Despite my skepticism about the effects of CO2 on our climate, I'm actually all in favour of cleaner and more efficient energy supplies. My main objection is with the description of the current and projected levels of CO2 as a pollutant. That's just nonsense.
There are a lot of environmental and health issues related to the mining and transport of fossil fuels, whether coal, oil or gas. These factors should always be taken into consideration when comparing the true cost of different sources of energy.
If wind and solar energy, together with an efficient means of storage, proves to be more efficient and a lower cost than energy from fossil fuels, then I rejoice.
Perhaps the big question is, 'Do the ends justify the means?' Is lying about the climate effects of CO2 justified if the eventual outcome is a cleaner and more efficient energy supply.
Are there any negative effects to such lying? One negative effect that has occurred to me, is that certain forms of energy which can be efficient and clean, using modern technology and the best environmental practices, could be banned on the grounds that they still emit that clean and odourless gas called CO2, even though all the known harmful emissions have been reduced to negligible proportions.
When we do this, we are depriving ourselves (on average) of increased prosperity, not only in terms of the efficiency of energy production, but also in terms of the increased crop production resulting from the fertilization effect of CO2. There might also be future disastrous effects of extreme weather events which we haven't protected ourselves against because of the delusion that reducing CO2 levels will make our climate benign.
On the other hand, without the climate scare of rising CO2 levels, perhaps very little research would be done on alternative energy supplies until a crisis of diminishing fossil fuel reserves eventuated, in fifty or a hundred years or so.
In the state of South Australia recently, there have been some disturbing power outages due to a reliance upon solar and wind power without adequate back-up. Storms and heat waves have been the cause of the disruption of supply.
Our Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has proposed an interesting 'alternative energy supply' solution. We have a massive hydroelectric scheme in the Snowy Mountains in NSW, but the limitations of the hydro-electric power process is that eventually the higher dam will become empty if one releases water continuously for a long period, and electricity supply ceases.
Malcol Turnbull's idea is that we should use the surplus power of windmill farms, which might generate huge amounts of electricity in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep, to pump the water back up to the higher dam so that there is plenty of water that can be released during the times of great need for electricity, such as during a heat wave when everyone turns on their airconditioning. This is perhaps an efficient alternative to battery storage.
Here are a couple of articles describing the proposal:
http://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/is-the-snowy-hydro-scheme-the-smartest-thing-australia-ever-built/news-story/c07c2834a04adac853a220fad2aa01f1http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-16/snowy-hydro-expansion-wont-be-magical-solution-to-power-problems/8360320"It is somewhat ironic that climate change and renewable energy sceptics who have said that solar power and wind power can't be used for baseline energy supply, are now embracing this off-the-shelf bulk standard technology in pumped hydro, which enables wind and solar power to supply our basic energy needs," Dr Pittock said."Another issue is the long term viability of battery storage based upon rare metals such as Lithium and Vanadium. We could easily run out of supplies if battery storage became in high demand.
However, there is good news (I'm an eternal optimist).
"An Adelaide company has developed a silicon storage device that it claims costs a tenth as much as a lithium ion battery to store the same energy, and is eyeing a $10 million public float."
Those of you who identify with Al Gore, jump in quick.
http://www.afr.com/news/silicon-will-blow-lithium-batteries-out-of-water-says-adelaide-firm-20170207-gu7eg7
