Huge Milestone: Renewables Now Provide More Electricity Than Nuclear Power

[hunter]

6. It's not good news, "A Huge Milestone," for the reason I explain.

Natural gas is the preferred backup power source when the sun is not shining (which is most of the time), the wind is not blowing (which is most of the time) and the rain is not falling.

Ask Venezuela about the rain not falling... Most of their electrical generating capacity is hydro and when the rain didn't fall it further contributed to the destabilization of their entire economy, largely because they didn't have the political wherewithal and connections to quickly install fossil fuel plants, which are pretty much turn-key these days. (Write the check, hard currency please, and international corporations will quickly deliver a fossil fuel plant any size you like.) In Venezuela's case nobody was going to invest in fossil fuel plants when it wasn't clear they'd get paid.

Anyways, these days, solar and wind only further INCREASE dependence on nimble natural gas power stations and this is something WORSE than nuclear power. It's not something to be cheered.

And yes, there are things worse than nuclear power. Fossil fuels are one of those things. Fossil fuel use is increasing worldwide. Greenhouse gasses are increasing. The death toll and relocation costs of accidents like Chernobyl (about as bad as it gets) are small compared to the horrors of climate change. Refugee problems and environmental problems that are bad now are about to get a whole lot worse. That's fossil fuels doing that.