The environmentalist ideology is coming into contradiction with itself. The unprecedented scale of destruction of the natural landscape by 30 000 gigantic wind turbines has brought a growing realization, that reliance on renewable energy is by no means friendly to the environment – and not necessarily safe.
People don’t want to live near wind turbines, because of unpleasant noise and possibly dangerous infrasound emissions, disturbing optical effects, reports of fires, broken-off turbine blades flying through the air, ice throws, etc. And the dead birds.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/01/germanys-overdose-of-renewable-energy/
However, this literature review suggests that electric vehicles may not
reduce levels of PM as much as expected, because of their relatively high weight. By analysing the
existing literature on non-exhaust emissions of different vehicle categories, this review found that there
is a positive relationship between weight and non-exhaust PM emission factors. In addition, electric
vehicles (EVs) were found to be 24% heavier than equivalent internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs).
As a result, total PM10 emissions from EVs were found to be equal to those of modern ICEVs. PM2.5
emissions were only 1e3% lower for EVs compared to modern ICEVs. Therefore, it could be concluded
that the increased popularity of electric vehicles will likely not have a great effect on PM levels. Nonexhaust
emissions already account for over 90% of PM10 and 85% of PM2.5 emissions from traffic
What politicians, economists, and academic book publishers would like us to believe is that the world is full of limitless possibilities. World population can continue to rise. World leaders are in charge. Our big problem, if we believe today’s models, is that humans are consuming fossil fuel at too high a rate. If we cannot quickly transition to a low carbon economy, perhaps based on wind, solar and hydroelectric, the climate will change uncontrollably. The problem will then be all our fault. The story, supposedly based on scientific models, has almost become a new religion.
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2019/12/17/scientific-models-and-myths-what-is-the-difference/
A brisk building boom of hydropower mega-dams is underway from China to Brazil. Whether benefits of new dams will outweigh costs remains unresolved despite contentious debates. We investigate this question with the “outside view” or “reference class forecasting” based on literature on decision-making under uncertainty in psychology. We find overwhelming evidence that budgets are systematically biased below actual costs of large hydropower dams — excluding inflation, substantial debt servicing, environmental, and social costs. Using the largest and most reliable reference data of its kind and multilevel statistical techniques applied to large dams for the first time, we were successful in fitting parsimonious models to predict cost and schedule overruns. The outside view suggests that in most countries large hydropower dams will be too costly in absolute terms and take too long to build to deliver a positive risk-adjusted return unless suitable risk management measures outlined in this paper can be affordably provided. Policymakers, particularly in developing countries, are advised to prefer agile energy alternatives that can be built over shorter time horizons to energy megaprojects.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2406852
Total e-waste—including computers, televisions, and mobile phones—is around 45 million metric tons annually.
...By comparison, PV-waste in 2050 will be twice that figure.
...At the same time, demand for everything from sand to rare and precious metals continues to rise. While supplying only about 1 percent of global electricity, photovoltaics already relies on 40 percent of the global tellurium supply, 15 percent of the silver supply, a large portion of semiconductor quality quartz supply, and smaller but important segments of the indium, zinc, tin, and gallium supplies. Closing the loop on these metals and embracing circular economy concepts will be critical to the industry’s future.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-downside-of-solar-energy/?
