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If you're interested in another deep dive on this topic, I wrote more about all this recently on the Distilled newsletter.
More here: distilled.earth/p/are-renewabl
Wind & solar are like bicycles. Coal is like a locomotive. Just because they have wheels and transport things, they aren't comparable.
There are so many types of coal actually. Something I just got to know recently. Some are worth its weight in gold I think. Not all coals are equal.
I would like to see Cost per KWH overlayed on this chart. It would not be a good indicator.
Energy efficiency relates to the level of energy consumed for a given output. On a macro-economic level, energy intensity is used as a proxy for energy efficiency, which is related to the overall economic output, such as the GDP. Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement,Show more
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The cost of damage to the environment, marine life and migratory species, damage to farms and food sources, the poisoning of our oceans and land by chemicals to fuel the wind farms, solar farms, and no recyclables involved, not a good trade off. It’s a terrible solution.
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Why do you add wind + solar together, but not add Coal & Nat Gas?
You are being dishonest. Wind & Solar are a long way from replacing Hydrocarbons
The majority of the reduction in Coal is due to Natural Gas displacing it and NOT grown in W&S!
Come on,
This year was the most EVs powered by coal as well.
There is no bias here.
This is why I have to pay $400 a month for electricity? I would better go coal.
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Bjorn Lomborg
@BjornLomborg
Congrats on going green!
The UK is leading the world in decarbonizing and switching to renewables
Quite predictably, this means:
The UK now has some of the highest household electricity prices (36p or 46¢/kWh)
gov.uk/government/sta
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Coal use hasn't peaked. And your wind and solar generation is available as a result of Chinese coal-powered electricity. Some local improvement? Maybe. But at what cost?
How does district cooling technology work? What are the primary energy sources for district cooling systems? Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) become more important in district cooling? In this episode of the Al-Attiyah Foundation podcast, we are joined by Yasser Al Jaidah, whoShow more
Are you retarded?
Look at the grey line.
We’re burning less coal because of natural gas and you couldn’t have wind and solar without fossil fuel backups.
The average cost of electricity in 2019 was 12 cents per kWh. So far in 2024, it’s 16.8 cents per kWh. It is a lie to say our electricity is cheaper with more renewables in the grid since 2019.
Definitely not when you calculate in the Environmental cost of creating solar panels and wind turbines
Well, at least he admits his job is to "write stories and make videos about climate change."
Please clarify ,
.
When you say cheaper does that mean I can count on my electric utility to charge less per KWh in 2024 ?
Residents in Delhi Advised to Wear Masks as Air Pollution Reaches 'Severe Plus' Levels
The lie of cheaper renewables persists. If it was cheaper it wouldn’t need to be subsidized. OP is either ignorant or a lier.
Liar! Electricity prices have been going up. And look at how you didn't say anything about natural gas. Without which our grid would collapse from unreliable wind and solar.
You mean solar! Wind sucks ass! Its worthless! And it costs so much to maintain. Its stupid!
While your friends in China build more and more coal fired electricity plants. But keep offing the birds and whales to assuage your crazy guilt.
At this rate of decline, the US will be 0% coal by 2035. Dunno if we'll actually achieve that, but with the continued drops in solar & battery prices, hopefully we get pretty close.
After that... watch out natural gas! Now just need coal in China to go into structural decline
Breakthrough Institute study: wind energy needs ~30K acres per TWhr of electricity generation annually. Nuclear energy uses only 18 acres while nat gas generation needs only 1/6th the space of wind. Labeling wind power as sustainable or green seems ludicrous. Follow for more.
When it comes to climate change, the amount of wind & solar is irrelevant. Only the amount of fossil fuels matter & that isn't dropping much (or at all globally). Also, fossil gas, while having lower CO2 emissions than coal, causes more warming due to CH4 leaks & less aerosols.
This is great! Would love to see a reinvestment in nuclear as well. The tech has come a long way and isn't affected by weather like "renewables" typically are
In the EU…
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Ember
@ember_energy
The EU generated a RECORD 30% of electricity from wind and solar in the first half of 2024, for the first time surpassing fossil fuels’ share of 27%
Read more electricity highlights from 2024: ember-energy.org/latest-insightShow more
Breakthrough Institute study: wind energy needs ~30K acres per TWhr of electricity generation annually. Nuclear energy uses only 18 acres while nat gas generation needs only 1/6th the space of wind. Labeling wind power as sustainable or green seems ludicrous. Follow for more.
Climate is a cumulative issue. The temperature will keep rising until we eliminate emissions. So from a climate perspective things are certainly not getting better - but much worse, by around 40 billions tonnes of CO2 each year.
How on earth can you say that..? you're taking an average. So when the days have no wind and solar???) mmm??? Mmm????
So China and India can keep pumping their toxic fumes into the atmosphere at our cost? Fantastic.
My electric bill keeps on going up so what are you talking about? It’s cheaper.
Is that wind and solar beating coal 24/7/365 Michael? For my home electricity price I await the next round of price increases. 
This is misleading for it does not include backing up RE when the wind and sun are not blowing and shining. That makes RE very expensive indeed, for needed storage generation is greater than what they generate themselves. And more..too
much RE on the grid destabilized it.
"Other" is hydro?
If so, we woefully neglected the sector
Factor in that wind power uses more petroleum to operate than does any other power generation source.
Where exactly? Certainly not in China, who has the largest installed capacity.
Renewables are possibly the largest case of economic malfeasance in history.
Good, but percentage don’t tell the whole story. Absolute coal number must decrease
'Our electricity is cheaper'? Really?? Not what I'm seeing on my bill because the price is ALWAYS based on the gas price!
The total amount of energy consumed still increases exponentially. That doesn’t seem to be of any concern? -pointless to treat the symptoms without addressing the cause.
Imagine what being noninvasive could achieve in mitigating overshoot.
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This is more magical thinking which is utter disgraceful and dangerous! Wind and solar takes FOSSILS FUELS to mine & manufacture . They are quite difficult to phase couple onto the grid due to intermittent generation. They last at most for 20yrs ! spectator.com.au/2023/05/solar-
This is more magical thinking which is utter disgraceful and dangerous! Wind and solar takes FOSSILS FUELS to mine & manufacture . They are quite difficult to phase couple onto the grid due to intermittent generation. They last at most for 20yrs ! spectator.com.au/2023/05/solar-
When somebody who isn’t immersed in climate related news stumbles across a tweet like this, what do you think their takeaway is? How motivated are they to learn more? How worried are they about the future?
Now add in all the environment impact of producing wind and solar devices. It is not clean energy at all.