Stradageek wrote:I've read lots on this topic and also recently attended a talk by Mike Berners-Lee who does seem to have his head screwed on.
The most telling statistic I've gleaned is that if we use renewables to power everything and ditch both fossil fuels and nuclear altogether, we will need to reduce our overall energy consumption to about 10% of what it is now. Renewables simply cannot produce more than this even with acres of solar panels and wind farms and tidal schemes etc. etc.
This will take time and most importantly, unpopular legislation. So with a world run by self serving, careerist politicians I see little hope.
Which is sad because well insulated zero carbon houses can be built (but will seriously erode property developers profits). We could cycle and walk almost everywhere - if towns were redesigned to eliminate the need for cars. We could stop buying throw away goods but again we would only really do this in meaningful numbers if they were legislated against.
Somewhat depressing.
A source for this 10% figure would be nice. I don't think it's correct.
The "purist" vision for a zero Carbon Britain is from the rather excellent Centre for Alternative Technology (you may not agree with them, but they do a proper analysis and don't pretend magical solutions exist) on a practical way to go 100% renewables reckon a 60% reduction in overall energy demand is required:
It's well worth a read, both summary and full report. https://www.cat.org.uk/info-resources/z ... he-future/
Personally, I'd keep nuclear.