China Retreats from Green Abyss, Re-Embraces Coal Power

Renewables and the high electricity rates they ushered in drove individuals into energy poverty and led industry to flee, putting the lie to the claim that wind and solar are the fuels of the future. __ FP

China, Germany, Japan, Ontario, Cannot Afford Green

China is facing the reality that “green energy” cannot be relied upon by a nation that wants to be taken seriously as an industrial powerhouse. Japan, Germany, and Canada’s Ontario province are likewise backing away from ruinous mandates and subsidies to unreliable green energy.

Explosive growth in China’s coal power building boom:

… there was a surge in new coal projects approved at provincial level in China between 2014 and 2016. This happened because of a decentralisation programme that shifted authority over coal plant construction approvals to local authorities.

The report says that at present China has 993 gigawatts of coal power capacity, but the approved new plants would increase this by 25%.

Many of China’s wind and solar farms are not even plugged into the grid, and capacity factors are extraordinarily poor — even by green standards.

… the capacity factor of Chinese solar equipment was just 14.7%… energy investors are turning away from gigantic, remote solar farms, and toward other opportunities… __ Source

In the European Union, investment in green energy dropped by half after government subsidies were reduced. Germany is likewise cutting green subsidies and boosting more reliable gas and coal power plants. Similar moves away from “green” are happening in Japan, and even in the UK.

With Canada’s Ontario moving to cancel its green energy contracts, and the US Trump administration slowly stepping back from Obama’s expensive and unreliable wind and solar mandates, much of the world is expressing uncertainty over the wisdom of following the green energy crusaders over the cliff of perpetual blackouts. Without a reliable, affordable, high quality, abundant source of electric power, there is no advanced civilisation — and the carrying capacity of the planet suddenly drops by 80%.

The decline of government funding for renewables follows years of public opinion polls that consistently show the public isn’t much fussed about climate change. Governments finally got the message that the green lobby wasn’t all-powerful. The most timid, least principled players in society — the corporate sector — may be next in showing some spine on the climate change file. According to an internal memo leaked earlier this month, BusinessEurope, the EU’s largest employer association, intends to counter EU plans to tighten carbon-dioxide emissions at their expense, albeit ever so mutedly. If it carries through with its plans and actually dares to publicly represent the interests of its members, it will be one more sign that environmental NGOs and their enablers — the mainstream media — have lost their power. __ Lawrence Solomon

The entire corrupt scam of unreliable/exorbitantly expensive grid-scale green energy is gradually being exposed as unaffordable and economically damaging to modern national infrastructure.

Pay attention to the politicians, journalists, academics, activists, and industrialists who continue to push for green subsidies and green mandates. We may find out that we’re gonna need a lot more guillotines. 😉

More:

Wind turbines last only about 20 years at best, and solar arrays may last 30 years if owners are lucky. But disposing of these junkheaps-in-the-making will be very expensive. Many shadowy owners will skip the country, leaving taxpayers to clean up their expensive, wasteful mess.

But should giant solar parks continue to be built, one oft-ignored complication will have to be dealt with in future decades: solar panel waste. The panels last just 30 years or so, after which they must be broken up. It is hard to recycle them because they contain harmful chemicals like sulphuric acid. China is expected to experience a sudden boom in solar panel waste from around 2040 onwards and there is currently no clear plan for what to do with all that material. __ BBC

Of course there is no clear plan for dealing with reality — to greens the entire world is nothing but “unicorns and rainbows.” As long as their intentions are pure, they expect everything to work out just fine.