Solar Panels: Another Exercise in Magical Thinking (2023)
Solar Panels: Another Exercise in Magical Thinking (2023)
I believe it’s high time that we put to rest the myth that solar panels are “sustainable”, “green” and “renewable” once and for all.
Is the goal of this writer to be condescending and annoy their readers?
3I don't perceive him that way, though he tends to deal with absolute statements which are not always warranted. In general it's an attempt to publicize while others think it's hopeless . If the style annoys you, try Tim Murphy https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9js5291m
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Some numbers would help
1nail on the head. "the analyses are flawed and ill show you why!" doesnt do any analysis or dispute of methods. in fact going into even less detail in describing the costs of the process than essentially any analysis being vaguely critiqued. waste of time.
2Yeah I was just wondering, sure I can accept that only coal or hydrogen can be used for those kinds of temperature.
So let's say we use coal to stoke a furnace for solar panels vs using the same coal for directly generating power. Are they saying the coal isn't leveraged much better by using it to make solar panels?
Like, that's what they're saying, because they say it's like a storage medium. So I call bs on that.
Further, they mention that switching to hydrogen is senseless. But why? Here in the nl they use old gas pipelines to pipe hydrogen in from offshore wind farms, and they have good engineers here.
OK that leaves the materials. I can't say much about that. But I am skeptical due to the other claims that just seem plain incorrect to me.
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https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9js5291m has some numbers. Vaclav Smil has some more.
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