GLOBAL ENERGY TRANSITION DOESN'T WORK

By CHRIS BRADLEY  Director TORC Clean Energy

ENERGYCENTRAL - Nov 16, 2022 - Key COP27 theme to date seems to be many leaders providing empty battle cries without any solution - "Be Brave! - for what? Running off a cliff or a feasible solution? No admission that to date, despite a trillion $ dropped in the EU alone, $600/t thermal coal and $300/MWh grid power proves all efforts have crashed and burned. No Contrition. No "well that's not working" Just more "let us go over the top" in a Somme of Green Waste and green hipster fashion photo ops. The problem is rarely identified and solutions ...as rare as rocking horse bio fuel...Many African NGOs (the Green Hipster crowd) claiming success with Solar Micro Grids - are you kidding me? The very function of solar (works 15% of a day and NOT on demand) means it is the opposite of a Grid. Solar + Grid = Failure... I mean does it give you light at night or are they still using their kerosene lanterns? There is also the obvious security issue. One clown even said we provide power so kids can do school work. Double down on Li-Ion Batteries? Please, - at $1000/MWh or $1/kWh who can afford that?

President Biden Stated at COP27 that “if countries can finance coal in developing countries, there is no reason why we cannot finance renewable energy in developing countries.” That is just wrong. Comparing a Solar Variable Renewable Energy Farm to an On-Demand Base Load Coal Fired Power Station is like saying you can use tomato sauce to replace vegetables. The two are Chalk and Cheese. One as the names suggests (Variable) usually provides power when you don't need it and the other provides power for your industrial processes, as the name suggests, On-Demand.... So if you replace all your fossil fuel base load with PV and/or Wind, your industry literally stops! All the talk about spending and committing... to what? Needs more talk on what Clean On Demand Generation is available to replace Fossil Fuel On Demand Generation? Answer = beyond stuff that relies on geography & geology (Hydro/Geo), none. After $5 trillion spent on the wrong stuff (must be, coz EU paying triple now for fossil fuel power gen). Maybe they pause before they rush to the next PR photo opportunity of a Wind or Solar Farm opening or ground breaking? There is a compelling need to commit to investing R&D on stuff most likely to succeed - most of the $5 Trillion was spent on panels, turbines and batteries invented well over half a century ago. Whose carbon footprint impact is very questionable. Lithium brine ponds in South America are arguable more damaging than Amazon deforestation. And all that this "greatest investment in human history" has done is shift value / money into the pockets of the new Green Energy Barons. The only honest out come of COP27 should be contrition, "well that did not work, what shall we constructively do?". By constructive I mean the "First Movers Coalition" committing to "source 10% net-zero emissions aluminum by 2030" is a slow clap... Aluminium is the easiest commodity to shift to a "green commodity class" go ask Norway, NZ, or Russia. Actually that is awkward RUSAL is the largest producer of Green Aluminium in the world (and Russia core source of Palladium for GH2 electrolysers …) ...Opps.

As the green elite and their courtiers reflect in the Red Sea Resort sipping their Shirly Temples watching the Sun go down - there are Clean Transition activists at the tip of the spear close to solutions but NO R&D finance - its all gone to planting trees that would have grown anyway (with the extra CO2), useless panels and li-ion batteries!

COP27 Dream Team Out comes:

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This thought leadership article was originally shared with Energy Central's Clean Power Community Group. The communities are a place where professionals in the power industry can share, learn and connect in a collaborative environment. Join the Clean Power Community today and learn from others who work in the industry.

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