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Half of Scotland's Energy Consumption Came From Renewables Last Year (heraldscotland.com)
An anonymous reader quotes an article on Herald Scotland: Scotland has met a key target for renewable energy consumption, according to official figures. Statistics published by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change show 57.7% of Scottish electricity consumption came from renewables in 2015 -- 7.7% ahead of the 50% target. The SNP welcomed the figures and pledged to bring forward plans to go further if re-elected in May. Deputy First Minister and SNP campaign director John Swinney said: "The SNP have long championed green energy and these new figures show the huge progress we have made - but we are determined to go even further.
That must be really poor if half of your energy production is consumed by your renewables. We finally know the truth that renewables consume energy... Or the editor doesn't know how to write a title!
Which doesn't count because...?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Sharp readers will notice that the summary contradicts the headline, then makes a meaningless calculation, dividing apples by oranges.
First, as is typical of green fluff pieces, they conflate energy with electricity. Electricity accounts for about 35% of Ireland's energy usage. If renewables provided half of the -electricity-, that would be 17% of the -energy-.
Secondly, they've improperly conflated consumption with production. You could produce terawatts of energy in the summer and use to heat molten salt for a month and that does squat for you when the bulk of consumption is winter heating.
Roughly 8% of energy consumed was produced by renewable sources. This is hard to measure for certain, so call it 5%-15%.
Electricity consumption has dropped by 15% as prices have increased over the last five years in order to pay for the more-expensive renewables. If we add back the 15% of electricity people wanted but weren't able to use because it was too expensive, we get 35% of 35% = 12% of Ireland's energy needs were matched by their renewable production.
If the paragraph above doesn't isn't entirely clear, consider this. The government could shut down all gas pumps, all natural gas service, and most of the electric power plants, then correctly claim that 100% of their energy consumed was coming from renewables. That would be true, but horribly misleading because it measures energy consumed rather than energy demand - what people WANTED to use. The article has committed the same error, in a less extreme fashion, by ignoring the drop in consumption caused by higher prices - people wanted to continue to use more energy, but couldn't do so with the same paycheck.
How is nuclear a renewable? You still needed fissile materials, and those are pulled out of the ground just like fossil fuels.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Actually, thermodynamics tells that ALL the energy is not renewable... entropy and stuff...
To the contrary. The first law of thermodynamics tells us that all energy is conserved. You don't have to ever worry about energy conservation: the laws of physics guarantee it will happen.
Usable energy... now, that's a different case.
And fossil fuels aren't "old-ass technology"?
Not nearly as environmentally destructive as fossil fuels. Have you have been to coal country? Have you seen what coal mines do to the land?
That's really a stretch. Some places have sunshine. Some have geothermal. Some have wind. Nobody is saying everywhere has to have hydro power, but if you have it, yes, it's a renewable resource and yes, it limits the amount of fossil fuels you have to dig up and burn.
So there's absolutely no reason that hydro energy shouldn't be considered an important part of the basket of renewables.
You are welcome on my lawn.
There is a peak for every non renewable resource at a certain cost.
Once alternatives are found for that non-renewable resource then demand for it at the higher prices will collapse.
There is plenty of gold available at $10,000 per oz. But we'll probably never mine it.
Alternative energy and electric cars are collapsing the maximum price of oil. There may be lots of oil available at $200 a barrel-- but we may never collect it.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Not to mention, 4) pumped hydro storage is the perfect complement for all that excess wind power they've got so much of - and they're increasingly taking advantage of that fortuitous combination.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
California hopes to have 50% of their electricity from renewables by 2030. If Scotland has already achieved this then it is likely California lacks ambition.
Here in California, we shit ambition and wipe with the non-believers. Just take a look at our proposed high speed rail line! Nobody said we had the money to make anything happen, though. But anyway, wind farms kill birds, so PETA will fights those. We're out of water, so hydro is no go. Solar? The hippies up north will cry if we trap the spirit of mother Gaia for our selfish needs. Wave generators? Save the whales! Nukes? Jesus Christ, haven't you been listening? And thus it always goes around here. So much butthurt, so little progress, and no funding.