Carbon-Free Energy Is Possible -- Without Nukes

[PamW]

47. Unfortunately...

Unfortunately, the non-scientists don't appreciate something that for the scientists and engineers is trivially obvious; the grid not only needs sufficient capacity, but it also requires stability.

The non-scientists don't realize that the grid has to be balanced second to second and instant to instant. Generation has to equal demand plus losses moment to moment, or the grid collapses. It is fundamental Conservation of Energy, one of Mother Nature's most most important laws. If generation is less than demand and losses, then the grid would be creating energy out of nothing. If generation exceeds demand and losses, then the grid is destroying energy. Neither of those situations Mother Nature allows. So if there is a mismatch, Mother Nature will collapse the grid before she allows Conservation of Energy to be violated.

Unfortunately, the renewables community has only scratched the surface of solving the problem of dynamic balance.

Electric grids aren't the only engineered systems that require this. I analogize it to aviation systems. Not only must the wings and engines generate sufficient lift and thrust; but the aircraft has to be aerodynamically stable. There were lots of attempts at flight before the Wright Brothers in which inventors had the necessary lift and thrust; but didn't have aerodynamically stable craft. That is what the Wright Brothers brought to the analysis; and why they succeeded where all predecessors FAILED.

http://www.thebreakthrough.org/images/Death_of_Environmentalism.pdf

Engineers use a technical term to describe systems without feedback mechanisms; "stupid".

It is why scientists including the National Academy of Sciences have such reservations about these "all renewable" proposals. At the current time, non-dispatchable renewables require dispatchable power sources like coal, gas, hydro, and nuclear to do "load following" for them.

The issue won't be decided here. For all the hand-waving arguments from the non-scientists; Mother Nature will prevent them from realizing their ill-conceived proposals in practice.

It would be easy enough to prove; the renewabes community could power some city, state, or region with renewables but DISCONNECTED from any other source of dispatchable power. They don't do that; because the engineers that are actually developing renewables know better. They know their grid can't stand without help from dispatchable sources.

As Dr. James Hansen states:

http://www.masterresource.org/2011/08/james-hansen-renewable-energy/

“Suggesting that renewables will let us phase rapidly off fossil fuels in the United States, China, India, or the world as a whole is almost the equivalent of believing in the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.”

Again, it matters not a whit from the protests of the "all renewables" crowd. They can bleat and blather and waste bandwidth and DU storage space all they want. Their problem is that they are at odds with science and Mother Nature; and Mother Nature will assure that they LOSE. The problem is that they will ensure that the rest of us LOSE with them.

The good thing about science is that it is true, whether or not you believe in it.
--Neil deGrasse Tyson

PamW