Wind and Solar FAIL to reduce emissions

submitted by iamonlyoneman from (wattsupwiththat.com)

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[–]iamonlyoneman[S] 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

A 0.9% decrease was found over 10 years, which would have been a 2.5% decrease

except that

you have to idle coal plants to act as backup for your variable wind and solar output. Ramping them up and down is enormously inefficient and polluting compared to running at peak efficiency (heavy load all the time).

[–]jet199 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

Can we not use hydropower dams to a better effect?

[–]iamonlyoneman[S] 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Not where there's no mountain reservoirs or giant caverns, no

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

If we did then everyone would be doing it all up and down all the rivers. That's not the centralized power they want us to need.