BBB - Renewable Energy
BBB - Renewable Energy

October 2020

There are still some people that are not convinced of the dangers of our current energy sources. So a few notes on the case for change:

It is abundantly clear that oil and coal is very polluting: During extraction, transportation, storage and use, and producers do not bare any of these costs. These are called externalities, and are paid for by you and I in the form of poorer health, earlier death, climate change (bush fires, hurricanes, sea level rise) and many other ways. A little known fact is that the wastewater produced by fracking wells is radio active. EXTREMELY radioactive. Please see the links below for further details.

These costs run into the trillions of Dollars.

Now that we know it is bad, how can we Build Back Better? Let me count the ways, as Ms Barrett Browning so eloquently put it:

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(This will be the short version, I will probably revisit the topic in greater detail later in the series).

Solar and wind are both rapidly falling in cost of generation. Solar prices are one tenth now, compared to what they were ten years ago, and are expected to continue their steady decline until 2050. In several areas around the world, it is now cheaper to replace coal plants with solar plants. Let me emphasise - solar is not just cheaper than coal. It is so much cheaper, that it pays to build a solar plant to replace and dismantle an EXISTING coal fired plant. And that is before accounting for the massive improvements in pollution and healthcare.

But storage....!! No, storage has also made massive advances in recent years. Just to name a few technologies: Lithium-ion storage, Hydrogen (both a storage medium, and a source of fuel), gravity assisted storage, not only of water (hydro electric), but also gravel and concrete slabs. Vermiculite. Molten salt. Flow batteries.

Add in the fact that research on "renewables" is now fashionable. We can expect massive improvements in many different areas.

How will this impact the world? We are slowly moving to an environment where energy is almost practically limitless, close to free but also much less polluting. This brings the obvious benefits of health improvement and greenhouse gas reductions. In industry, just for example, cheaper electricity means cheaper aluminium, which means lighter products like cars and airplanes, using less energy in a virtuous loop. Developing countries can leapfrog the pollution created by electrification.

Cheap electricity makes desalination much more feasible, leading to more potable water in previously arid coastal regions, and reaching further inland as electricity becomes cheaper, and the desalination industry develops. Sundrop Farms in Australia has built an integrated greenhouse, solar plant and desalination installation that delivers 45 tons of tomatoes. Every day. 365 days per year.

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Sundrop Farms, Port Augusta, Australia

Some steelmakers now use electric furnaces, and throughout industry new applications are arising to eliminate coal and oil use.

Integrate cheap, renewable electricity with self-driving vehicles and delivery vehicles and you greatly reduce the need for crowded mass market grocery stores. More on this in another post on automation.

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Links to Relevant Articles⁠

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BBB - Renewable EnergyBBB - Renewable Energy

BBB - Renewable Energy
BBB - Renewable Energy