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#12 | Posted by truthhurts at 2025-11-10 06:19 PM
Renewable energy in the U.S. has seen substantial growth since 2000, with overall energy generation increasing by 91.2% between 2000 and 2020.
IOW, less than double in 20 years, coming from small base? That explains why so many solar and wind companies went under.
Re e360.yale.edu - unfortunately, this 2021 "debunking study" has created several easily debunked myths of its own, including selectively defining self-referential metrics of growth and costs, which are typical of 'Denominator Blindness'-biased studies.
Growth of renewables has stalled since 2021 (as they ran out of existing nearby NG plants, needed for backup), with great losses to producers like Siemens Energy (wind), and projects' developers. NG share keeps increasing, replacing coal. Renewables simply don't have necessary energy density and availability:
www.nei.org - Land Use by Energy Source
In real life:
www.congress.gov - Why Renewables Can't Save the Planet (Michael Shellenberger was in charge of several Obama's renewables projects)
www.forbes.com - The Reason Renewables Can't Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant To - Michael Shellenberger, 2019-05-06
www.realclearenergy.org - Britain's Net Zero Disaster and the Wind Power Scam - Dec. 20, 2023
The hottest investments in energy infrastructure now are nuclear plants and gas turbines, also green/blue hydrogen research.
gasturbineworld.com - Gas Turbine Market Forecast 2025 Revision - 2025-09-27
#13 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-11-10 06:32 PM
China has 3x the electricity capacity of the United States because they are smarter... They don't label viable technologies "dumb"
Exactly! As part of "not labeling viable technologies dumb" China is building up renewables where practical, while generating more than 60% of their electricity using coal-fired plants and is building more of them, buying some of cheap coal from the US:
www.carbonbrief.org - China's construction of new coal-power plants 'reached 10-year high' in 2024 - 2025-02-13
China is energy-abundant because, while selling "renewable" solar panels to the rest of the world, they were also investing in and building nuclear plants and are now building world's largest hydroelectric dam, which will generate 3x electricity of Three Gorges Dam - that's more than 20% of total US capacity.
itif.org - Chinese firms are well ahead of their Western peers. China likely stands 10 to 15 years ahead of the United States in nuclear power - 2024-06-17
world-nuclear.org - Plans For New Reactors Worldwide - 2025-10-29
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That's why Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and others with "AI" or "intelligent cloud" datacenters are investing in nuclear power, not VRE renewables:
www.cnbc.com - CNBC, 2024-12-28
|------- ... As leaders in the AI race push for further technological advancements and deployment, many are finding their energy needs increasingly at odds with their sustainability goals.
"A new data center that needs the same amount of electricity as say, Chicago, cannot just build its way out of the problem unless they understand their power needs,"
After years of focusing on renewables, major tech companies are now turning to nuclear power for its ability to provide massive energy in a more efficient and sustainable fashion. ...
"What we're seeing is nuclear power has a lot of benefits," said Michael Terrell, senior director of energy and climate at Google. "It's a carbon-free source of electricity. It's a source of electricity that can be always on and run all the time. And it provides tremendous economic impact."
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Even California is starting to understand that:
www.bloomberg.com - Data Centers in Nvidia's Hometown Stand Empty Awaiting Power - BL, 2025-11-10
|------- ... The fate of the two facilities highlights a major challenge for the US tech sector and indeed the wider economy. While demand for data centers has never been greater, driven by the boom in cloud computing and AI, access to electricity is emerging as the biggest constraint. That's largely because of aging power infrastructure, a slow build-out of new transmission lines and a variety of regulatory and permitting hurdles.
... The Santa Clara projects are relatively small compared with the massive complexes for large-language model AI developers, which are now being built in Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and New Mexico, where the cost of electricity is lower but the power sources are often still works in progress. The smaller centers serve local cloud clients who pay a higher price for real estate and power to reduce latency caused by long-distance transmissions " think high-frequency traders or autonomous-vehicle operators who need information in microseconds. ...
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Also, www.latimes.com - California backs down on AI laws so more tech leaders don't flee the state - LAT. 2025-11-08
That's one of the reasons EU became a lot more flexible with definition of a "fossil fuel," leaving them free to employ natural gas.
The real myth is the panacea of "saving the world from global warming" with "wind and solar everywhere" which crowds out more efficient and cheaper long-term energy generation.
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