The Green new deal advocates are living in a delusion that believes solar and wind power are the answers to all of our energy problems. It is unfortunate that they “choose truth over facts”. In turn their self delusion is touted as fact to the American people.
It only takes a small amount of engineering analysis and math, as well as some common sense, to see that the energy needs of the U.S. and the world for that matter, will never be met by solar and wind power. Even if implemented to the maximum extent possible they cannot generate enough power to provide the energy the world needs. If you doubt that just take a look at Germany. Germany produced 612.4 billion kWh of electricity in 2019. Power generation from renewables reached 40%, but the reliability of these sources is causing significant issues for them. If you assume we develop better storage (batteries) and that it is affordable enough for people to be able to purchase, you still cannot generate enough power when it is available (during the day and when the wind is blowing) to use 24 hours a day, even if you can store it.
Unfortunately right now what we have available are fossil fuels to fill the power void. Turning off the flow of oil and coal does not change the equation to make solar and wind any more capable. No matter how much wishful thinking we do. We need another solution. The governments of the world should not invest all their funds in a solution that we know will not work but invest in research and development in technology that CAN do the job.
One of these possibilities is nuclear power. There are technologies which would allow much safer nuclear power plants that even a child could operate. There are designs that should explored and research funded to bring them to reality and actually solve the worlds energy problems. Rather than the feel good proposals being put forth, funded, and promoted in solar and wind.
Scott Manley, who happens to be a nuclear engineer put a video together on one of the types of reactors that could indeed be much safer, easier to operate, and also provide the power to solve our energy needs. Some may find this hard to believe but the fact is others have looked into this as well such as Bill Gates. The technology does not exist today but there is a very good chance it can in the next few decades be developed and deployed. That is where we should be putting more focus.
These types of reactors cannot melt down and are self regulating. There are various types of these reactors. Some have working prototypes already producing power. Some of their advantages are they use less volatile radioactive materials, they will shut down with no operator action, and they are fairly well understood. The physics alone designed into them prevents the possibility of runaway nuclear reactions as we have in the current generation of nuclear power plants.
More effort needs to be put into these concepts as well as others that could serve the worlds energy needs. Today, with our current technologies, these new types of plants are the closest thing we have to something tangible that can solve the problem we have with carbon emissions and global warming. These combined with wind and solar could indeed bring us all into a new era where we have the energy we need and are not polluting the planet.
The people who so zealously promote the Green energy initiative should stop using wind and solar as the cures to all evil. They need to let engineering and analysis show the path forward rather than feelings and emotion. The feel good proposals about technologies that will never actually solve the problem only serve to make the true solution take longer to develop while also being counter to the Green Energy promoters stated cause. If they really think we have a truly existential threat to the planet than they need to promote more engineering and less politics and emotions. Only then will we find the solution.
