We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Manhattan Institute;

When electricity comes from wind or solar machines, every unit of energy produced, or mile traveled, requires far more materials and land than fossil fuels. That physical reality is literally visible: A wind or solar farm stretching to the horizon can be replaced by a handful of gas-fired turbines, each no bigger than a tractor-trailer.
 
Building one wind turbine requires 900 tons of steel, 2,500 tons of concrete and 45 tons of nonrecyclable plastic. Solar power requires even more cement, steel and glass—not to mention other metals. Global silver and indium mining will jump 250% and 1,200% respectively over the next couple of decades to provide the materials necessary to build the number of solar panels, the International Energy Agency forecasts. World demand for rare-earth elements—which aren’t rare but are rarely mined in America—will rise 300% to 1,000% by 2050 to meet the Paris green goals. If electric vehicles replace conventional cars, demand for cobalt and lithium, will rise more than 20-fold. That doesn’t count batteries to back up wind and solar grids.

21 Replies to “We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans”

  1. Please notice & remember it is the -socalled -Progressive Political Parties which are not operating with an Agenda that is focused on moving forward or securing safety and growth for the Ordinary, Average, People who pay The Political Party Insiders to __ Keep The Bureacracy – Accountable for the Tax-Payer Funding being spent. The first recognizable Progressive movement in the Anglo Sphere was described as being Liberal. –Now identified as being the ‘Classic Liberal’ philosphy. __ ‘Classical Liberalism Philosophy is now closer in agendas to what was the Progressive Conservative Political Party in each Province.
    The Present Liberal Party of Canada is a National Constitution construct and uses the Provincial Liberal units as Branch Operations. This control by the National Liberal Party continues when acting as a Provincial Government. The Progressive Conservative Party of the largest Population Province of Ontario, now the Ontario Government. When the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario is not the Government many of the Grass-Roots members support the Federal ‘Conservative’ Party of Canada, normally in the Official Opposition Parliament Role.
    Having control of Provincial Government Agendas, as is the situation when the Liberal Party of Canada is the Federal Government of Canada, follows the Victorian Era of British Monarchy which was the Privy Council Office Control as the ‘Final Arbiter’ is all matters involving the very large Federal Government apparatus now in place. Naturally it is the bureaucracy which in proper ‘Classic Liberal’ process actually processes the Cash Flow of the Tax-Payer Funding. Tax $$$ being remitted to pay Invoices to the Federal Government, although ostensibly approved by the Political Party in Governance, must actually be processed by the Bureaucracy.
    Unfortunately as the saying ” birds of a feather-flock together ” holds true when the underlying Foundation is similar in its agenda(s). Such is and remains the situation when The Liberal Party of Canada is the Government of Canada and/or Branch Government of a Province. Both the Brokerage political Agenda of the Liberal Party of Canada; — [ brokerage politics is defined as using Tax $$$ to entice and buy Votes instead of providing Services and Infrastructure to Ordinary Average People who as providers of Labour and Tax $$$ are legally and correctly identified as Citizens of the Confederation of the Nation of Canada & the Provinces and Territories as separate entities forming the Confederation. The agenda of the Tax $$$ used to pay salaries and benefits of the federal employees. __Elected and Appointed Officials and the Elected approving Entity indentified as the majority of Members Of Parliament ( M.P. ) who maintain the Confidence of ALL M.P. s have evolved and entrenched as having a joint Agenda for the continuance of Both entities. The Liberal Party of Canada & the Federal Government Bureaucracy responsible to the Privy Council Office as the Final Arbiter
    Such similarity in agenda engenders cooperation, which actually has actually as proven to become an entrenched Collusion of Power, ostensibly designed through a Confederation of Political Authorities; e.g. Provinces. Territorial exigencies, recognizable by limited Ordinary, Average People as Citizens, being an unknown entity at Confederation, established as a Federal bureaucracy controlled situation.
    The present situation of Canada has evolved far away from the Confederation of Canada due to the Dual authority of Privy Council Office as Final Arbiter of federal employees. and the similarity in Agenda of continuing and supporting the Brokerage Politics of the Liberal Party with an identifiable means of controlling a Continent wide population of Ordinary, Average, Persons acting as Citizens of Their Provinces within the Federal Bureaucracy construct of Region(s) regardless of the character of any specific purpose of a descriptive for a particular Region definition of purpose.
    Finally in this treatise is the remarkable and unfortunately, ‘ baked in failure to fail ‘ by a cobbled together unjust and misleading -Canadian – Canadien Constitution of BNA 1981-1982 – to correct the undiscussed and avoided by Intent; destruction of the Confederation of Canada. This apparent effort to maintain a continuity of employment by the entrenched Federa Bureacracy has evolved within a relatively short period to placing the largest single culture by population into a position of ___ Second Class Citizens ___. The forced into a benefice for the entrenched Federal Bureaucracy.
    Funding a Bi-lingual English Language Culture by -[ a formal authorization or proposition; a decree: the reforms left most prices fixed by government fiat.• an arbitrary order*. ]- established in the minds of the entrenched Federal Bureacracy an Acceptable Precedent which the Entrenched Bureaucracy would be able to use through Collusion of the Supreme Court of Canada & the Nation of Quebec.
    This acceptance of such a Precedent provided all which was required to– -[ a formal authorization or proposition; a decree: the reforms left most prices fixed by government fiat.• an arbitrary order*. ]- –again undiscussed and avoided by intent, the imposition of a disputed concept against the ____ Second Class Citzens ___ the English Language Ordinary, Average Persons. The Fiat & Decree of Carbon Tax MUST be applied; Is by all Human Rights & Responsibllities of the Individual. Using the precedent of forcing the proven failed Bi-lingalism** on the deprived ___ Second Class Citizens___; then merely falling into an acceptable collusion with the present governance Liberal Party of the Uni-Lingual Nation of Quebec & governance of the remnant Province(s) of the Confederation of Canada.

  2. “World demand for rare-earth elements – which aren’t rare but are rarely mined in America – will rise 300% to 1,000% by 2050 to meet the Paris green goals.”

    Given our current anti-natural-resource-mining-and-transport mindset, Canada won’t even be allowed to extract any of these elements and thus profit from any increased world demand.

      1. Why would Quebec spoil any of their beloved wilderness with industry when they get free money from Alberta?
        If they had to cut down one single maple tree to cure cancer around the world and reap untold wealth, they still wouldn’t do it because, “the environment”.
        Never mind that they pump millions of liters of sewage into the St. Lawrence every year. That doesn’t count.

    1. Didn’t Quebec just OK a Lithium mine? And they already have another in production.

      Major hydro electric infrastructure and lithium for batteries, no oil or gas. Wonder what their agenda is?

      1. Guess how far away from any significant Quebecois population centre that mine is. And guess whether the revenue the province receives will count in the calculations of Federal Equalization payments.

  3. Long before the unreliables form a significant portion of the grids of the future, energy poverty will force the political theocracy to either abandon them as in Germany or plunge nations into Venezuelan poverty and dysfunction. In Canada that would amount to people (illegally) burning wood in great numbers making breathing difficult in concentrated areas.

    1. Those concentrated areas house the largest concentrations of the kind of people who are voting for these self-destructive policies. I’ll settle for breathing becoming difficult for them, but hope it will be impossible for at least some.

  4. I want to do a research paper, or commission one, on how propaganda works, the early ‘golden age’ under j goebbels, and how technology leverages its power and velocity of spread.
    front and centre will be this abomination called ‘greeeeeeeeeen energy’.

    follow the herd, follow the herd . . . .
    well folks, having autism protected me from that effect, seeing as being the ‘weird one’,
    THE HERD DIDN’T WANT ME IN ITS NUMBER.
    worked out pretty good I’d say !!!!

  5. Always follow the money trail! There is nothing political in politics, only financial.
    Just like the catalytic converters on cars have been shoved down our throats, while they require 10-20% higher rich fuel mix, and while they constrict the exhaust by further 10-20%, which in combination take 20-40% more horespowers or gallons of fuel to operate the same vehicle.

    The rhodium industry is no longer content with 1 converter on a car – they now install 3 of them. Each costs $300-700, depending on the source. They just made the car cost $1000-2100 more, with no tangible gain for the ecology, since NO2 oxidizes and converts into HNO3 in the atmosphere under sunlight, and then it falls back onto the ground and becomes nitrates that are free fertilizers.

    All while the only 3 rhodium refineries in the world and a handful of their friends in the fertilizer industry grin at us on their way to the bank.

    Oh, and if we add the cost of the DRL units and the energy required to keep high beems perpetually on, we would realize that the oil industry enjoys a 1-3% increased output, only to power everyone’s high beams during the day. That is quite a few billions of $$ in extra revenue for the oil sheikhs.

  6. Wait a moment… didn’t a concrete facility in Quebec get very quick federal environmental approval?

    How many tons of concrete does each eagle mincer require?

  7. Those are some re Greta ble stats.
    But lets face it, magically give everyone an electric car tomorrow and the grid would crash.
    Assholes like Suzuki and half-wits like Blackie want to make private car ownership illegal anyway. Except for them.

  8. I bet a wind turbine produces less power over its lifetime than it takes to make the 900 tons of steel and 2500 tons of concrete required for its production. Wouldn’t they consider that “unsustainable”?

    1. Magic,windmills,the spinning crucifixes of the new religion, and solar panel,the black mirrors, appear by magic.
      Obviously they are created by pixie dust and Unicorn Droppings for the good of humanity.
      So far I have not seen a documented case where either technology provided more useful energy than that which went into their manufacturing and installation.
      But just as Batteries are an Energy Source,so “Sustainable Energy” is a real thing.
      Gang Green,using force of government to pump the green(backs) from your pocket to theirs.
      Why we should be green with envy.

  9. Let us not forget the cost of constructing and operating rare earth mines as well as the cost of transporting the materials to where they need to be. All of it using fossil fuels and emitting carbon.
    Here in the oilfield I see small solar panels everywhere I go. Small, portable, and cheap to operate compared to power lines. They make good sense in these applications. I do not see wind power except i government subsidized wind farms or those trying to live off the grid.

    My point? A choice to use renewables by companies is privately funded. An environmentalist in government forcing everyone to pay for renewables is taxpayer funded Corporate Welfare. It is the difference between charity and welfare. The first is Individual freedom of choice; the second is no choice and force at the point of a gun.

  10. Given the current state of mind in Canada (and elsewhere in the free world) it is highly unlikely that “social license” will be granted to permit raping of Mother Earth to extract the astronomical quantities of the required materials. All that “Green Earthers” is to delay and regress technical advancement and eventually depopulate the planet.
    There will be claims that new materials would not be required and that they can be extracted by recycling. Unfortunately this is difficult, expensive and energy intensive. In other words not economically viable.
    Still today, we have trouble recycling the single 20 kg lead batteries in millions of ice cars. It is difficult to recycle pure enough lead for reuse in the same type of battery application. What will be done with the 500+ kg lithium batteries in electric cars? Today there are no economically viable processes to recycle the tons of high capacity lithium batteries potentially used in ev cars. These batteries are pyrophoric and would require carefully controlled recycling under vacuum and dry conditions. And yet you still would not get pure enough lithium for use in deep discharge automobile applications.
    We are talking of a dead end use.
    Other than remaining with ice powered vehicles the only other choice is hydrogen fuel cells. But even that would require hydrocarbons or nuclear energy to power the hydrogen generation process.
    The green weenies won’t even let our existing exhausted nuclear fuels be buried where they belong, deep underground.

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