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Fossil fuels
and renewables
To the Editor:
Jackson Morris's article "Fossil Fuels are unreliable," Daily Item, Oct 11, is misleading. True nearly 40% of the natural gas plants in PA failed last winter but why? "Plant operators didn't have the supply of gas they needed and waited far too long to tell anyone they couldn't run. Many plants held gas contracts that didn't provide them with a guaranteed supply, while others dealt with supply cuts because local gas utilities received priority to heat homes." So, is it a reliability issue or a supply issue? Texas plants and pipelines froze because they were not "winterized" properly against unusual extreme cold. But the wind turbines froze as well. Solar panels did save the day because cold only reduces energy generated. Let's review some facts the renewable supporters don't want you to know.
You cannot have renewables without fossil fuels critical to the production of solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries.
Solar panel fields have ecological impacts. Clearing large areas of land can adversely affect native vegetation/wildlife. Manufacturing solar panels requires use of toxic materials like Cadmium telluride and lead (extremely toxic and can cause death/leach out and pollute groundwater causing long-term environmental damage), requires melting silica rock at extremely high temperatures to produce silicon using coal-fired plants and making a 2 ft wide wafer of semiconductors in a solar panel consumes 4,400 gallons of water (water we could drink/irrigate our crops/water our animals). The equivalent of between 1 and 4 tons of coal is used in the manufacture of a single solar panel. By 2030 it is estimated that we could be installing over 350 million solar panels per year generating 7 million metric tons of solar panel waste in our landfills. Currently, 90% of end-of-life panels end up in landfills. Solar produces 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than nuclear energy.
Each wind turbine requires at least 80 gallons of oil as lubricant; a five-megawatt wind turbine can require 700 gallons of lubricant. Replacement cycle -- every 9-16 months. Making the wind turbines that might operate by 2030 requires fossil fuels equivalent to more than 600 Million metric tons of coal. You can't make steel or concrete without coal! Worn out windmill blades in our landfills today laid end to end would cross the USA 3 ½ times.
The new $4 billion EV battery factory in Kansas requires significant amounts of power. Due to its aggressive schedule, it's energy needs will be provided by an upgraded coal-fired power plant.
Despite climate goals, Germany generates more than a third of its electricity from coal-fired power plants; UK, France, Austria, and Netherlands are reopening coal plants to run through "at least 2023" to meet energy demands Sweden dumped renewables target as it seeks more nuclear power.
Renewables depend on fossil fuels but by 2024 we will have no coal, oil, steel plants, or rare earth minerals to produce renewables. China will control renewables making our existence totally dependent on them.
Arthur Keller
Beavertown