Why Industrial Renewables do not reduce carbon emissions on the planet?
by Christos Karystinos
I am impressed by the image of many people who, as soon as they hear the news that a new wind turbine or photovoltaic panel has been installed somewhere, immediately burst out smiling and filled in relief that the planet is now safer. Without wanting to dissapoint people who believe in conventional “green” solutions, I wanted to use this text to provide more information on how Industrial Renewables are ultimately the adaptation of the mechanism of unstoppable growth / looting of nature (two sides of the same coin) in the forthcoming so-called “oil crisis” and in the cost of the “carbon crisis”.
Let’s start with the assumption that RES investors are not saviors who have decided to sacrifice themselves on the altar of sustainability. They are investors in the same companies that manufacture and operate the gas and lignite plants. The issue is not ideological. So let’s put aside the first argument you come up with when you start this conversation: if you do not want renewables, you want oil? They want it all, as long as it’s a good investment.
Probably somebody with a liberal ideology would ask why the problem of energy production is linked to investment? Nothing is free. It is true. However, we must face the fact that RES initially came as a way out of capital for further investment, a new path of non-exploitable resources rather than a technology that will solve the problem of climate change.
The truth is that entrusting (and) producing energy entirely to investors has a cost: to the environment and to us.
Let’s explain the easiest first: how are Industrial Renewables harmful to the environment? I.R. operate by exploiting resources that are inexhaustible (and not renewable) such as the sun, air and water flow. However, this is only a small part of the life cycle of this technology. The concept of life cycle for a product or technology tries to identify all the processes involved in its existence and imprint. What is happening with IRs, such as industrial-type wind turbines, is that much of the energy and raw materials are used in their production and not in the resources they use to operate.
To put it simply, it’s like the oil stinks when we put it in our old generator to work, and when we see the elegant wind turbine on top of the mountain we can’t see (and therefore imagine) the tons of oil used to build these high-tech machines. What you can’t see, doesn’t exist, a consumer’s mentality. However, as far as the footprint on the planet is concerned, either the tons of oil are used in China to produce it, or in Greece for the diesel generator it is the same (this is scientifically wrong but an oversimplification of the truth).
I will try to give a counter-example to understand the difference. The construction and operation of small DIY wind turbine (<2KW) are based on the same principle as the industrial type, however, more attention is paid to the life cycle than to the efficiency of space and energy. Such a wind turbine (see http://windempowerment.org/the-piggott-turbine/) can be made with wooden propellers, many of its components can be recycled and can be made in a simple workshop. Yes, this wind turbine needs small bases of cement and iron supports, it produces noise and needs frequent maintenance, nothing is perfect. However, the openness of its design, its accessibility by non-specialists and the ease of replacing its materials make it a much more environmentally friendly technology than an industrial type.
At the same time, it is time to realize that energy production cannot but be a process that affects the environment and its resources. Electricity is a concentrated energy transformed to meet our needs. The greater these needs, the more resources we will need. This is not a fact that makes us feel more guilty, but more aware of what we are talking about.
The second price we pay is that we have no saying on how and where we want it to be produced. With the advent of RES, many scientists have imagined the decentralization of control of the electricity system (ES) if production is dispersed compared to the traditional mode of production. However, the technical problems of integrating RES into the ES and the need for large capital to install them in conjunction with the creation of the energy market have led to the entry of some large private energy companies into the control of energy production facilities. If we cannot imagine and design a different model of scattered production and greater autonomy in local units, such as microgrids, then we cannot avoid this kind of energy management. The institution of energy communities introduced in Greece, as in other EU countries, has to some extent offered the possibility of controlling the means of production by local units, but for the time being according to the data it has mainly been exploited by companies.
Knowledge of the problems is not a reason for us to be more indifferent to where the electricity that I charge my cell phone from every day comes from, but more passionate about looking for alternatives and avoiding the worst (see Agrafa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3qsTdmEuSY).
