Post by fearnot on May 11, 2023 10:13:47 GMT -5
'Net Zero' Grid Batteries Alone Would Bankrupt America
looking for and hastening
the coming of the day of God,
because of which
the heavens will be destroyed by burning,
and the elements will melt with intense heat!
2 Peter 3:12
Senate Budget Committee chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) cites
"the climate crisis" at almost every opportunity.
President Biden calls it a greater threat than nuclear war.
They and their allies champion "carbon-free" electricity generation by 2035
and nearly fossil fuel–free energy by 2050.
Achieving "net zero" carbon dioxide emissions will be painless,
they assure us.
Costs will be so low that you'll need a magnifying glass to see them.
Governments merely have to enact mandates and provide subsidies,
and the transformation to "clean" energy will just happen.
Almost like in a fairy tale.
Science and policy analyst David Wojick calculated that just the batteries needed to back up wind and solar electricity generation in a "net zero" USA would cost $23 trillion —
America's entire 2021 gross domestic product (GDP) —
and probably many times that.
The dollar costs alone — just for a U.S. transformation —
are almost incomprehensible.
Professional engineer Ken Gregory determined that grid-backup battery costs could reach $290 trillion (12.6 times the USA's 2021 GDP),
based on actual 2019 and 2020 hourly intermittent electricity generation data...
Energy analyst Francis Menton estimated that New York's plan to procure 24,000 megawatt-hours of battery storage would provide only 0.2% of what the state would actually need as backup.
But even that would require 300,000 Tesla Long Range 80-kilowatt-hour battery modules —
before New York mandates electric automobiles and home heating and cooking systems.
Each of those modules weighs over 1,000 pounds and holds 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.
Each one contains
25 pounds of lithium,
60 pounds of nickel;
44 pounds of manganese;
30 pounds of cobalt;
200 pounds of copper;
and over 550 pounds of aluminum, steel, graphite, plastics, and other materials,
energy analyst Ron Stein reports.
To manufacture each module,
we must mine 30,000 pounds of cobalt ore (much of it with child labor in the Congo),
5,000 pounds of nickel ore,
and 25,000 pounds of copper ore,
plus inject and extract 25,000 pounds of brine to get the lithium.
This is absolutely not clean, green, affordable, ecological, or sustainable.
The bottom line: "Net zero" is aptly named — if what is meant is the sum total of our nation's bank account and natural resources after it's implemented.
www.zerohedge.com/political/net-zero-grid-batteries-alone-would-bankrupt-america
!!
