Claim: Biden’s Clean Energy Policies are Failing Because Everyone Elses Fault

Essay by Eric Worrall

MIT Innovation Fellow and former Biden economic advisor Brian Deese explaining why everyone should be doing more to help.

The Next Front in the War Against Climate Change

By Brian Deese

Clean-energy investment in America is off the charts—but it still isn’t translating into enough electricity that people can actually use.By Brian Deese

Because even though unprecedented sums of money are flowing into clean energy, our current electricity system is failing to meet Americans’ demand for clean power. If we don’t fix it, the surge in investment will not deliver its full economic and planetary potential.

For decades, the biggest obstacle to clean energy in the U.S. was insufficient demand. That is no longer the case. The problem now is the structure of our electricity markets: the way we produce and consume electricity in America. We need to fix that if we want the biggest clean-energy investment in history to actually get the job done.

Many utilities, however, won’t prioritize installing batteries, and they won’t invest in solutions that let consumers do more with less energy. That’s becausethese programs lower utilities’ capital expenditures, which lowers the rates they charge consumers and, in turn, their profits. If utilities don’t get paid for innovating, they’re unlikely to do it.

On a policy level, this isn’t rocket science. In Australia, households are paid for sending electricity back into the grid. Lo and behold, Australia today has the highest rate of rooftop solar panels per capita of any country. In the U.S., state legislatures and regulators in places as varied as Utah and Hawaii have figured out how to pay households to install batteries and send electricity back to the grid. Last year, Montana unanimously passed a law that gave utilities a financial incentive to use more advanced materials in their transmission lines. But these remain the exceptions to the rule.

Shifting this approach will not happen without a new vocabulary and new coalitions. The climate movement must recognize that its primary target is no longer just Big Oil; it’s the regulatory barriers that keep clean energy from getting built and delivered efficiently to American homes. The movement also needs to pressure Big Tech companies, whose AI offerings are driving upenergy demands, to follow through on their lofty climate talk by supporting reform in the utility system as well.

Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/climate-change-investment-utilities/678455/

According to his bio, Brian Deese is an innovation fellow at MIT, who served as director of the White House National Economic Council from 2021 to 2023.

How many times have we read or heard left wing politicians and academics whining others didn’t do enough to help?

Big Tech companies don’t want to invest in more grid capacity, they want co-located nuclear reactors, to minimise their exposure to the USA’s incompetently managed electricity grid.

Nobody is investing in batteries at anything like the required scale because batteries are too expensive. Battery capital costs make nuclear reactors look cheap.

Saving energy is a bad joke in the context of the AI revolution – you can have an AI powered future, or you can save energy, but you cannot have both.

As for citing Australia as an example, that is the biggest joke of the whole article. Citing the Australian grid as aspirational is an utter absurdity. An Australian state government just cut a deal to pay a single coal plant $225 million per year to stay open, in a desperate bid to stave off a total collapse.

Deep down I suspect Brian Deese knows his precious green energy revolution will not survive the AI revolution – which is likely why he devoted a paragraph to abusing tech giants.

The skyrocketing demand of the AI revolution is the final nail in the coffin of green energy. What we are watching now is its death throes.

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May 28, 2024 10:13 am

The only thing in death throes are fossil fuels, and this will become more and more apparent in the next few years. Investment in new fossil generation will be next to zero, while renewables take more and more share of generation.

New nuclear is done outside countries that want it for military reasons. SMRs are a scam like hydrogen.

Tom Halla
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 10:22 am

Project much?

Reply to  Tom Halla
May 28, 2024 10:27 am

I just like making predictions. And renewables performed better than I expected in the past. So get your E-Cargobike ready, it’s going to be wild 😀

Tom Halla
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 10:29 am

It will end up like Sri Lanka, with pitchforks and torches.

MarkW
Reply to  Tom Halla
May 28, 2024 3:28 pm

ANd the usual morons will blame the riots on the oil companies.

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 10:46 am

so ruinables performed better than YOU expected, and that’s meaningful?

Bryan A
Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
May 28, 2024 12:15 pm

Clean-energy investment in America is off the charts—but it still isn’t translating into enough electricity that people can actually use.By Brian Deese

I wonder why…could it be…oh I don’t know… Clean Energy (AKA renewables) cannot actually produce usable electricity sufficient to power a modern society?

Ruinables are sub-par, substandard, insubstantial and unsustainable

Trying to Play Nice
Reply to  Bryan A
May 28, 2024 1:03 pm

That’s because libtards keep sending other people’s money down a non-performing rathole.

Scissor
Reply to  Bryan A
May 28, 2024 1:04 pm

Yeah, isn’t it strange that while hydrocarbon energy usage hit global and U.S. highs in 2023, in the U.S. wind energy production declined from 2022, even as its capacity increased?

Bryan A
Reply to  Scissor
May 28, 2024 2:19 pm

Must be just a lot of hot air

Reply to  Bryan A
May 28, 2024 4:23 pm

pie in the sky

Eric Schollar
Reply to  Bryan A
May 29, 2024 2:43 am

Incredibly expensive, unreliable and unworkable solutions to a non-existent problem.

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 1:37 pm

And renewables performed better than I expected”

So you expected even WORSE than the last few days in Australia ??

Your whole life is built around the RELIABILITY of fossil fuels.. and there is nothing you can or WILL do about it. !

You are just a whinging, blubbering hypocrite.

MarkW
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 3:27 pm

They weren’t as pathetic as you thought they would be, therefore they are a success.

J Boles
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 10:37 am

Well then get busy and stop using FF every day, and get some solar panels on your roof, you hypocrite.

Reply to  J Boles
May 28, 2024 10:40 am

Stop using renewables.

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 11:11 am

Gladly.

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 12:36 pm

How about stopping all these ridiculous renewable and nut-zero mandates that are driving up costs for everything.

MarkW
Reply to  David Kamakaris
May 28, 2024 3:30 pm

Didn’t you know that the fact that government has to mandate that people use wind and solar is proof of how much in demand they both are.

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 1:39 pm

Australia did over the last few nights.. There WASN’T ANY !!

EmilyDaniels
Reply to  MyUsername
May 30, 2024 6:16 pm

I’m using as little as I can, although my state is requiring a certain percentage of renewables as part of the electricity mix, so I can’t do much about that except vote in November. We are putting a nuclear plant back online, so that’s a positive move. By the way, solar panels and wind turbines require fossil fuels to make them, so using those also means using fossil fuels.

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 10:45 am

Asia is now building 1,000 new coal plants- according to Tony Heller’s latest YouTube video.

Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
May 28, 2024 10:50 am

Link?

a_scientist
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 11:19 am

https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-coal-plant-tracker/tracker/

They show 1056 coal plants under construction, planned , or permitted. Mostly in Indian and China.

On that map, you can select what status for the plants will be shown, operating, closed etc.

Reply to  a_scientist
May 28, 2024 11:21 am

Thanks, but I’d like to see the video, I want to get to know Tony.

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 11:33 am

If only there was a way to search for videos and other information using a computer, tablet or phone.

Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 28, 2024 4:20 pm

Remember, he’s in junior high- in the class with the slow learners. 🙂

Bill Toland
Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
May 29, 2024 5:13 am

That’s in rather poor taste, but still funny.

Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
May 29, 2024 7:27 am

Yeah, I think he rides to school on the short bus too.

barryjo
Reply to  Brad-DXT
May 29, 2024 5:53 pm

Read my mind.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 29, 2024 11:39 am

Undoable absent reliable electricity.

Scissor
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 1:05 pm

Right.

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 1:52 pm

So just ignore the FACT that India and China and other countries in Asia are building 1000+ COAL FIRED power plants

No wonder you are so incredibly ignorant. !

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 4:19 pm

Looking For Their Lost Keys

Reply to  MyUsername
May 29, 2024 6:33 am

You don’t know Tony? Where have you been?

Someone
Reply to  a_scientist
May 29, 2024 9:48 am

Fantastic link, thank you

Rud Istvan
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 11:23 am

What part of Tony Heller on YouTube needs a link?

Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 28, 2024 11:27 am

Is it so hard linking a source you mention? Why should anyone guess if they found the right one?

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 1:40 pm

Poor Luser… No need to highlight your complete incompetence. !

https://youtu.be/yCJmN5E1LIo

Rud Istvan
Reply to  bnice2000
May 28, 2024 3:14 pm

You catered—with an admitted spearpoint thrust .I just ridiculed the lazy sob. Next time just use ridicule. Alinsky rule #5.

Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 28, 2024 4:15 pm

I wanted to make sure it had no excuse for not viewing the video. 🙂

Reply to  bnice2000
May 28, 2024 11:52 pm

Thanks

MarkW
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 3:32 pm

Really desperate for an excuse, aren’t you?

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 4:21 pm

because I said it was his latest video- I presumed you could comprehend that

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 4:17 pm

Look it up- on YouTube. Search for Tony Heller. Everyone here knows him.

Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 11:55 am

Coal is king in Asia, including China. Fossil fuel is alive and well and has a good future.

Reply to  joel
May 28, 2024 1:47 pm

Notice also that Africa is starting to build up their fossil fuel energies.

MarkW
Reply to  joel
May 28, 2024 3:33 pm

It can’t possibly be true, it wasn’t listed in this weeks talking points memo.

Trying to Play Nice
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 1:01 pm

Investments with no returns are for idiots. That must be why you like all this greenie crap.

Chris Hanley
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 2:48 pm
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 3:24 pm

On which planet. Certainly not Earth:

global-energy-substitution
MarkW
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 3:27 pm

Now that we have heard from opposite world, can we get back to reality?

Edward Katz
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 6:05 pm

If fossil fuels are experiencing their death throes, it would have become obvious in a major drop in global consumption. Yet they still supply at least 80% of primary energy generation, while renewables like wind and solar, despite billions in subsidies during the last decade-plus, have been stuck at under 10% with little evidence of major growth on their parts. UserNet still continues to occupy the fantasy world so dear to the eco-alarmists.

Reply to  Edward Katz
May 28, 2024 10:12 pm

And according to reports that mention the breakdowns, 2/3 of “renewables” is burning things like wood, garbage, used plastic, etc. that produce plenty of uncounted CO2 but is generally more reliable, and less expensive, than wind and solar.

Rick C
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 7:41 pm

You seem to have the mistaken impression that there is some monolithic fossil fuel industry. There are petroleum companies, natural gas companies and coal companies. The oil and gas folks didn’t make any effort to save coal – they were quite happy to replace it with gas. That has done more to reduce US CO2 emissions than all the wind and solar combined. Not having to compete with coal sure hasn’t hurt their profits either. Wind/solar will never replace liquid fuels in transportation or petrochemicals in materials production of plastics, solvents, lubricants, etc.

I predict coal will make a big comeback in the west once the mass delusion of climate change Armageddon passes and it becomes clear that clean coal energy provides a significant cost advantage. At least the steel and rare earth metals in wind turbines should profitable for recycling.

Milo
Reply to  MyUsername
May 28, 2024 9:21 pm

Story tip: Toyota dumps EVs for improved internal combustion engine design.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/05/28/toyota-shuns-electric-cars-new-generation-combustion-engine/

Reply to  MyUsername
May 29, 2024 12:07 am

Stop talking nonsense! Because: FOSSIL FUELS ARE FOREVER!!!

Ralph
Reply to  MyUsername
May 29, 2024 2:36 am

According to mining experts there isn’t enough copper on planet earth for net zero. For everyone on earth to drive EV’s, produce wind turbines, charging stations, and electricity transmission lines there’s not enough copper on the planet.

Reply to  Ralph
May 29, 2024 7:35 am

Not to mention the more exotic supplies that there isn’t enough resources to mine.

Maybe he knows of an asteroid available to mine copper, cobalt, lithium, aluminum, and rare earths. All we have to do is get there. 🙂

Reply to  MyUsername
May 29, 2024 4:15 am

From the text
Nobody is investing in batteries at anything like the required scale because batteries are too expensive. Battery capital costs make nuclear reactors look cheap.

Wind and solar would need more battery systems to stabilize the grid, plus artificial inertia that is now provided, for free, by rotating machinery

Here is a c/kWh analysis based on 2023 pricing of Tesla Megapacks, with high inflation and high interest rates, and high materials and energy prices.

BATTERY SYSTEM CAPITAL COSTS, OPERATING COSTS, ENERGY LOSSES, AND AGING
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/battery-system-capital-costs-losses-and-aging
.
EXCERPT:
Annual Cost of Megapack Battery Systems; 2023 pricing
Assume a system rated 45.3 MW/181.9 MWh, and an all-in turnkey cost of $104.5 million, per Example 2
Amortize bank loan for 50% of $104.5 million at 6.5%/y for 15 years, $5.484 million/y
Pay Owner return of 50% of $104.5 million at 10%/y for 15 years, $6.765 million/y (10% due to high inflation)
Lifetime (Bank + Owner) payments 15 x (5.484 + 6.765) = $183.7 million
Assume battery daily usage for 15 years at 10%, and loss factor = 1/(0.9 *0.9)
Battery lifetime output = 15 y x 365 d/y x 181.9 MWh x 0.1, usage x 1000 kWh/MWh = 99,590,250 kWh to HV grid; 122,950,926 kWh from HV grid; 233,606,676 kWh loss
(Bank + Owner) payments, $183.7 million / 99,590,250 kWh = 184.5 c/kWh
Less 50% subsidies (ITC, depreciation in 5 years, deduction of interest on borrowed funds) is 92.3c/kWh
At 10% throughput, (Bank + Owner) cost, 92.3 c/kWh
At 40% throughput, (Bank + Owner) cost, 23.1 c/kWh

Excluded costs/kWh: 1) O&M; 2) system aging, 1.5%/y, 3) 20% HV grid-to-HV grid loss, 4) grid extension/reinforcement to connect battery systems, 5) downtime of parts of the system, 6) decommissioning in year 15, i.e., disassembly, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites.
Excluded costs would add at least 15 c/kWh

COMMENTS ON CALCULATION
Almost all existing battery systems operate at less than 10%, per EIA annual reports i.e., new systems would operate at about 92.4 + 15 = 107.4 c/kWh. They are used to stabilize the grid, i.e., frequency control and counteracting up/down W/S outputs. If 40% throughput, 23.1 + 15 = 38.1 c/kWh
A 4-h battery system costs 38.1 c/kWh of throughput, if operated at a duty factor of 40%. That is on top of the cost/kWh of the electricity taken from the HV grid to feed the batteries
Up to 40% could occur by absorbing midday solar peaks and discharging during late-afternoon/early-evening, which occur every day in California and other sunny states. The more solar systems, the greater the peaks.
See above URL for Megapacks required for a one-day wind lull in New England
40% throughput is close to Tesla’s recommendation of 60% maximum throughput, i.e., not charging above 80% full and not discharging below 20% full, to achieve a 15-y life, with normal aging.
Tesla’s recommendation was not heeded by the Owners of the Hornsdale Power Reserve in Australia. They excessively charged/discharged the system. After a few years, they added Megapacks to offset rapid aging of the original system, and added more Megapacks to increase the rating of the expanded system.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-hornsdale-power-reserve-largest-battery-system-in-australia
.
Regarding any project, the bank and Owner have to be paid, no matter what. I amortized the bank loan and Owner’s investment
Divide total payments over 15 years by the throughput during 15 years, you get c/kWh, as shown.
There is about a 20% round-trip loss, from HV grid to 1) step-down transformer, 2) front-end power electronics, 3) into battery, 4) out of battery, 5) back-end power electronics, 6) step-up transformer, to HV grid, i.e., you draw about 50 units from the HV grid to deliver about 40 units to the HV grid, because of A-to-Z system losses. That gets worse with aging.
A lot of people do not like these c/kWh numbers, because they have been repeatedly told by self-serving folks, battery Nirvana is just around the corner.

Reply to  MyUsername
May 29, 2024 7:41 am

The only thing in death throes are fossil fuels

By what possible measure can you reach this conclusion?

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  MyUsername
May 29, 2024 11:36 am

Repetition of the same point of view posted almost everywhere.

Reply to  MyUsername
May 30, 2024 12:43 am

Stop nonsense! FOSSIL FUELD ARE FOREVER!!!

May 28, 2024 10:19 am

The Next Front in the War Against Climate Change

_________________________________________________

It’s the war against Capitalism. CO2 and Climate Change is just the current boogieman. The eye on the prize has always been the destruction of capitalism.

Reply to  Steve Case
May 28, 2024 12:26 pm

Actually, it is to institute a one world government that can control ALL energy use which would need to control all human activities from where you work, where you live, what you can do and how you can do anything. It is a World Domination Scheme for people who can, or will not, do the science.
It does destroy the Free Market and anything except a world police state under a tyrannical dictatorship which would decide who could use energy, when and how much. That would determine what could be manufactured, when, where, and how much. That would also decide what jobs would be available to you,, where you could work, live, travel, what you could purchase, how much, when and where. Would they allow you a personal vehicle, house, and would they allow you 3 pieces of clothing a year? THAT is their goal! This is all built on a THEORY supported only by a faulty computer model and unsupported by a science that is based on Scientific Method and on falsified data. The computer model does not even include water vapor which is 98% of greenhouse gasses. and attributes false properties to CO2. Remember CO2 is required for ALL photosynthesis which is required to provide food for ALL of life on earth. No CO2, no earth life. This scam is proposed by the SAME group that proposes that we sterilize and permanently mutilate our children, teach them Marxist theories in school, inject UNTESTED, for long term harmful effects, new technology into the entire population and risk that it may kill all of them, make prohibitively expensive EVs mandatory when they are extremely harmful to the ecology to manufacture and dispose of, catch fire in a spectacular manner that is impossible to extinguish and is actually very energy inefficient. When you list all the insanely harmful plans they are pushing on us you will find all are shockingly harmful.

Reply to  Greebo
May 28, 2024 10:17 pm

This is all built on a THEORY supported only by a faulty computer model

or are the computer model(s) built on the ideology in order to provide a supporting theory?

Reply to  AndyHce
May 29, 2024 7:44 am

Good point to consider.

Reply to  Greebo
May 29, 2024 7:40 am

The plan is already in place and working. The government already tells manufacturers what kind of light bulbs and plumbing fixtures they can make. They’re trying to get rid of gas appliances and effective heating systems.

Big Brother is already in place and looking for more territory.

FJB

Tom Halla
May 28, 2024 10:24 am

Clap really really hard, and Tinkerbell will live! Renewables are an act of faith and virtue signaling, not an actual power source.

jvcstone
Reply to  Tom Halla
May 28, 2024 10:42 am

Well they (renewables) do serve a limited function in certain circumstances. Have a solar powered pump on a remote well here on the ranch. Would have cost about 10 grand to get grid power to the location. But as far as powering the grid?? you are right on about that

Ian_e
Reply to  jvcstone
May 29, 2024 5:28 am

True, I have several solar-powered watches!

Reply to  Tom Halla
May 29, 2024 7:47 am

I consider them to be niche products with limited usability. Definitely not suitable for what the green blob is spending trillions of taxpayer money on.

J Boles
May 28, 2024 10:35 am

I bet Brian Deese has NO solar panels on the roof, the flaming hypocrite! He is the typical leftist with NO education or experience in engineering or chemistry who thinks that if he just gives a good motivational speech (his articles) then the peasants will snap out of it and get busy making the Great Climate Leap Forward work right! And the stuff about batteries, that is hilarious.

ssm59
May 28, 2024 10:36 am

I just wish the movement would stop throwing up blood and just expire, this is taking too long

Reply to  ssm59
May 28, 2024 10:48 am

it has trillions of dollars of life support

Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
May 28, 2024 10:43 pm

Overwhelming support, both in the western “democracies” and in the far east. Possibly also in the mid east but that seems like small potatoes in comparison to the rest.

May 28, 2024 10:44 am

“Nobody is investing in batteries at anything like the required scale because batteries are too expensive. Battery capital costs make nuclear reactors look cheap.”

And it hardly makes sense to invest in batteries until you have a steady supply of excess energy.

Idle Eric
Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
May 28, 2024 11:07 am

And it hardly makes sense to invest in batteries until you have a steady supply of excess energy.

Surely it’s the opposite, it’s the fact that the supply is not steady that makes the batteries a worthwhile investment, in fact there are already businesses that are investing in batteries to arbitrage the price difference between plentiful and scarce supplies.

The real problem is that to do it on a grid scale, requires battery storage of tens if not hundreds of TWh to cover seasonal fluctuations, which is quite simply impossible.

Reply to  Idle Eric
May 28, 2024 11:17 am

I’d rather have a backup generator. That’s assuming propane isn’t regulated out of existence.

Idle Eric
Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 28, 2024 11:40 am

That’s the logical outcome for households, those that can afford it anyway, a few KWh in battery storage to manage the load, and then a back-up diesel/propane generator to cover extended shortages.

For those that can’t afford it, good luck.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 29, 2024 11:49 am

Your backup generator is renewable. Just refill the fuel tank and your energy supply is renewed.

Renewable is an abused word.

Control the language, control the ideas. – K.Marx

Someone
Reply to  Sparta Nova 4
May 31, 2024 7:07 am

Could you reference where K.Marx said this?
I tried, no luck.

MarkW
Reply to  Idle Eric
May 28, 2024 3:48 pm

Lack of reliable power means you need to use some form of backup power.
The know nothings think this backup can be provided by batteries.
However without excess power, there is no power available to to charge the batteries.

Reply to  MarkW
May 28, 2024 4:47 pm

All batteries do is allow COAL and GAS electricity generators to run more efficiently.

When the wind does blow and the Sun is shining, just keep the coal and gas running at optimum to charge the battery.

You know it makes sense 😉

Idle Eric
Reply to  MarkW
May 29, 2024 2:23 am

Excess power isn’t a problem, because of the intermittent nature of wind/solar, the annual average will consist of times of shortage and times of excess, so in theory you charge the batteries when the wind is blowing, and drain them when it’s not.

The real problem is that the pattern of renewable generation (in the UK) is seasonal, which means that we need enough storage to cover months of below average production (typically over the summer), which is simply not possible with any existing technology, especially batteries.

For a fully renewable system, the UK would need somewhere in the order of 25,000 GWh storage, which is ten times the world’s entire battery production, and would cost many multiples of the country’s entire GDP, even if it were technically possible in the first place.

Dave Andrews
Reply to  Idle Eric
May 29, 2024 6:55 am

See my reply to Joseph about the UK’s Royal Society Report

Dave Andrews
Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
May 29, 2024 6:51 am

The UK RoyaL Society Report ‘Large Scale Electricity Storage Policy Briefing’ (Sept 2023) hit the nail on the head.

After studying 37 years of weather data and finding

“Variations in wind supply on a multi decadal timescale, as well as sporadic periods of days and weeks of very low generation potential. For this reason, some tens of TWhs of very long duration storage will be needed. For comparison the TWhs needed are 1000 times more than is currently provided by pumped hydro and far more than can be provided cost effectively by batteries”

However they later admitted they had underestimated the amount of storage that would be required because they used the UK’s electricity consumption during 2018 and repeated that usage 32 times (to 2050) to calculate the amount of storage required and so made no adjustment for the increase in electricity consumption needed to electrify everything

Mr Ed
May 28, 2024 11:00 am

A quick google of “Brian Deese Blackrock” brings up some hits..like

Global Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock
A senior advisor to Obama…yada yada yuck

I stopped looking after that..

Rud Istvan
May 28, 2024 11:21 am

Brian Deese. Middlebury BA in polisci, JD from Yale. Knows NOTHING about the grid—and it shows.

J Boles
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 28, 2024 12:13 pm

I just do not understand what is being figured out with all this energy flowing in to A.I. What is it computing? Where are all the smart solutions that mortals could not previously figure? Seems like a lot of empty hype.

Reply to  J Boles
May 28, 2024 10:48 pm

How to control your behavior more successfully and reliability and how to sell you more stuff for what money you have left over.

May 28, 2024 11:30 am

Command: “ChatGPT, please invent a perpetual motion machine.”

Response: “Yes boss.”

Problem solved!

May 28, 2024 11:31 am

The Biden regime says the economy is great and Americans are just too stupid to know how good we got it. It’s no surprise Americans are also to blame for the Green Raw Deal’s failure.

Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 28, 2024 2:21 pm

I call it the Green Screw-Steal.

May 28, 2024 11:35 am

Unreliables, as Marxism, will fail – as always do ideologies based on junk science or wrong ideas – and it will be the fault – as always – of everyone but Marxists and Climate Nuts.

Reply to  Petit-Barde
May 28, 2024 2:08 pm

Of course they will fail. But it will keep coming back because the arguments used against them are incomplete. Here’s a short article on why this happens wrt socialism and how to successfully argue against it:

https://mises.org/mises-wire/socialists-it-doesnt-matter-if-socialism-works-what-matters-power

Neo
May 28, 2024 11:54 am

Could we have exemplars of these “magic technologies”.
Say require all vehicles parking at the EPA be EVs powered by unicorn farts for a year prior to general requirements.

J Boles
Reply to  Neo
May 28, 2024 12:10 pm

I used to have dealings at an EPA office in Michigan, lots of SUVs in the parking lot, the bunch of hypocrites.

May 28, 2024 11:56 am

The wreckers need to be identified and punished.

Reply to  joel
May 28, 2024 1:53 pm

Unfortunately, the wreckers are the ones blamed for the failure of various Soviet (socialist) initiatives.

The wreckers’ crimes were merely pointing out the engineering reasons why the various projects were doomed to failure. The elites who defied the engineers weren’t to blame, it was the naysayers.

So now we’ve come full circle.

May 28, 2024 11:57 am

AI data centers will need much more electricity than EV charging. This is why companies in the electrical production market are moving upward. Look at CEG, NRG and VST. They are not shooting up like NVDA, but they are moving upward faster than the markets.

The whole clean energy plan is poorly thought out. In order to implement the plan, we will need massive amounts of mining for Lithium, Copper, Cobalt and Rare Earths. The mining needs fossil fuels to run the large construction equipment. Installing “clean” power requires fossil fuels. You can’t run the construction and mining equipment on electricity, because we already short. California currently imports 30% of the electricity used in the state. This is true regardless of the massive renewable infrastructure in Cali.

Renewables in California are a lesson to be learned about non-dispatchable power. For years, we have had sufficient solar production in Cali to exceed demand during mid-day. This excess needs to be sold to the grid (exported) at a premium. During the evening and winter, when solar does not produce, electricity needs to imported, again at a premium. This imbalance in electricity production is one reason why our power costs are so high.

The green gang wants to create the same problems throughout the USA. What we need is dispatchable power that works 24/7/365, not solar and wind which work part of the time. The green gang needs to wake up.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  isthatright
May 29, 2024 11:54 am

CA runs diesel generators when the sunlight is dim or the wind is calm.

Trying to Play Nice
May 28, 2024 1:01 pm

BA in Political Science and JD. He doesn’t have a clue about science, technology or even economics. Just another libtard clown running off at the mouth.

May 28, 2024 3:19 pm

Many utilities, however, won’t prioritize installing batteries, and they won’t invest in solutions that let consumers do more with less energy. That’s becausethese programs lower utilities’ capital expenditures, which lowers the rates they charge consumers and, in turn, their profits. If utilities don’t get paid for innovating, they’re unlikely to do it.

Is this guy working for some satiric news company? “lower capital expenditures”?

He must be joking. Or, too stupid to know better.

antigtiff
May 28, 2024 3:23 pm

Just do the opposite of “Big Guy” Joey Biden and you will win. The Climate Coalition is supporting Pallystinian radicals….radicals are attracted to radicals.

MarkW
May 28, 2024 3:26 pm

It takes an MIT professor to wrap so many delusions into a single, mercifully short, article.

Quynn McDonald
May 28, 2024 3:57 pm

Honestly the headline was misleading, and the author (Eric) doesn’t even really address the original article’s primary point. We have a failing transmission system (electrical grid) in the US because of the way utilities use capital expenditures to stay afloat.

Basically the regulatory framework is busted, and it isn’t just that this prevents deeper penetration of green energy into the markets. In some areas, decaying transmission systems cause devastating fires. Brown-outs and black-outs are getting more and more common, and the infrastructure is simply not up to the increasing severity of the weather.

The process for changing all of this is incredibly complex, and has to happen from the local and state level up. The FERC cannot simply had down a framework, as most utilities are governed by local bodies.

Reply to  Quynn McDonald
May 28, 2024 11:06 pm

A few years ago, I believe not long after the “Camp Fire” in California, there was an article, I’m pretty sure here, that listed major reasons for the problems that led to that, and other fires. Aside from wacko restrictions on adequate tree trimming clearance from power lines, the article’s claim was that the PUC, and perhaps other influences on the process, kept insisting that PG&E use the monies budgeted for grid maintenance to instead invest in more wind and solar build out. Also, that the same political processes kept disallowing rate increases specified specifically to address the maintenance lack. Then, when the inevitable happened, the politicians jumped on PG&E as the scapegoat.

While it wouldn’t surprise me in the least, I don’t know if there was much, or a lot of, truth in these claims but either noone else knew more than me about it or many people knew it to be true. There were many comments on the article but none attacking those allegations, at least at the time I read it.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  AndyHce
May 29, 2024 11:56 am

Sounds exactly what happened in Maui.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  Quynn McDonald
May 29, 2024 11:55 am

Increasing severity of weather? Compared to what prior era?

observa
May 28, 2024 5:12 pm

…and Canberra’s central planners with ‘Made in Australia’ want to compete with the Big Cahuna of central planners???
China’s Solar Giants Collapse: Massive Stockpile for 3 Years With No Sales, No Buyers Even for Scrap (youtube.com)
This gross misallocation of resources and subsequent dumping right across the ‘green sustainability’ spectrum of solar panels wind turbines lithium batteries and EVs will not end well. That’s when the jackbooters go looking for external diversionary adventures to take the masses minds off their abject failures and Western watermelons are complicit in this.

May 28, 2024 6:03 pm

 In Australia, households are paid for sending electricity back into the grid.”

Per Sydney Morning Herald, in the past three weeks:

There are three ‘distributers’ who now charge the roof-top solar owner if their system sends power into the grid between 10 AM and 3 PM. (Peak production hours.)

“We’ll buy it”, was a nice ‘come-on’.

Reply to  Tombstone Gabby
May 28, 2024 11:13 pm

Various regions in CA have markedly cut the price paid for rooftop solar output into the grid and some have, or have announced plans to charge rooftop solar owners for electricity put into the grid at various times of day.

These activities are just political runarounds for the real problem, previously announced in CA and parts of Australia, that rooftop solar makes it very difficult to properly control the grid. There were movements to bar rooftop solar from the grid altogether as the solution but that was deemed politically unacceptable so lies were generated to try to get around the problems.

Coeur de Lion
May 28, 2024 11:46 pm

While renewables are producing one third of the global energy produced by my elderly Indian woman making chupatties out of cow dung to dry and burn for fuel (plus local forest) they should just shut up and let the real world provide electricity

May 29, 2024 6:29 am

From the article: “According to his bio, Brian Deese is an innovation fellow at MIT, who served as director of the White House National Economic Council from 2021 to 2023.”

He did a real good job, didn’t he. Inflation is running up to about 20 percent during that time, and to this day. Inflation is now down to a little less than four percent, but the previous price hikes are still in place. The inflation rate is down by the prices remain high.

Don’t put this guy in charge of anything else.

Christopher Chantrill
May 29, 2024 3:51 pm

This looks like a good cage fight. AI vs. Green.