How (not) to run a modern society on solar and wind power

This article is a comprehensive discussion of the problems with building an electricity grid based on 100% renewable wind and solar energy. The article is fact and evidence based. The authors  make the case that the various approaches that could be used to make wind and solar generation compatible with today's electricity on demand grid are impractical and will ultimately fail. This makes a welcome change from the status quo, 100% renewables, media based mantra, based on wildly optimistic and unrealistic assumptions.

The authors argue that instead of trying to make wind and solar a reliable on demand generator of electricity,  we should instead adapt to using electricity when it is available. As a point of comparison they point out that Europe between 1500 and 1800 made extensive use of wind energy for sailing ships and windmills, and water energy for water wheels. In that world,  energy was consumed when it was available and energy use was adapted to this reality.

I concur with the analysis of the insurmountable problems of making intermittent generation an on demand resource, but I expect that adaptation of society  to intermittent power would cost at least as much economic pain as mitigating intermittency. However it would work and help mitigate climate change in a sustainable way.

In contrast, Stratosolar generation eliminates or solves these intermittency problems and generates electricity compatible with today’s electricity on demand grid without the need for expensive and unrealistic transmission and storage or painful societal change to adapt to unpredictable energy supply.

By Edmund Kelly

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