By Douglas Pollock
Proponents of wind and solar power confidently assert that using this energy to replace coal-fired power plants will reduce CO2 emissions as a whole.2 previously discharged by coal station, because unreliable does not emit CO2.
Not necessarily.
To keep the lights on when we need them, wind and sun need to be backed up from flexible sources, such as natural gas, that can react quickly when the Sun rises or sets, or when the wind drops or blow a strong wind.
This heat reserve emits CO2. Worse, when heat stations are in standby, commercially known as rotating reserve, they burn fuel without providing any power to the grid and when needed, they must suddenly increase up to full capacity, thus generating more emissions in the process than when running continuously at full load. Therefore, their emissions must be subtracted from the reduction achieved by decommissioning coal-fired capacity.
Why do people bother with wind and solar power? The fastest way to reduce emissions from the grid is to switch from coal-fired to gas-fired power generation without the use of unreliable equipment at all. That coal-to-gas switch cuts CO2 emitted by the difference between the products of CO2 output emissions and coal production – a much larger reduction than would be achieved by replacing coal with renewables powered by heat sources.
For instance, in 2019 emissions from the reduced US grid would be nearly 18% higher if all coal-fired power were replaced so far by wind and gas-fired solar. combustion is instead simply replaced directly by gas-fired energy.
However, the United States also uses part of its oil and coal production to spare renewable energy. Since these fuels emit almost three times as much CO2 As with natural gas, grid emissions reductions would be greater than 90% if coal were directly replaced by natural gas production instead of renewables supported by the current heat storage mix.
Reduce the amount of CO in the grid2 emissions (even if they are desirable) come not from adding wind and solar power to the grid but from directly replacing coal-fired power with natural gas production. Wind and solar power actually hinder emissions reductions.
Next time you see a solar or wind farm installed, while a coal-fired plant somewhere else is demolished in the name of Save the Planet, compliment the gas-fired station hidden behind. those renewable energy sources. Without it, they could not exist, and nearly all of today’s modest emissions reductions that are wrongly attributed to unreliability would never have happened.
The most significant impact of adding wind and solar power to any grid is to destabilize that grid and dramatically increase the cost of electricity for homes and businesses everywhere. . In countries where the nameplate installed capacity of wind and solar – their output in ideal weather conditions – exceeds the average total hourly demand on the grid, the addition of wind and solar Sunlight will not reduce emissions, unless also install unreasonably expensive backup batteries. Wind and sun are a pointless, costly, and environmentally destructive dead end.
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