> Not true. Not even close. Particularly if you move away from optimal solar regions.
Convenient that you just skipped over one of the options that doesn't require "optimal" solar regions.
> In addition to that, manufacturing the grid energy storage capacity required to service planetary scale requirements will result in unspeakable consumption of natural resources (mining), pollution and environmental challenges. Not to speak of the amount of energy required to produce, ship and install such storage systems.
You seem to be making a lot of assumptions that grid storage would be some kind of electrochemical battery. That's unwarranted. There are in fact many storage options available.
> You are confusing things here. It isn't about me, or someone like me, not wanting to "invest in energy storage for whatever reason". Such loaded words too, "not wanting to", implying negative intent and "invest", implying a benefit that clearly might not be there.
No, what I'm doing is telling you that there is a benefit there. Our current grid design is frankly terrible, speaking as an electrical engineer. Grid storage would solve so many problems, make the grid far more robust and simplify the overall design, even if we still burned fossil fuels. You have no idea how much cost, overhead and difficulties there are in actively managing the grid that would just disappear with grid storage. Australia benefitted immensely from the Tesla storage, for example.
> Well, this single variable solution to all of our problems isn't, in fact, a solution to all of our problems. At all. Start digging into what "investing" in this stuff actually means and you might come out of it thinking that coal and natural gas look pretty good in the comparison.
I disagree 100%. I'm aware of the costs and benefits here.
> Setting that aside, you don't get the petroleum byproducts without making fuel.
Even if that were the case, making fuel does not entail burning fuel.
> That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about things like us "saving the planet" by reducing CO2 emissions. Single variable. Complete bullshit.
Not complete, but I agree it's not the full story of the problems we have. The error bars on what problems climate change will cause are wide, but the worst case is truly horrible. All indications are that we're doing worse than we should be, so it's not looking promising.
> Here's an example of how not "green" these things can be. Do you know what you'd have to do to grid scale battery-based storage in the winter in Nebraska or Alaska in order not to lose capacity like crazy (or, even worse, have the plant shut down)? Heat up the batteries and keep them warm. If you think this is going to happen with solar energy...in the dead of winter...with snow and blizzards. Well.
There are plenty of options for using batteries in cold climates that avoid most of the problems you describe, but I'll steelman your position and suppose that any kind of grid storage is completely unusable in Alaska and that it requires fossil fuels.
Are you really saying that because Alaska requires fossil fuels, therefore we should continue to use fossil fuels everywhere else? Because I've already acknowledged that displacing them 100% is probably not an option, but we almost certainly could get to >95%.