Up Renewables Creek without a paddle in a canoe with ruddy great holes in it. We need a better Plan

One based on Reality not Rhetoric would be good

Intro by Jon Davy

The talk in the video below is dynamite.

If the data given by Professor Michaux is remotely correct the plans touted by government to move our energy supply over to renewables (wind, solar, electric vehicles) are blown out of the water.

These technologies as they stand at the moment are a dead end in so far as they require the use of minerals that are not sufficiently abundant to enable us to satisfy our need for energy supply.

In short, we have been conned into placing our hopes for powering our civilisation on wind and solar and these sources are not adequate. Not even close. We need a rethink and we need one fast. we need a plan – a sensible well-reasoned one based on what is actually real and we don’t need more hysteria based on scaremongering.

The solutions ARE out there and ARE workable but we first need to unhitch our hopes from the windmills-and-solar bandwagon on the one hand and, on the other, from the needless unreasoning panic engendered by relentlessly propagandised “climate crisis” hysteria.

We’ve provided a summary of the key points but we highly recommend listening to the whole talk. It is very very eye-opening.

Here’s our summary

According to Professor Simon Michaux – an Associate Professor of Geometallurgy at the Geological Survey of Finland – making enough wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles to replace fossil fuels will require over 4.5 billion tonnes of copper.

The bad news?

The world only mined 24 million tonnes of copper in 2019 – meaning it will take 189 years to produce enough copper to go net zero at current rates of production.

The same goes for nickel.

The world will need just under one billion tonnes of nickel to make enough renewables to replace fossil fuels. But in 2019, the world only mined 2.4 million tonnes of nickel – meaning it will take 400 years to produce enough to go net zero at current rates of production.

The situation gets even worse when it comes to lithium, cobalt and rare earth metals.

It will take 9,920 years to produce enough lithium to go net zero at current rates of production.

It will take 1,733 years to produce enough cobalt to go net zero – most of which would come from Chinese-owned, child mines in the Congo.

In fact, for germanium – a very rare but very important element required for renewable energy technologies – it will take over 29,000 years to produce enough of the metal required to go net zero.

Watch video on YouTube

Use video embed code

<iframe width=”1536″ height=”864″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/MBVmnKuBocc” title=”Assoc Prof Simon Michaux – The quantity of metals required to manufacture just one generation of…” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>

SOURCE: Open University of Queensland

Speaker:  Professor Simon Michaux, Associate Professor of Geometallurgy, Geological Survey of Finland

Abstract:  The quantity of metal required to make just one generation of renewable tech units to replace fossil fuels, is much larger than first thought.  Current mining production of these metals is not even close to meeting demand. Current reported mineral reserves are also not enough in size. Most concerning is copper as one of the flagged shortfalls.  Exploration for more at required volumes will be difficult, with this seminar addressing these issues.

Bio:  Simon Michaux is an Associate Professor of geometallurgy at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) in KTR, the Circular Economy Solutions Unit.  He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Physics and Geology and a PhD in Mining Engineering from the University of Queensland’s JKMRC.  Simon has over 18 years experience in the Australian mining industry in research and development, 12 months at Ausenco in the private sector, and 3 years in Belgium at the University of Liege researching Circular Economy and industrial recycling.  Work experience in Finland has been at GTK has been in the Minerals Intelligence in the MTR unit, before joining the KTR. Simon’s long term objectives include the development and transformation of the Circular Economy into a more practical system for the industrial ecosystem to navigate the twin challenges of the scarcity of technology minerals and the transitioning away from fossil fuels.


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About Steve Cook 2171 Articles
Director, UK Reloaded

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