There you have it NetZero’s limit at 15% – 20% for energy stability grid penetration. All the hype is now exposed. There will be no NetZero and modern life. Going from 15% to 100% is a bridge too far. China is where this is now exposed. The specialist can explain this or that but a holistic look is obvious.
Keep in mind that China doubled its fossil fuel usage to get to this 15% utilization of renewables in the grid. In the case of China’s renewables growth it was only possible with fossil fuels. Renewables are not producing renewables and these renewables only have around a 20 year lifespan then this huge undertaking needs to be repeated.
There is no affordable and reasonable long-term storage for renewables like coal or oil in the ground or stored in holding areas. Transmission and smart grids just enhance risk by complication and complexity. Covering the land with so many devices is absurd. All these issues with debt exploding and globalism in decline. This means economics are as much a barrier as technical difficulties.
The only answer is an answer not possible and that is to halt all economic growth. There could be further renewable growth with Local and individual systems that could absorb more wind and solar. These people would embrace intermittency directly. This means significant changes to living that would only works in small towns and rural areas where 20% of populations live. These places would still depend on 24/7 energy intensive mega urban areas for necessities of life.
Mega populations areas with delicate energy needs can’t adapt to intermittency. This energy Catch 22 (carbon trap) and way of life (path dependencies). This is not negotiable. Degrowth is an option but this is a paradigm shift so really not negotiations but instead capitulation.
To capitulate to degrowth is a new path also nonnegotiable in that there is no return. This degrowth can only be minimal too because there is also the issues of abandonment, dysfunction, and irrational that develop from the breakdown of a complex system. So, it is unclear if degrowth is even possible without a massive breakdown.
Net energy decline is present with fossil fuels too. Affordability (economics) and depletion (geologic value) are also in decline. Yet, this is gradual and has some years to go. The climate cult is suicide but eventually so will the fossil fuel way of life.
In ascending levels of abstraction one can see this like looking at the forest from the trees. Specialist who are compromised by ideological science which is basically “failure is not an option” can’t embrace failure as the starting point. Energy is everything for modern life in that all other aspects depend on it. Something we have taken for granted for all of the modern period is now approaching a point in the future that is undependable.
We are right here right now at Peak Everything in a prosperity bubble. This is now a Ponzi with people playing at the casino. It is not the world of virtue. A virtue that is the wisdom of knowing what to embrace and what to discard. We have long since passed the virtue of wisdom embracing truth.
Why am I talking about this? The reason is the hype surrounding NetZero and AI. Both involve energy and both are part of the message from those in charge of where they want to take us. This is progress and the future and they say it will be good. The “Great Reset” of the globalist but also the message of a return to plenty from the populist is not the reality of the energy trap.
The amount of energy AI needs is unrealistic. This level is 10 times what we use now to take AI to the level of the “singularity” hype. Renewables have hit their rough limit of 15%-20% and this is experience based so closer to reality but still denied by specialist. Our economic system is stalling at our current level of prosperity which is at a zenith. We have so many things but unfortunately also adrift in relativism and spiritual emptiness.
REAL Green is about living in this world to leave it but only a little. You and your society are trapped. Society does not recognize the trap but you the individual can. The psychological pressure of this acceptance for the individual is great because the world you live in does not respect this alternative view. It means dramatic lifestyle changes for only marginally more security. No matter how prepped you are it won’t be enough for very long if your community is gone.
The other alternative is just live and don’t dwell on any of this. This attitude of just living day to day is fine and in some ways recommended for most of the population. Yet, for some that embrace the truth and aspire to wisdom this is not an option. I am one of these type people. I am speaking to very few who can and even less who have the time, money, and education to live this alternative way of life.
“China’s Rapid Renewables Rollout Hits Grid Limits”
MONDAY, JUL 08, 2024 By John Kemp, senior energy analyst at Reuters
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chinas-rapid-renewables-rollout-hits-grid-limits
“China’s record-breaking deployment of wind and solar capacity has worsened regional power imbalances, forcing the country to idle increasing amounts of renewable generation when it overwhelms local consumption.”
“In 2016, the national utilisation rate for new energy sources fell to a record low of 84%…
“By 2023, the utilisation rate for wind power had climbed to a remarkable 97.3% and solar had reached 98%, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua…With rapid deployment of renewable capacity, however, the problem of abandonment is re-emerging, with wind utilisation down to 96.1% and solar down to 96% in the first five months of 2024. Sliding utilisation has prompted an alert from the National New Energy Consumption Monitoring and Early Warning Center (“Solving the pain points and difficulties of new energy consumption”, Xinhua, July 1, 2024).”
“The response is likely to be similar, with renewed emphasis on integrating renewables at local level and more transmission capacity to move surplus power across provincial boundaries. In the last two years, central government policy statements have repeatedly focused on the need for better coordination of transmission and generation between provinces.”
“In many ways, China’s long-distance ultra-high voltage transmission system is an extraordinary engineering achievement, likely to be copied in other parts of the world as more and more renewables are connected to grids. It has enabled a remarkable penetration of intermittent renewables, as well as hydroelectric generation, into the national power system while maintaining or improving reliability. As a result, wind and solar producers supplied 15% of all generation in the first five months of 2024, up from 7% in the same period in 2019.”
“In some ways, however, China is still struggling to forge a truly integrated nationwide system from fragmented provincial-level utilities that pursue their own priorities. If government plans to achieve even higher renewables penetration are to be achieved, there will have to be much closer links and more coordination between different types of generators and across far wider areas.”
REAL Green Adaptation 