The smartest peoples in the rooms.
Recently Bill Gates explained in an interview with the Financial Times why current renewables are dead-end technologies. They are unreliable. Battery storage is inadequate. Wind and solar output depends on the weather. The cost of decarbonization using today’s technology is “beyond astronomical,” Mr. Gates concluded.
Google engineers came to a similar conclusion last year. After seven years of investigation, they found no way to get the cost of renewables competitive with coal. “Unfortunately,” the engineers reported, “most of today’s clean generation sources can’t provide power that is both distributed and dispatchable”–that is, electricity that can be ramped up and down quickly. “Solar panels, for example, can be put on every rooftop, but can’t provide power if the sun isn’t shining.”
Well, at least one liberal has woke up to the scam. Unfortunately the AGW scam has built up such a herd of lemmings among our betters that it will be a long road back to sanity.
What the H is going on with the captcha today? Just the numbers were much better.
Why is it that they quote the magnificently rich as though they have the answer to all things?
It could be said that even a second son of a poor shepherd in Burkina Faso knows that when the sun falls over the horizon, get ready for this, there is no sun.
When the wind does not blow, apparently, surprisingly to them, there is no wind.
Why is it then that they never asked the second son of a poor shepherd in Burkina Faso?
He would tell them.
Probably free of charge.
As a matter of course.
What is “No F@#$%^G Kidding”. I’ll take the bleedin’ obvious for $400 Alex
Ken, he still accepts fully the AGW scam. He just doesn’t accept any propaganda from the renewable shysters. Which makes him at least a few lightyears ahead of most of the liberals.
Lev, try not to be too dumb. He built a mega-billion dollar corporation out of nothing. So yes, his views matter. A lot. After all this time, do you still not understand how our society works? Would you rather have his views, or the nonsense from soft-porn pinheads in Hollywood?
OK, now tell me something that I do not know.
Did Bill “misremember” to state that the Globull Warming religion is about
destroying the over built economic vitals of western economies and “finding
a solution” to the massive overpopulation of idle “no longer required ordinary
non elite humans” who will be making increasing nuisances of themselves?
Gates and Google have hit the wall where their ideology meets economic reality. For such heavily indoctrinated, hubris-Laden people this is a huge retreat.
Having realized that their dreams are at an economic dead-end, look for them over the next few years to turn their impressive analytical powers to actually studying whether AGW is a significant threat (if it exists at all). Once done they will walk-back their opinions on it.
Gates and Google – and gates in particular – is the most influential trend setter for the left of Center white collar set. Just look at what he has done for business fashion. Where he goes intellectually they will follow.
Eco-liberalism is a mental illness, and two of its most glaring symptoms are:
1)Liberals/the left/progressives are immune to facts; and…
2)Liberals/the left/progressives are chronically math challenged.
And Lev (several comments above) … did you not read the part about “battery storage is inadequate”? The energy from sun and/or wind all day still can’t be adequately stored in batteries for when that energy is needed. Get back to the Huffington Post, Lev, you’re not smart enough to be here.
Wow, I’m 1/10th as smart as “the smartest guys in the room”, and somehow I too managed to get to that conclusion.
And I didn’t have to spend millions of Google money – seriously, this is “back of the napkin in crayon,” stuff.
Which implies btw that if those who aren’t reaching that conclusion are one or more of
1. Dishonest
2. Self interested
3. Ignorant and happy about it
4. Have a agenda that where power ( not the KwH kind) is primary.
5. Dumb & gullible.
The problem seems to be convincing the eco-greenies that wind and solar are inefficient and expensive and motivating the average Canadian to do more than ignore them. Thus the green agenda should include that every hockey arena across Canada can only be powered by windmills and solar. No backup generators. No hooking into the grid. A green agenda without any embellishments to escape inefficiencies. Canada would be in an uproar.
Actually the signal aspect of Gates success is not just the tech….it’s their management.
Microsoft has very few employees and no unions. The vast majority of positions are contract. When the programme is developed the contract is done and so is the software engineer. The contracts are lucrative but MS pays for no pensions, severance, employee health care or other benefits…..the very factors that make the civil service so costly.
Smoke from coal plants is bad news, no way around it. The solution is to develop safe nuclear reactors. The current reactors were developed on the basis of providing fuel for nuclear weapons. We need to re-educate ourselves on what is possible and develop real solutions. Read on:
http://news.discovery.com/tech/alternative-power-sources/safe-nuclear-reactor-runs-on-spent-fuel-140620.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power
Wind and solar are great for sailboats, a joke for cities and homes.
Green energy technology always sounds great until you do the arithmetic.
I won’t say ‘math’ because there is no actual mathematics required to understand that none of the so-called renewables (apart from hydroelectric power) are cost-effective; you just need to be able to add and multiply, divide and subtract. This is basic arithmetic.
The key may be to stop voting for people who cannot do basic arithmetic. Just a thought.
While the embryonic green theocracy was busing killing expansion of nuclear power 45 years ago, this was well known to the electrical engineers on the front lines. Is this late revelation for real or just inevitable acceptance of unpopular reality.
Complete economic collapse is, however feasible, and don’t think that many don’t see that as a way to save the world.
Sorry Boys….But I call BS on the comments that suggest Wind/Solar power is not storable.
On an Industrial SCALE, I totally agree…for now.
But on a Home based (and you’d need some land – 1-2 acres in order to do this), it is entirely feasible. Take a good look at Starett Batteries for a start. Secondly, with a cpl of 15′ wind turbines in the 300-400 watt range and 3Kw of solar and a decent sized bank of good quality RE Batteries, you can indeed live quite comfortably…& off the stinking grid. Better yet if you have a small creek – MicroHydro. None of it cheap, but pricing is coming down al the time. When the batts are fully charged, you do need something to take the excess energy…so, build yourself a large cistern with some heating elements within…and there are other ways as well.
And as with anything, a decent back up is required (something Govt’s simply do NOT understand) – See Ontario with their shutting down coal plants in favour of industrial wind..a flipping disaster IMO). A Generator.
Any way, take a gander at this website: http://www.otherpower.com
They call themselves the leading edge of low tech.. Going off grid is something I have been looking into for 15 years..and coming soon.
A for Google and Gates…took em long enough to figure out what most knew a decade ago.
As to Nuclear.
THORIUM based Liquid Salt Reactor.
…..there lies the ticket
Gates has a brain and he’s not afraid to think for himself. That’s rare these days. I may not agree with his conclusions but he certainly has independent thought and looks at issues critically. The majority of politicians, activists and the media (conservative and progressive) prefer their conclusions pre-packaged and conformist while still wanting to believe they are cutting edge thinkers- the old “herd of independant minds” thing.
It would be interesting to ask them questions or thought experiments outside their comfortable bubble. Things like :what are the advantages and social benefits of fossil fuel; disadvantages and social cost of wind, solar, biofuels; known problems with cap and trade or carbon pricing; the big controversies within climate science; the $ risk vs. benefit of carbon pricing; more effective ways to spend limited $s (B. Lomborg); the real possibility that AGW will not be catastrophic (M. Ridley).
My suspicion is that their knowledge is superficial and a regurgitation of bias and propaganda. They do not appear to be scientifically minded or engage in much analytical thought. As such, they completely misunderstand rational skepticism and its critical role in science.
Wow…somebody still pays attention to what Bill Gates says?
Bill Gates is a delusional idiot his stupid ads for Microsofta few years ago WE SEE yeah We See liberals and Tree Huggers/Granola Munchers as the deluonal idiots they are
The Yanks almost had one built and than Nixon cancelled it. I think there is still too much pressure from Big Oil and Coal producers to go nuclear. Burning shit is too easy and the investment is small, nuclear will take some major cash but when it comes, the coal and gas plants will look like camp fires compared to laptops.
Can’t help it.
Some are superior, some are inferior. Depends what’s your elevation.
It is good that there are smart people like you.
What would some like me do without your freely distributed wisdom.
Lack of admiration for some that other admire does not qualify one to being smart of dumb.
However if it pleases you go ahead and knock yourselfe out.
“And Lev (several comments above) … did you not read the part about “battery storage is inadequate”? The energy from sun and/or wind all day still can’t be adequately stored in batteries for when that energy is needed. Get back to the Huffington Post, Lev, you’re not smart enough to be here.”
Is there something that is bothering this guy?
He says right there “battery storage is inadequate”.
It does not work, where is the solution?
Smart is a relative term. You think you are smart. I don’t.
See how it works.
I have to agree with you that I don’t know nothing, though thinking is my thing.