There is no such thing as green energy. Every single thing that the left says about green energy is a lie. And now we see that yet again with data that shows that solar panels are actually worse than natural gas.
Beege Welborn posted an excellent takedown of these green fascist’s lies. Welborn cited the research of Michael Shellenberger, who found that the production and use of solar panels does not live up to the hype.
In fact, it appears that the statistics used by the left to “prove” how effective solar is has been based on data that is knowingly incomplete and flawed.
In other words, the solar industry and the greenies are flat out lying about solar panels. Not just delivering flawed data by some accident, but knowingly basing their claims on data they know is incomplete and is patently false.
Shellenberger recently posted a tweet that revealed much of the BS coming out of the solar industry:
People say solar panels don't produce carbon emissions, but they do. And now, a major new investigation by Environmental Progress, drawing on the research of @enricomariutti , finds that solar panels made in China produce at least 3x more carbon emissions than IPCC claims. pic.twitter.com/y4a2dvgyZj
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) July 24, 2023
But as Welborn noted, the data to prove that solar is good is “either industry sourced, not independently verified, OR…it just flat out DOESN’T EXIST.”
Why is that, you might ask? Because the solar industry and the green Nazis have no data at all on the manufacturing and use of solar panels made in China. And, why would that be? Because China won’t supply any.
That means the solar industry is basing all its claims on old data from European makers that have since become defunct because the Chinese firms now making them stole their technology and then under cut them on price, driving them out of business.
Of course, we all know that China also does not observe safety protocols, tech specs, manufacturing standards, or any other western niceties from which to be able glean useful data.
Per the report cited by Shellenberger:
…But the majority of experts consulted by Environmental Progress agree that China’s competitive advantage did not lie in an innovative new technological process, but rather in the very same factors the country has always used to outcompete the West: cheap coal-fired energy, mass government subsidies for strategic industries, and human labor operating in poor working conditions.
Basic reasoning suggests the manufacturing shift must have added to solar’s carbon intensity. But as Environmental Progress has learned, nobody in the carbon counting world has seen fit to research by how much. The modelers are estimating the carbon emissions of solar production as if the panels are still made mostly in the West, grossly underestimating their carbon intensity, even as governments rush to draft and implement net zero policy based around the very same flawed data
But, there’s more. For solar to be a real player in energy, far, far more energy and far more creation of carbon needs to be done.
…Solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric cars are technological devices made of concrete, plastic, steel, titanium, copper, silver, cobalt, lithium and dozens of other minerals.
A commentary published in Nature Geoscience a few years ago estimates that, just to convert a seventh of world primary energy production (25,000 TWh), it might be necessary to triple the production of concrete (from just over 10 billion tons a year to almost 35), quintuple that of steel (from just under two billion tons to just over 10) and multiply that of glass, aluminum and copper several times. And we are talking about converting not even 15% of the world’s energy needs to renewable energy.
Not only that, a technical aspect must also be considered: the “golden vein” exists only in comics. To give an example, on average copper is present in a copper deposit with a concentration of about 0.6%. This means that to extract a ton of metal, more than 150 tons of rock must be crushed. South Africa’s large gold mines grind 5-6,000 tonnes of rock a day to extract less than 20 tonnes of precious metal a year.
But that’s not enough. How is aluminum produced? Well, with a process that consumes a lot of energy: in fact, about 30,000 kWh (between thermal and electrical energy) are needed to produce a ton of aluminium. And iron and steel is also an energy-intensive activity: the production of one ton of steel requires between 800 and 5,000 kWh equivalent.
So, just to produce the steel needed to build enough panels and wind turbines to generate 25,000 TWh a year of renewable energy, we may need 7,000-40,000 TWh a year more of fossil energy.
Check out Welborn’s post and Shellenberger’s info if you want more. And, yeah, there is a ton more.
The greenies are absolute liars.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston
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