Energy crisis proves the need for renewables

The price of energy is soaring; it will be a cold winter, say the doom-mongers, it proves renewables don’t cut the mustard, say cynics, but they are wrong.

There are two quick ways to spot a renewables cynic; the first method is to watch out for the description of windmills to describe wind turbines. The second way is to see if they say: “this proves that we still need oil and gas” whenever there is some kind of energy crisis.

Back in the winter, during that period when it was very cold in parts of the United States, The Wall Street Journal headlined: “Power shortages show the folly of eliminating natural gas—and coal.” The trouble with that statement was that it was wrong. Renewable cynics delighted in finding wind turbines that were iced—up and ignored the 87 per cent of shutdowns in Texas that were not caused by wind turbine related problems but by an aging fossil fuel system.

The Texas deep freeze and the wind turbines lie

The deep freeze takes hold in Texas, and climate change cynics blame wind turbines, it’s another example of how the climate change deniers will stop at nothing to try and bamboozle us with distortions of the truth and outright lies.

Techopian - The conversation and voice for ethical technologyMichael Baxter

The narrative that wind turbines are no good where it is cold because they freeze over does rather ignore the success of the turbines in Sweden.

The Wall Street Journal is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Since Murdoch has had a road to  Damascus moment and now believes in climate change, in much the same way, presumably King Canute’s courtiers decided that the tide did come in despite the command of their king, the newspaper would not resort to such a headline again!

Murdoch embraces net-zero on the road to Damascus — really?

Can this be true? News Corp Australia is to become an advocate of net-zero.

Techopian - The conversation and voice for ethical technologyMichael Baxter

But look under a stone, and you will find someone proclaiming the folly of renewables.

Techopian prefers to look on top of a stone and listen to people who don’t preach from a hidden agenda. We spoke to Matthew Hampshire Waugh, author of Net-Zero.

He told Techopian

“Today’s global energy supply relies on the extraction of finite fossil fuels which are unevenly distributed across the world, partially controlled by international cartels, and vulnerable to terrorism, political pressures, and disruption.”

He is right; of course, one of the factors at play is Vladimir Putin playing politics as he tries to persuade the EU to give the green light to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

With the current system, Western Europe relies on gas supply from regions that are not always reliable.

Some look at the current price and say it is like the 1970s, but the critical factor during the 1970s energy crisis was the Arab oil embargo.

Matthew Hampshire Waugh continued: “The recent rise in gas prices demonstrates how vulnerable this system can be to unexpected changes in both supply and demand.

“It also illustrates why we need to accelerate the transition to a system built around renewable electricity plus storage, which will create a far more equitable, distributed supply with safe, reliable, and affordable energy for all and without the threat of shortages, blockades, or price manipulation.”