Swapping fossil fuel with green energy trades one dictator for another

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and different world leaders, particularly in Europe, are touting wind and solar energy to finish Europe’s dependency on Russia for 45% of its pure fuel and 25% of its oil.

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They declare it’s the answer to world power safety threatened by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

As Trudeau lately put it:

“What we’re seeing is a shift in Europe and elsewhere to grasp that Russia is now not a dependable accomplice. What Vladimir Putin has damaged here’s a belief. We can be there to assist, because the world strikes past Russian oil and certainly, past fossil fuels, to have extra renewables in our combine.”

There’s just one downside.

Changing fossil fuels with wind and solar energy means changing reliance on one dictator with one other — Chinese language president Xi Jinping — as a result of China dominates the worldwide renewable power market.

It provides 85% of the parts for wind generators, builds half of them and manufactures 70% of photo voltaic panels.

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It additionally mines 90% of lithium-ion and 85% of uncommon earth parts utilized in wind generators, photo voltaic panels and electrical car batteries.

Utilizing its low labour prices and economies of scale, China — infamous for its lengthy document of commercial espionage, mental property theft and spying on political opponents — has been driving its worldwide rivals in inexperienced power out of enterprise, in addition to investing in wind and solar energy corporations overseas.

The world’s largest producer of commercial greenhouse fuel emissions linked to local weather change — it burns extra coal yearly than the developed world mixed — China has used its market may to concurrently place itself because the world’s main provider and producer of inexperienced power.

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What if, in some unspecified time in the future in future, China decides to invade Taiwan with the world now as depending on China’s inexperienced power as Europe is at present on Russia’s fossil gas power?

Whereas Trudeau and European politicians discuss changing Russian oil and pure fuel with wind and solar energy, the truth is neither can substitute fossil gas power as a result of, in contrast to them, they can’t present base load energy to the electrical energy grid on demand.

For that cause, wind and solar energy are sometimes backed up by pure fuel power to cowl the occasions when inexperienced power goes offline as a result of the wind isn’t blowing — or isn’t blowing on the proper velocity — or the solar isn’t shining.

China’s rivals overseas complain that along with excessive prices and financial losses, extreme authorities regulation and provide chain disruptions brought on by the worldwide pandemic are slowing the expansion of the renewable power trade all through Europe.

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Wind and photo voltaic tasks in Europe are additionally dealing with growing opposition from residents’ teams indignant concerning the large quantity of land they take up for comparatively low power manufacturing and the injury they trigger to wildlife, fish, and vegetation, in addition to spinning wind generators killing birds and bats. Noise from generators is one other challenge.

All of this makes predictions that Europe will meet its 2030 targets for lowering greenhouse fuel emissions, a lot much less considerably scale back its reliance on oil and pure fuel, a pipe dream.

In simply two years, we’ve seen first the pandemic after which Putin’s invasion of Ukraine six weeks in the past, flip years of worldwide power predictions on their heads.

It’s additionally a warning that through the transition of our financial system from fossil fuels to renewable power, a very powerful job of the federal authorities can be to make sure the home power safety of Canadians.

lgoldstein@postmedia.com