive that we get ourselves off it. Please! Quickly! Then we’ll vote for all of you!”
What’s astonishing is that the ARD is perfectly comfortable with airing such deranged commentaries that call for the draconian blanket punishment of its audience while harboring the delusion that we all want this punishment and that we would all vote for it.
Here’s what the ARD and the Greens really want to say: “Make meat, car driving and flying so damn expensive that you all get yourselves off it. Please! Quickly! Then only the very rich, the elite and me – the ARD journalist – will afford it. The rest of you will live as peasants in serfdom.”
And if that doesn’t take the cake:
The ARD has a budget of €6.9 billion and 22,612 employees. The budget comes primarily from a licence fee which every household, company and public institution are required by law to pay. For an ordinary household the fee is currently €17.50 per month.” – Wikipedia.


 
Overshoot Day: German ARD Public Television Calls For Consumers To Be Punished By “So Damn Expensive” Prices

By P Gosselin on 31. July 2019
Green hubris: ARD German public television commentary labels its audience “consumption addicts” – mentally ill – and pleads they be punished with “so damn expensive” prices.
Germany’s equivalent of the BBC, publicly (forced) funded ARD Broadcasting aired a commentary on Monday evening by journalist Lorenz Beckhardt. The commentary was to respond to the latest Earth Overshoot Day report. Eckhardt’s angry commentary was a scathing tirade against western society’s “addiction to consumerism” and an unveiled call for a collective punishment so harsh so as to lead to submission.
According to international sustainability organization Global Footprint Network, humanity has already used up nature’s resource budget for the entire year. According to the organization, this means that humanity needs almost 2 earths to satiate the human demand for her resources.
Over the years, Germany’s massive ARD public broadcasting network has increasingly moved to the left, and has since embraced extreme environmentalism and climate protection. And if anyone had any doubts about this, Beckhardt’s anti-free market tirade last Monday night puts these doubts to rest. . . .

In his angry 1-min 41 sec. tirade, Beckhardt tells the audience how he’s fed up with hearing year after year how western societies are consuming way beyond the limits and that nothing is being done about it. He demands that policymakers take action to punish the ARD audience.

Consumption junkie
To drive home his point, Beckhardt admits how earlier in the evening he too had “a nice piece of meat on the grill” and that this is something he has “often”. He also tells the audience he often uses his car and flies all over the world because he loves coral reefs. He admits: “I’m a consumption junkie” and that he cannot help it.
He says he does it because “it’s fun, rewarding, enjoyment, lust and everyone else does it.” Next he indirectly calls the entire audience mentally ill, addicts who are in need of extremely harsh medicine.
Beckhardt’s “so damn expensive” medicine
Beckhardt then characterizes western consumption as a disease, telling the nationwide audience:
Everybody knows addicts need help. The problem is that no doctor is able to cure environment-damaging consumption addiction. This can only be done by courageous policymakers. That’s why the request: make meat consumption, car driving and flying so damn expensive that we get ourselves off it. Please! Quickly! Then we’ll vote for all of you!”
What’s astonishing is that the ARD is perfectly comfortable with airing such deranged commentaries that call for the draconian blanket punishment of its audience while harboring the delusion that we all want this punishment and that we would all vote for it.
Here’s what the ARD and the Greens really want to say: “Make meat, car driving and flying so damn expensive that you all get yourselves off it. Please! Quickly! Then only the very rich, the elite and me – the ARD journalist – will afford it. The rest of you will live as peasants in serfdom.”
And if that doesn’t take the cake:
The ARD has a budget of €6.9 billion and 22,612 employees. The budget comes primarily from a licence fee which every household, company and public institution are required by law to pay. For an ordinary household the fee is currently €17.50 per month.” – Wikipedia.



Beware the passion of a true zealot!
 
I am thinking we will have fusion power before a planet wide electrical grid,
I am not sure which is bigger, the technical limitations or the political one?

You espouse Fusion Collusion, Transcontinental Superconductors, Pipe Dream Non-Carbon Oil; and you call my reliance on proven renewables and electric cars irrational???
 
You espouse Fusion Collusion, Transcontinental Superconductors, Pipe Dream Non-Carbon Oil; and you call my reliance on proven renewables and electric cars irrational???
It is a discussion, please follow along!
The discussion was that without some type of energy storage, Solar would require a global grid such that
energy could be coming from panels somewhere always in the sunlight.
I commented that, politically, and technically, fusion power was likely to occur first!
Man made fuels, as a storage device are possible, and simply waiting on economic viability.
 
[FONT=&quot]Energy Fail[/FONT]
[h=1]Common Fantasy: “Red States Are Dumping Coal for Solar”[/h][FONT=&quot]Guest bubble bursting by David Middleton Juan Cole of Common Dreams (a socialist rage) is always good for a laugh. Monday, July 22, 2019It’s Just Good Business: Even Red States Are Dumping Coal for Solarby Juan Cole Arizona, despite being GOP-dominated, is number 3 in the US for residential solar power production. In the first quarter of…
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It is a discussion, please follow along!
The discussion was that without some type of energy storage, Solar would require a global grid such that
energy could be coming from panels somewhere always in the sunlight.
I commented that, politically, and technically, fusion power was likely to occur first!
Man made fuels, as a storage device are possible, and simply waiting on economic viability.

Yeah, and perpetual energy from a conducting earth, oil from algae, etc, etc... Until a technology is proven, it is nothing.

Solar and wind are proven, and are the fastest growing energy sources on the planet. Storage won't be an issue for 10-20 years.
 
Yeah, and perpetual energy from a conducting earth, oil from algae, etc, etc... Until a technology is proven, it is nothing.

Solar and wind are proven, and are the fastest growing energy sources on the planet. Storage won't be an issue for 10-20 years.
You keep acting like Man made hydrocarbon fuels is a myth.
BREAKTHROUGH FOR POWER-TO-X: SUNFIRE PUTS FIRST Co-ELECTROLYSIS INTO OPERATION AND STARTS SCALING - Sunfire
The first commercial plant is to be built there, and will produce 10 million litres or 8,000 tonnes of the synthetic crude oil substitute e-Crude annually on the basis of 20 megawatts of input power.
Yet groups are already planning commercial production.
Solar and wind are growing, and already generate vast surpluses during some months.
Those surpluses are not being effectively utilized, because they occur when there is not a demand.
Storing that surplus as carbon neutral transport fuel, makes sense.
 
You keep acting like Man made hydrocarbon fuels is a myth.
BREAKTHROUGH FOR POWER-TO-X: SUNFIRE PUTS FIRST Co-ELECTROLYSIS INTO OPERATION AND STARTS SCALING - Sunfire

Yet groups are already planning commercial production.
Solar and wind are growing, and already generate vast surpluses during some months.
Those surpluses are not being effectively utilized, because they occur when there is not a demand.
Storing that surplus as carbon neutral transport fuel, makes sense.

[FONT=&quot]Renewable energy[/FONT]
[h=1]Promising new solar-powered path to hydrogen fuel production[/h][FONT=&quot]News Release 1-Aug-2019 Lehigh University team are the first to use a single enzyme biomineralization process to create a solar-driven water splitting catalyst that produces hydrogen with the potential to be manufactured sustainably, cheaply and abundantly Lehigh University IMAGE: Steven McIntosh et al. Enzymatic synthesis of supported CdS quantum dot/reduced graphene oxide photocatalysts Credit: Courtesy…
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[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[h=1]Zeeland removing wind turbines after several issues[/h][FONT=&quot]From WOOD TV by: Whitney Burney Posted: Aug 1, 2019 / 05:28 PM EDT / Updated: Aug 1, 2019 / 06:51 PM EDT HOLLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Wind turbines in Helder Park in Holland Township are being torn down. The city of Zeeland built the turbines in 2009 in an effort to use more…
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