MEERTALK January 2025 - Richard Heinberg

North America's Ongoing, Ignored Disaster

How Amish Heat Their Living Room Without Gas/Electricity

This Entertaining Show Will be Cancelled After This Propaganda

They claim that Renewable Energy from wind turbines requires Diesel fuel for mixing concrete, transportation of equipment, materials, and labor, but the truth is that all that could easily be done with electric motors using electric batteries all made in factories using renewable electricity. There are a series of choices involved. Make good choices, and get good futures. If the lifespan of a wind turbine was only 20 years, none should be made. They should be able to last indefinitely with regular maintenance and a little luck from the weather gods. The "embedded energy" of a wind turbine refers to the total energy used in its manufacturing, transportation, installation, and maintenance throughout its lifespan, essentially representing the energy "invested" to create and operate the turbine; this energy is typically paid back within a short time frame due to the large amount of electricity a wind turbine can generate over its lifetime, making it a highly efficient renewable energy source. This means that within 1=2 years the Multiple-Megawat turbines as pictured here would have repaid any energy they took up and are thus creating renewable energy for the rest of their working life. Enough to create HUNDREDS of new wind turbines, with renewable electricity. Solar panels are better. They cool the ground beneath, creating a habitat for growing things. They have no moving parts, and reflect half the sunlight back into space, helping cool the planet. They can be put anywhere the sun shines, and are distributed energy for off-grid applications. When paired with batteries, transmission lines, or both, they can be valuable revenue-generating assets, with lifespans in the 50+ year range. Lithium batteries for all vehicles can be mined with electric pumps run on renewable energy, too. Texas has chosen NOT to connect its state-wide electric grid (spanning 800 miles in every direction) to the east and west coast grids in the USA. Texas already uses renewable wind energy to power all its government buildings and municipal utilities, but could easily export renewable energy to the east and west costs, because they currently overproduce renewable energy and dump it into the ground when people stop using their air conditioners in the fall. But TEXAS doesn't choose to work with the rest of the USA, because they fear regulations. Unfortunately, the utilities are monopolies, and they use that power to over-build all the electric infrastructure in the USA, because they have cost-plus-profit contracts, so it wouldn't take much to connect the entire continent together with renewable energy generation. But they want more $$$$ so they produce propaganda like this to make it seem like they need more infrastructure, which they don't. The biggest cost will be battery storage of one kind or another, but imagine if everyone had say a 100 kWh battery parked in their driveway? What they are correct about is the SUNK investment in petroleum and $ 90 billion/yr of subsidies for the industry. They are using up a finite resource and destroying the environment, without any incentive to prepare for the future. That's a choice. A profitable choice. The problem is not the snake you find on the path, it's the snake in the weeds.

The WARRANTY for the windmill from the manufacturer (GE or others) is 20-25 years, but with proper maintenance there is no upper limit on the lifespan of such machines. They could be made bullet proof. They could be made without carbon fuels. They could be smaller, or built as an array, to help with transport Currently, using ONLY CARBON FUELS to build a 2MW wind turbine, we get back the imbedded energy in <2 years. Which means we just multiplied the energy return from that carbon fuel by a minimum of 10X. But we do NOT have to build with carbon fuels, these are CHOICES, to maximize profits. We should have started 50+ years ago to transition, when the oil companies figured out we were destroying the atmosphere, but it wasn't as profitable. The sustainable future was possible back then, even 15 years ago, we could have made the transition with little pain. Now it's too late. We will destroy the life on this planet, 60% of species will not survive. Billions will be displaced. Resource wars will continue, and water and food will be limited and polluted. Our children will live in a lesser world. But the oil rich will rule that lesser world. There is no need for the use of fossil fuels these days. All renewable energy sources are cheaper and cleaner, even nuclear. The only reason we haven't gone to scale is because it isn't as profitable in the short term. China is kicking our ass. Germany and northern Europe will be free of fossil fuels. We could have been the leaders.

Researchers race to answer questions about the unintended consequences o...

I really should never share a PBS video with the comments turned off, but I need an archive. 

Toyota's Tesla Model Y rival the bZ3X electric SUV costs $13,800 USD

How This Mechanical Battery is Making a Comeback