The Fight Over 100% Renewables

Energy Gang

Wood Mackenzie

Tech News, Environment, Sustainability, Innovation, Renewable Energy, Technology, Alternative Energy, Energy, News, Cleantech, Wind Energy, Business, Climate Change, Solar Energy

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2017

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A bitter dispute. A clash. A battle royale. Those are just a few descriptions of a new study countering Mark Jacobson's 2015 report showing that we can source 100 percent of America's energy from wind, solar and water. Jacobson's study is controversial. Celebrities like Mark Ruffalo and Bernie Sanders have lauded his work. Other experts have long questioned his assumptions. Jacobson himself has called it the "only moral choice." This week, Twitter erupted with debate over Jacobson's assumptions -- resulting in personal attacks, a litany of tweet storms and wide press coverage. In this episode, we're going to dig into the dispute over 100 percent renewables that has spilled out of academia and into the mosh pit of Twitter and politics. In the second half of the show, we'll focus on reliability and renewables. Does Europe’s better outage record tell us anything about variable wind and solar and the health of the grid? Finally, America just got 10 percent of its electricity from non-hydro renewables. What does that tell us about where we are headed? This podcast is sponsored by KACO New Energy, a leading solar inverter company with superior engineering and unmatched customer service. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Energy Gang Podcast is brought to you by Kako New Energy, the fastest growing solar inverter company in the Americas.
0:07.5	Kako's been in business for more than a century and it's been making superior German quality PV inverters since the 1990s.
0:14.3	In fact, it's been making many of them right in San Antonio, Texas since 2013.
0:18.6	With a wide range of residential, commercial, and utility scale inverters, Kaco works with developers and installers in every corner of the solar market,
0:26.3	making it the preferred brand across the U.S. and throughout the Americas.
0:30.3	Learn more about Kaco Superior Quality and Service at Kako-New Energy.com.
0:36.5	From Green Tech Media, this is the Energy Gang, a weekly digest on energy, clean tech and the environment.
0:45.4	I'm Stephen Lacy. Welcome.
0:49.9	It has been labeled by journalists as a bitter dispute, a Smackdown, even a battle
0:56.9	royal. They are not referring to Floyd Mayweather versus Connor McGregor or
1:01.4	the upcoming season of Game of Thrones.
1:03.8	Rather, those are just a few of the descriptors for a new study countering the notion that we
1:07.6	can source 100% of our energy from wind, solar, and water.
1:11.7	It is a long-running debate that came to ahead this week.
1:14.5	We're going to dig into the dispute over 100% renewables that has spilled out of academia and
1:19.6	into the mosh pit of Twitter and politics.
1:23.0	Then reliability and renewables,
1:24.9	does Europe's better outage record tell us anything
1:27.4	about variable wind and solar and the health of the grid?
1:30.4	Finally, America just got 10% of its electricity from non-hydro renewables in March.
1:35.0	What does that tell us about where we're headed?
1:37.0	If you couldn't tell, there's a theme this week.
	...

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