This topic periodically flies out at the peak of the discussion (for example, as with Gretta) and then dies down again for a while. However, many countries have so far stubbornly adhered to (at least officially) the line on "green energy". Again, we can begin to argue with you that all this is subsidized and completely uncompetitive, and given the growth of population and energy consumption, it is simply not realistic, but it will not be.
Read these points and tell me what you disagree with …
1. Hydrocarbons provide more than 80% of the world's energy.
2. A decrease in the share of hydrocarbons in world energy consumption by only 2 pp will result in total global spending on alternative energy options over this period, which will amount to almost $ 2 trillion. Sun and wind provide less than 2% of the world's energy today.
3. When the world's 4 billion poor people increase their energy consumption to one-third of Europe's per capita level, global demand will rise by more than double America's total consumption.
4. By 2040, a 100-fold increase in the number of electric vehicles to 400 million will lead to a decrease in global oil demand for
five%.
5. Within 20 years, the use of renewable energy must expand 90 times to replace hydrocarbons. It took half a century for world oil production to grow only 10 times.
Promotional video:
6. To replace hydrocarbon-based power generation in the United States over the next 30 years, a construction program will be needed to build the power grid 14 times faster than at any other time in history.
7. If the US refuses to use hydrocarbons to generate electricity, 70% of US hydrocarbon use will remain untouched. America now consumes 16% of the world's energy.
8. Efficiency increases energy demand by making products and services cheaper: since 1990, global energy efficiency has grown by 33%, the economy by 80%, and global energy consumption by 40%.
9. Efficiency increases energy demand: since 1995, aviation fuel consumption per passenger-kilometer has decreased by 70%, air traffic has increased more than 10 times, and global aviation fuel use has increased by more than 50%.
10. Efficiency increases the demand for energy: since 1995, energy consumption per byte has decreased by 10 thousand times, and the volume of global data traffic has grown by about 1 million times; the global volume of electricity use has skyrocketed for computer technology.
11. Since 1995, total global energy consumption has grown by 50%.
12. For the sake of safety and reliability, the country's storage facilities should retain hydrocarbon reserves that could meet the country's necessary needs for 2 months. Today, all general-purpose batteries and accumulators of 1 million electric vehicles in the United States can supply only 2 hours of national electricity demand.
13. Batteries produced annually at Tesla Gigafactory can provide only 3 minutes of annual US electricity demand.
14. In order to provide enough batteries to meet the US electricity demand for 2 days, the Gigafactory must have a 1,000-year production time.
15. Operation of each $ 1 billion aircraft produced for 20 years requires aviation fuel worth $ 5 billion. Global spending on new aircraft is more than $ 50 billion a year. And they are still growing.
16. Every $ 1 billion spent on data centers results in $ 7 billion in electricity use for 20 years. Global data center spending is more than $ 100 billion a year.
17. Over 30 years, $ 1 million worth of solar or wind power plants generate 40 million and 55 million kWh, respectively. Wells worth $ 1 million, producing shale oil and gas, produce natural gas that can produce 300 million kWh in 30 years.
18. Construction of one well in an oil or gas field or two wind turbines costs about the same: the latter produce 0.7 barrels of oil per hour (energy equivalence), a well in a shale gas field produces 10 barrels of oil per hour.
19. Storing a barrel of oil or its equivalent in natural gas costs less than $ 0.50, and storing the equivalent energy of a barrel of oil in batteries costs $ 200.
20. Cost estimates for wind and solar energy assume a power factor of 41% and 29%, respectively. Real data give figures 10 pp less for both. This means that less energy will be produced for $ 3 million than anticipated during 20 years of service for a $ 3 million wind turbine with a capacity of 2 MW.
21. To compensate for the occasional use of wind / solar power, US utilities use oil and gas engines. Since 2000, their use has become 3 times more than 50 years before.
22. The capacity factors of the wind farm have improved by about 0.7% per year. This small figure is mainly achieved by reducing the number of turbines per acre, which results in a 50% increase in the average land area used for kilowatt-hours production.
23. More than 90% of America's electricity and 99% of the energy used by transportation comes from sources that can easily supply energy to the economy whenever the market demands it.
24. Wind and solar plants generate energy on average 25% to 30% of the time and only when natural conditions permit. Conventional power plants can run almost continuously.
25. The shale revolution has lowered the prices of natural gas and coal, two fuels that produce 70% of US electricity. But electricity tariffs have risen 20% since 2008 due to direct and indirect subsidies for solar and wind energy.
26. Transforming the energy economy is not the same as sending several people to the moon several times. This is more like a situation in which all of humanity will be sent to the moon. And forever.
27. A common cliché: The energy technology revolutions will echo digital breakthroughs. But machines for the production of information and machines for the production of energy are based on completely different physical laws.
28. If solar energy were to be imagined on the scale of computer technology, the Empire State Building could use one solar panel the size of a postage stamp. But this is only possible in fairy tales.
29. If batteries are imagined on a digital scale, a book-sized battery that costs 3 cents could power a jetliner to Asia. And this is also possible only in fairy tales.
30. If internal combustion engines could be imagined on the scale of computers, a car engine would shrink to the size of an ant and produce 1,000 times more horsepower; real motors produce 100,000 times less energy.
31. It is not possible to digitally enlarge solar technologies by 10 times. The physical limit for solar cells allows the maximum conversion of 33% of photons to electrons, commercial cells - 26%.
32. The same goes for a 10-fold increase in digital wind technology. The physical limit for wind turbines is a maximum of 60% of the energy in the moving air; commercial turbines provide 45%.
33. No 10x digital battery amplification: Maximum theoretical pound of oil is 1500% higher than maximum theoretical energy in pound of battery chemicals.
o34. It takes about 60 pounds of batteries to store the energy equivalent of one pound of hydrocarbons.
35. For every pound of battery manufactured, 100 pounds of materials must be mined, moved and processed.
36. To store the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil, which weighs 300 pounds, requires 20 thousand pounds of Tesla batteries (worth $ 200 thousand).
37. To transport the energy equivalent of aviation fuel used by an aircraft flying to Asia, Tesla-type batteries are needed for $ 60 million, 5 times more than this aircraft.
38. To manufacture the number of batteries that can store the energy equivalent of 1 barrel of oil, the energy equivalent of 100 barrels of oil is needed.
39. Building batteries will need to recycle many more gigatons of land to gain access to lithium, copper, nickel, graphite, rare earths, cobalt, etc. And use millions of tons of oil and coal to mine and produce metal and concrete.
40. China dominates global battery production with a 70% coal-fired power system: electric vehicles using Chinese batteries will produce more carbon dioxide than would be saved by replacing oil-fired engines.