Re: Magic thinking?

@Jerome Fryer

1. The tech is in use to the largest extend it probably ever will be. Because where are you gonna get the power to pump that water if 80% of your net is renewable, it's night (because, low demand) and it's a still night (pretty common on a continental climate) So your nearest source of power is your own dam. Do you use the power of the dam itself to pump water? Or just shut the dam down?

2. This is already in use, susceptible to problems, inefficient and hellishly expensive to roll out.

3. "Spot price mechanisms are gamed any way you put it. In the end its again only the energy suppliers that benefit.

China and especially India couldn't give a rats ass about renewable energy if the western world wasn't PAYING them to use it. India has clearly stated it would rather roll out nuclear, coal and gas because it's cheaper, easier, faster and more efficient to build. If it wasn't for Europe and the US demanding of India it curtails it's CO output, India would mostly be using combined-cycle gas plants for peak loads and Coal for base-load.

And sorry, but existing industry in western countries is conservative????? I've gotta say, that earns you the "I'm a lazy hippy who has never worked in the industry I criticise" badge. There are SO few companies in the Europe that could be described as conservative or lazy. And if your argument is going to be "wuuhhh, but why doesn't company xxx start building yyy, instead of doing what they've always done" don't bother (you just earned yourself another hippy badge if you did). A company needs to make a profit. That's why it exists. It has a product in which it has built an expertise, it knows what it's making to the smallest detail. Suddenly switching to an entirely different market, or something largely different from what it has been making before is just NOT going to happen. It's too big a risk.

And furthermore the duty to make changes doesn't rest with the industry. It lies with YOU the consumer and the government YOU elect. The industry just responds to demand. If the world actually WANTED renewables rolled out to 80% supply it would happen and the industry would react.

And you know WHY so much of the production of for instance windmills has moved to India, China and Taiwan? Because Western companies realised they couldn't match the price in the MASSIVE amount of manual labour required to make them and that it was cheaper to outsource.