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National Geographic published an interesting article about renewable energy myths.
Still, myths about renewable energy are commonplace, says Andy Fitch, an attorney at Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law who coauthored a report rebutting dozens of misconceptions. This misinformation, and in some cases, purposeful disinformation, may lead people to oppose renewable projects in their communities. Support for wind farms off New Jersey, for example, dropped more than 20 percent in less than five years after misleading and false claims began circulating.
"It's easy to prick holes into the idea of an energy transition," because it is a new concept to many people, Fitch says.
Myth #1 Renewable energy is unreliable.
There will always be days when clouds cover the sun or the wind is still. But those conditions are unlikely to occur at the same time in all geographic areas. "There's always a way to coordinate the energy mix" to keep the lights on, Fitch says.Today that coordination generally includes electricity from fossil fuels or coal. In California, where more than half the state's power now comes from solar, wind, and other renewables, natural gas and other non-renewables generate the rest.
Improvements in storage technology will also increasingly allow renewable energy to be captured during sunny or windy days. Already, some 10 percent of California's solar-powered energy is saved for evening use.
Myth #2 Rooftop solar is super pricey.
Back in 1980, solar panels cost a whopping $35 (in today's dollars) per watt of generated energy. In 2024 that figure fell to 26 cents. Solar has become so cost-efficient that building and operating the technology is now cheaper over its lifespan than conventional forms of energy like gas, coal, and nuclear power.Homeowners also save a significant amount of money after rooftop solar is installed, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. (The method remains cost effective, even after federal subsidies to purchase the panels ceased late last year.) A family who finances panels might save close to a thousand dollars a year in their electric bills, even taking into account payments on the loan.
Myth #3 Wind power inevitably kills wildlife.
With hundreds of thousands of turbines in operation, wind power now makes up eight percent of the world's energy. But alongside these sprouting modern windmills has come stories of birds, whales, and even insects and bats killed or injured in their presence.In some cases, wind energy can cause a small fraction of wildlife deaths, but they "pale in comparison to what climate change is doing to [the animals'] habitat," says Douglas Nowacek, a conservation technology expert at Duke University. "If we're going to slow down these negative changes, we have to go to renewable energy."
When it comes to whales or other marine mammals, "we have no evidence—zero" that any offshore wind development has killed them, says Nowacek, who studies this as lead researcher in the school's Wildlife and Offshore Wind program. (Most die instead from ship strikes and deadly entanglements in commercial fishing gear.)
Myth #4 Electric cars can't go far without recharging.
Electric vehicles are an important element of the transition to renewable energy because, unlike gas-powered cars, they can be charged by solar and wind energy. EVs are also more energy efficient, since they use nearly all of their power for driving, compared with traditional cars' use of just 25 percent. (Most of the rest is lost as heat.)Concerns that EVs can't make it to their destination likely spring from early prototypes, when cars developed in the 1970s got less than 40 miles per charge. Today, some 50 models can go more than 300 miles, with some topping 500.
Worries about the longevity of EV batteries are also unfounded. Only one percent of batteries manufactured since 2015 have had to be replaced (outside of manufacturing recalls, which have been negligible in recent years). Studies done by Tesla found the charging capacity in its sedans dropped just 15 percent [PDF] after 200,000 miles.
Myth #5 Renewables are on track to solve the climate crisis.
The world is in a better place than it would be without renewables. Before the 2015 Paris Agreement called for this energy transition, experts had forecast 4°C planetary warming by 2100; now they expect it to stay under 3°C, according to a recent report by World Weather Attribution, a climate research group. But even this target "would still lead to a dangerously hot planet," the report states. Last summer Hawaiian observatories documented carbon dioxide concentrations above 430 parts per million—a record breaking high far above the 350 PPM Paris target.To sufficiently slow climate warming, experts say wind generation must more than quadruple its current pace by 2030, and solar and other renewables must also be more widely adopted. Yet while global investments for renewable energy rose 10 percent in the first half of last year, it fell by more than a third in the U.S.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 12, @06:54PM (10 children)
> France, $0.28 per KwH
Yeah, France is a great "typical" country to look at electricity costs for reference. /s
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 23, @04:03AM (9 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday January 23, @04:29PM (8 children)
All the world loves a fission power plant, especially Germany - NOT.
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 23, @08:02PM (7 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday January 23, @09:06PM (6 children)
And more well established villages being consumed by strip mines for coal.
I knew a German who was graduating from Gymnasium (13th grade) around 1990. Their class voted to print their Yearbook (you know, those things you stick in a box in the attic and maybe pull out to look at once, 40 years after you put it in the box) on unbleached recycled paper. Brilliant, their graduating class avoided putting 27 pounds of chlorine into the environment AND saved 2.3 trees. In exchange, not only does the Yearbook cost 30% more, but the paper self destructs after 5 years making the text and photos contained therein inaccessible. This was 1990, there was no digital online archived version, it was just... gone. Not that a yearbook is a terribly important thing in the greater scheme, but if you REALLY want to save the environment, don't print the damn thing at all - have a slide show at some graduation party and be done with it.
These are the same geniuses who decided to end domestic nuclear power, not because the options were better, just because they decided they don't like nuclear. Did they reduce their electricity use? Of course not. They did, however, install so much rooftop and balcony solar that they run surplus supply on those 83 days a year when the sun actually shines.
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 24, @04:48AM (5 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 24, @03:26PM (4 children)
Incase you're not feigning a "whoosh" - you compared France to Germany for electrical generation, and they're pretty much polar opposites on their nuclear stances.
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 24, @04:43PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 24, @04:58PM (2 children)
I thought about that literally decades ago: France's lesson to the world on electrical power generation? Nuclear is cheap, and safe.
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 24, @05:31PM (1 child)
You too? Small world, eh?
Let's hearken back to my distant original point which remains unsullied. We have this alleged "myth" of expensive roof top solar. Yet when we compare countries that have heavily embraced solar and wind power, we find higher priced electricity - such as the comparison of France to Germany (the latter with heavy solar and wind). If solar is so cheap, that shouldn't be the case. That leads to my conclusion that the myth wasn't a myth.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 24, @06:48PM
>We have this alleged "myth" of expensive roof top solar
Well, when you get a bunch of NIMBY-Green Germans twits implementing it in a high-latitude cloudy location, likely with lots of tree shade to contend with in most installations, you can definitely make roof top solar expensive. Far far more expensive than in, say: Arizona.
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