Let's examine the debate resolution: "Alternative energy can effectively replace fossil fuels"
Don't get me wrong, I wish we could all switch to solar and battery powered cars and call it a day, I really do.
But that's not going to get us to the promised land. We tend to forget about all the strip-mining required to gather all those rare & precious rocks.
It does look like (based on the EROEI & ESOEI data) we need to focus on WIND and COMPRESSED AIR (both surprisingly efficient).
Also, there's a very strong case for microreactors. [05]
Let's examine the debate resolution: "Alternative energy can effectively replace fossil fuels"
Right, I'm going to still say "NO". No they can't.
Solar + batteries is shockingly inefficient. Wind looks promising, but we're still going to need oil and coal and natural gas in order to produce the metals and glass and resins and high-performance plastics required to produce turbines (not to mention all the energy we're going to need to dispose of/recycle the materials).
It's significant to note that the energy cost of disposal/recycling of photovoltaics is shockingly absent from all net-energy-gain estimates.
“We believe the big blind spot in the U.S. for recycling is that the cost far exceeds the revenue,” Meng said. “It’s on the order of a 10-to-1 ratio.” [01]
Interestingly, studies by Latunussa et al., 2016, Wambach, 2017, Aryan et al. (2018) and Corcelli et al. (2018) agree on the environmental significance of incinerating the halogenated plastics in the backsheet. Unfortunately, as reported by Wambach (2017), if the ‘halogen content is too high, then incineration in a specialized hazardous waste plant must be carried out’, in order to minimize the emission of potentially toxic air pollutants such as hydrogen fluoride (HF). Moreover, the above-mentioned studies provided little information on the impacts of incinerating PV plastics. For example, Corcelli et al. (2018) estimated that the incineration of waste panels releases 0.87 g/m2 of HF, while Latunussa et al. (2016) considered life cycle inventory data for general plastic incineration. [01.b]
Finally, it is confirmed that the low quantity of PV waste collected so far is discouraging investments in industrial processes for PV recycling. However, this situation is not a justification for delaying research in this field, or the problem of managing PV waste is simply postponed to the near future. Claims about the sustainability of PV technologies cannot be fully supported until efficient and environmentally-friendly recycling processes for them have been developed and are deployable. [01.b]
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It's significant to note that the energy cost of disposal/recycling of wind-turbines is shockingly absent from all net-energy-gain estimates.
Xcel Energy estimates conservatively that it will cost $532,000 (in 2019 dollars) to decommission [NOT RECYCLE] each of its wind turbines [02]
(C.R3.02) EROEI & ESOEI
Here's some good news. When comparing energy-return-on-investment for both energy production methods and energy storage methods there are some interesting winners and losers.
EROEI 106:1 - Nuclear
EROEI 51:1 - Wind
EROEI 50:1 - Hydroelectric
EROEI 31:1 - Coal
EROEI 28:1 - Natural Gas
EROEI 21:1 - Parabolic Solar
EROEI 7:1 - Photovoltaic
EROEI 3.5:1 - Biogas
EROEI 1:1 - Ethanol
ESOEI 5:1 - Lead acid battery
ESOEI 32:1 - Lithium ion battery
ESOEI 704:1 - Pumped hydroelectric storage
ESOEI 792:1 - Compressed air energy storage
I would once again like to thank PRO for hosting this thought provoking debate.
[01] https://grist.org/energy/solar-panels-are-starting-to-die-what-will-we-do-with-the-megatons-of-toxic-trash/
[01.b] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6591708/
[02] https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/wind/the-cost-of-decommissioning-wind-turbines-is-huge/
[03] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_return_on_investment#Additional_EROEI_Calculations
[04] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_return_on_investment#ESOEI
[05]
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I watch this once a day - Click to watch 3 minutes,
At what point did we begin to conflate MONEY with MORALITY?
@thoughts-in-timeI'm afraid that rights are mostly granted by mob democracy. A man's right to life and liberty can be taken away by any group larger, better armed and/or better organized than his. The mechanism is and always has been concerned citizens fighting against the status quo for the betterment of the status quo.
Essential HIVE links,
https://hive.vote/
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https://hiveblocks.com/@logiczombie
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Your scathing critique is requested.
