Net Zero Fools and the Power Grid
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Oh, we’re going to be net zero. We’re going to be net zero by 2040 or 20. Oh, shut up. Shut up, Biden. Shut up, EU. Shut up, Davos crowd. Shut up, Greta. All right, here is the, here’s some numbers for you. I know, I know. Again, you lefties out there, you don’t like dealing in math, okay? I know, okay? But you’re going to have to bear with me here for a second.
The International Energy Agency said this week that 49.7 million miles of transmission lines. 49.7 million miles of transmission lines. Now, math, that will wrap around the planet 2,000 times. 2,000 times. That’s what will have to be built and or replaced.
by 2040 so you can get your net zero emissions goals. What does that actually mean? So, well, first and foremost, that means we’re gonna have to send a lot more money to China. Gonna have to send a hell of a lot more money to China. And that means China is gonna have to build some more coal fired plants because we need all of those metals that they mine in China.
Yeah, yeah. And again, these are just the transmission lines. This is not the last mile lines in cities and whatnot to put up all of the chargers. So a great investment, according to the International Energy Agency, is needed to carry additional renewable energy as the world deploys more electric vehicles, installs more electric heating and cooling systems, and scales up hydrogen production using electrolysis.
$600 billion a year is going to need to be spent on grid upgrades by 2030. $600 billion annually. Hmm. Now, all the fossil fuels and, God forbid, let’s be intelligent and use nuclear. Solar and wind projects, yeah, they’re miles away from population centers.
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That means long transmission lines, some under the sea to take electricity from offshore wind installations, tens of thousands of extra power transformers. Again, they can’t even find those things nowadays. They’re gonna be needed to step up and down voltage along the way. Again, great piece today in the Wall Street Journal. This is gonna cost trillions of dollars and require enormous quantities of metals, copper and aluminum.
are the principal materials from the manufacture of cables and lines. Transmission lines also need insulators, such as cross-linked polyethylene and ethylene propethylene polymer, both derived from oil. Yes, fossil fuels. So you’re gonna need to keep drilling, baby, in order to get your green dreams. Transformers.
are made from the same specialized steel used in charging stations for electric vehicles. Smaller transformers require non-oriented electrical steel used in EV motors. Now, what’s going on with all this green energy gold rush? You’ve got shortages of both types. Buyers of transformers wait right now. What’s the log times? 18 months.
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months. So again, not to mention that, you know, that already half the transmission lines, distribution lines in the United States are more than 20 years old. Again, where’s all the stuff going to come from? Where’s all the materials going to come from? How many times we’ve talked about putting the cart before the horse? China?
China dominates global copper, steel, and aluminum production. Again, why? Well, lacks, lacks environmental controls, low labor costs. Over the past 20 years, primary aluminum production has increased ninefold in China while declining 68% in the United States. Metal manufacturing takes massive amounts of power and coal accounts for 60% of China’s electrical generation.
So the path to net zero is gonna involve emitting a lot of CO2. Not to mention the fact, you just, how blatantly idiotic our government is. It’s like it’s some sort of weird split personality where one side doesn’t know what the other side is doing. If we need all this, this is what you’re heading towards right now, right?
You do realize that we’re going to need China. Yet, I guess right now, according to Mitch McConnell, there’s a new axis of evil. He declared it this weekend on Meet the Press. New axis of evil. Whatever George W. Bush was, was Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Well, Iraq and North Korea, you have been kicked off George W. Bush’s, the United States axis of evil. It’s now, Iran is still on it.
Wait, Newton, step on down. China and Russia, they’re now part of the new axis of evil. So we need one of the, we need the axis of evil to have our green dreams. You can’t make this stuff up if you wanted to. You can’t, you really can’t. How dysfunctional, how dysfunctional our government is. Watchdog on wallstreet.com.
