Can We Rely on Wind and Solar Energy? | 5 Minute Video
Is green energy, particularly wind and solar energy, the solution to our climate and energy problems? Or should we be relying on things like natural gas, nuclear energy, and even coal for our energy needs and environmental obligations? Alex Epstein of the Center for Industrial Progress explains.
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Script:
Are wind and solar power the answer to our energy needs? There’s a lot of sun and a lot of wind. They’re free. They’re clean. No CO2 emissions. So, what’s the problem?
Why do solar and wind combined provide less than 2% of the world’s energy?
To answer these questions, we need to understand what makes energy, or anything else for that matter, cheap and plentiful.
For something to be cheap and plentiful, every part of the process to produce it, including every input that goes into it, must be cheap and plentiful.
Yes, the sun is free. Yes, wind is free. But the process of turning sunlight and wind into useable energy on a mass scale is far from free. In fact, compared to the other sources of energy — fossil fuels, nuclear power, and hydroelectric power, solar and wind power are very expensive.
The basic problem is that sunlight and wind as energy sources are both weak (the more technical term is dilute) and unreliable (the more technical term is intermittent). It takes a lot of resources to collect and concentrate them, and even more resources to make them available on-demand. These are called the diluteness problem and the intermittency problem.
The diluteness problem is that, unlike coal or oil, the sun and the wind don’t deliver concentrated energy — which means you need a lot of additional materials to produce a unit of energy.
For solar power, such materials can include highly purified silicon, phosphorus, boron, and a dozen other complex compounds like titanium dioxide. All these materials have to be mined, refined and/or manufactured in order to make solar panels. Those industrial processes take a lot of energy.
For wind, needed materials include high-performance compounds for turbine blades and the rare-earth metal neodymium for lightweight, specialty magnets, as well as the steel and concrete necessary to build structures — thousands of them — as tall as skyscrapers.
And as big a problem as diluteness is, it’s nothing compared to the intermittency problem. This isn’t exactly a news flash, but the sun doesn’t shine all the time. And the wind doesn’t blow all the time. The only way for solar and wind to be truly useful would be if we could store them so that they would be available when we needed them. You can store oil in a tank. Where do you store solar or wind energy? No such mass-storage system exists. Which is why, in the entire world, there is not one real or proposed independent, freestanding solar or wind power plant. All of them require backup. And guess what the go-to back-up is: fossil fuel.
Here’s what solar and wind electricity look like in Germany, which is the world’s leader in “renewables”. The word erratic leaps to mind. Wind is constantly varying, sometimes disappearing completely. And solar produces little in the winter months when Germany most needs energy.
For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/videos/can-we-rely-wind-and-solar-energy
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Yes, nuclear would be a good part of energy;BUT, still can't safely get rid of the waste it leaves behind. Fossil fuels? Coals!? Damage the earth because the corporations DON'T bother to fix & clean up after themselves!
@elon musk
Eight years after Prager U released this video, very little has changed. If you want reliable energy that can replace much of fossil fuels…you need to release the energy of the Atom. It is safer than any another form of energy. It is costly to construct, but when spread over several decades of production, it is a true value.. The US Navy's fleet of subsurface vessels and many of their surface vessels have been powered by Atomic Energy, which starting in the late 1950s. You need to get over the "fear factor" promoted by Hollywood and the Fake News Media. Grow a spine and help save the Earth!
"The process of turning sunlight and wind into usable energy… is far from free." So true! Also, the process of turning fossil fuels into energy was once also far from free. Yet, we've found ways of making it cheap and plentiful, and we'll get there with renewables, too. If we went back to the 1750s at the start of the agricultural revolution, your argument would be to keep planting by hand and avoid using horse-drawn plows. We've got a way to go until we are fully reliant on renewables, but implying that it'll never happen isn't particularly forward thinking.
Damn this aged poorly…Today renewables are the most cost effective way to produce electricity.
No. Next question.
THANK prof. dr. sc. Alex Epstain! 👌
In Italy architects made some kind of Utopia for solar bridge – the hybrid system propses to combine solar and wind. But DILUTENESS PROBLEM is problem. THANK prof. dr. sc. Alex Epstain Because the hybrid system propses to combine solar and wind. But where is becup?! "Solar roadways" consisting of a dense grid of solar cells coated with a transparent and durable plastic wind turbines integreted underneth THE BRIDGE generation 36 million kWh per year. How to store solar and wind energy like you include in your video. Very intesresting and neglecte!
One important point is not clearly made in this video: It is the grid frequency which absolutely must stay at 50Hz (60Hz in USA) all the time. That is the main reason why we can never rely on wind and solar alone but need fossil fuel backups. Wind and solar energy is intermittent and without the fossil backup the frequency fluctuates and the result is a far reaching blackout
It will take stable and reliable energy the"Free"is neither and batteries works on self-destruct mode ending in toxic waste. The trick to create the wealth to manufacture and install the required infrastructure is to enable desert land to flow with Milk and Honey by colliding what all 1st world economies need and what every living entity requires. I'd think this was steeling from God, but He allowed man to invent Fuel Cells. My rational is a lowly observant conservative "C" student would put together something hiding in plain sight for the scenario required to solve Global Warming.
This video stay in the past, the reneable energy includes nuclear and gas also. Theres no way out for change from oil and gas to reneable energy, fast. And besides the prices of reneable energy equipments are shiper.
PragerU (NOT a university!!) —-Farris and Dan Wilks, who made their billions in oil and gas fracking, donate large sums of money to this organization. They also heavily promote climate crisis denialism. Florida's DeSantis is now promoting Prager for schools and, irony of ironies, he loves to bash 'indoctrination' while this video and others this organization produces are textbook examples of the same.
Not to mention Germany shut down their nuclear power plants in order to wait for it MORE “renewable energy” that relies on coal and Russian oil.
They have their issues sure, but if it works well enough for an place why be opposed to it. I know it's because PragerU receives funding from a fracking company, but logically
No we don't have enough oil to sustain them
Battery technology is not innovative enough to make wind or solar viable in a significant way. Maybe in 30 years. Even if we could overcome the problems with unreliable renewables. We.can't support the capacity on the current grid. Modern nuclear is the most efficient and cost effective way to supply the energy needs of the.future. its.unfortunate that it all has been political used and clear headed people are not listened to.
No we can’t
This is a GREAT video….In just a few words wind and solar energy are shown with perfect logic to be bogus alternative energy sources. Wind and solar energy facilities will not help anybody on this planet except the subsidized cronies that will get paid to build them. They will cost much more money than expected and do significant damage to local eco-systems. In the not too distant future we'll have to tear them down and start passing around blame.
Nope.
2:30 …a battery.
I just hate it when new technologies aren't perfect from the start! Grrr!
Is it me or did this guy claim there is no free lunch (as an excuse to ignore solar) while trying to ignore the costs of Global Warming in both money and lives. BTW my neighbor had solar panels put on his roof and he is very happy with them and the sizable drop in his electric bill.
This video is just a pack of lies and complete non-sense, I can say this as an energy engineer. About 46 Percentage of energy in Germany is from Renewable and this figure will Increase from here on. Renewables are always reliable and all we need are investments, Energy experts and more importantly stop listening to Fossil fuel lobbyists
This video didn't age well. Sun and wind is really cheap.
NO….
Not him again, Lying bastard.
We are decades away from cheap wind and solar energy, if ever. Did you hear that mr biden?
I can stop you at 00.20 they are not Designed right or Built to their properIs deportional size to get the maximum efficiency. In the technologies just not there yet.
There’s a technical counter argument to everyone of these points. Conservatives are embarrassing themselves over this renewable energy and EV debate. Basic laws of physics and economics prove that EV’s and renewables will win out by the end of the decade.
So are you saying we should continue to rely on oil, gas and coal exclusively? Whatever are the problems with wind and solar, they pale in comparison to those of continuing to drill, frack, mine for fossil fuels, then burn them and fill the atmosphere with CO2. And continue to be at the mercy of Russia and Saudi Arabia, who control the flow of oil and gas, and thereby its price. Be aware that PragerU is funded largely by people with a strong interest in delaying the adoption of renewables.
How much energy in concrete does it take to build a nuclear power plant? How close would you want to live to a nuclear power plant? Would you want to live downwind from a coal fired power plant? Where do we locate the gas and petroleum storage facilities how close do you want to live there? The price of oil gas and coal can fluctuate the price of sun and wind is consistent.
Years late, but the most efficient method of converting solar energy into power? Firewood. Not a joke. The thing's infinitely renewable but nobody seems to really accept that as an option…
The whole problem is that the left wants to destroy the West!
We can survive climate change but not the fix.
I learned a lot about solar from school when they introduced it in certain cars. Then looked into wind. They aren't as efficient than what we have now. Oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear, etc. I know we can all agree that we want to take care of and preserve our environment and atmosphere. But pushing something that is not as efficient as what we have now, will not help society, it will hurt them. The private sector and other scientists and engineers have already been working on energy efficiency and on reducing carbon emmision into the atmosphere through improvements on automotive tech and the recycling of used motor oils. Nuclear is the safest and most controlled form of energy to date AND creates serious emissions. These environmentalists need to slow their rolls, chill TF out and not make it a bigger deal than it is by believing the climate change scam
I just came here for the comedy. Mission accomplished again, P U. It takes real work to assemble basic facts in such a specific way as make yourself look this dense. Some might look past your work and shake their head, I however appreciate the nuance of your style. That nuance is stupidity, but it looks so useful. Kinda.
This is not to mention the waste disposal problem linked with decommissioning all those turbines and panels. A problem we are delegating to the next generation. I would much rather give them free plant food for all the crops they will need (yes I mean CO₂).
I still assume that renewable energy worths its cost. fossil fuel resources are limited , and we can't ignore pollution and other side effects caused by them
Prager u is sponsored by big coal n oil btw
"I love how people are just like how about nuclear energy?" But as soon as the nuclear power plant is built on their state they start protesting it
Trying to rely solely on renewable energy is like trying to sleep and do shyt worth a damn.
All we can do is maximize renewable use
We can't replace fuels even when nuclear become a thing. Coal would still be in use too, we would still use wood
Well that video didn't age well
All the materials used to make wind and solar products are made using fossil fuels. They require fossil fuels to be repaired or replaced.