“Green Breakdown: The Coming Renewable Energy Failure”

By Steve Goreham -- August 22, 2023

Can wind, solar, and batteries replace the hydrocarbon fuels that power our modern industrialized society? Steve Gorham’s new book, Green Breakdown, shows why a forced transition to renewable energy—the Net Zero agenda—is costly, dangerous, and destined for failure. Integrating science, economics, and history, Steve Gorham’s most recent book exposes the weaknesses in green-energy planning and predicts a coming renewable-energy failure.

Green Breakdown is a complete discussion of all facets of the proposed renewable transition, including power plants, home appliances, electric vehicles, ships, aircraft, heavy industry, carbon capture and storage, and the hydrogen economy. Charts, graphs, and references to numerous studies are used to support the analysis. At the same time, the large collection of cartoons, images, and quotes grabs the attention of the reader.

From the Introduction:

“An engineer who attended one of my recent presentations told me his wife had returned her electric vehicle (EV) to Tesla, the manufacturer. Her EV would not charge during the cold Cleveland winter of January 2022. Also in January, more than 100 insurance companies sued Texas electrical grid operator ERCOT because of the grid failure that happened in February 2021 due to the cold weather. The failure resulted in hundreds of deaths and tens of billions of dollars in damages. Former Swiss Environmental Minister Simonetta Sommaruga, seeking ways to reduce energy use, recently advised people to ‘shower together.’ These examples point to growing problems with the world’s rush to transition to renewable energy.”

Use this link to read the rest of the book’s introduction: Introduction.pdf (secureserver.net)

Green Breakdown alerts the reader to these and other questions:

• After almost $4 trillion spent globally on renewable energy from 2000 to 2018, why were coal, oil, and natural gas still providing 81 percent of world energy in 2018, the same share as in 1991?
• If electricity produced by wind and solar is cheaper, why do Denmark and Germany, the European nations with the most wind and solar capacity per person, have the highest electricity prices?
• Since electricity produced by burning biomass emits at least 50 percent more carbon dioxide per megawatt of power than burning coal, why is biomass considered zero emissions?
• If global warming makes storms more frequent, why does data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that hurricane land falls in the United States have been slightly declining since 1850?
• Since less than five watt-hours of every million watt-hours of US electricity consumption are stored in grid-scale batteries, how can batteries solve the problem of wind and solar intermittency?

Here is text from the conclusion of Chapter 10 of Green Breakdown, which is titled “Energy Crisis and the Seeds of Failure”:

“Output from nuclear power grew rapidly from 1956 to 1980. Leaders projected that nuclear would become the dominant source of global electricity. But the nuclear industry ran into cost, safety, and waste concerns as it grew larger. Similarly, wind, solar, and EVs have grown quickly and are projected to dominate the world’s energy systems. When energy sources are small, they can grow rapidly with little negative effect on the overall energy system. But as they grow larger, negative side effects can slow and then halt penetration.

Wind and solar now face mounting problems with poor electrical power reliability from intermittency, local opposition to vast land requirements, transmission infrastructure shortages, and rising electricity bills for rate payers. Electric vehicles encounter rising battery metal costs and charging issues. Biofuels require increasing amounts of land and provide negligible emissions reductions. Accelerating demands for mined metals and rising end-of-life wastes for wind, solar, and EVs sprout as major cost and environmental issues. The push for carbon capture and hydrogen fuel faces insurmountable cost, transport, and scale barriers. With all these problems and the negative side effects, the transition to renewable energy is headed for failure.”

Green Breakdown, like my other books, contains many quotes from scientists, political and business leaders, environmental groups, the United Nations, and other organizations. My website contains an updated list of more than 800 eco-quotes in 37 categories, compiled from his four books. You can find this eco-quote list here: Eco-Quotes – Steve Goreham

Here are a few examples:

“Utah School Gives Kids ‘Disgusting’ Insects to Eat in Class for Climate Assignment on Cows Killing Earth” —Fox News, Mar. 6, 2023

“Increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have helped boost green foliage across the world’s arid regions over the last 30 years through a process called CO2 fertilization, according to CSIRO research.” —Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, July 3, 2013

“Bill Gates Issued a Stark Warning for the World: ‘As Awful as This Pandemic is, Climate Change Could be Worse’” —Business Insider, Aug. 5, 2020

“Adults keep saying, ‘We owe it to the young people to give them hope.’ But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear that I fear every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as if you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house was on fire because it is.” —Greta Thunberg, panel presentation at the World Economic Forum, Jan. 25, 2019

“California Asks Residents Not to Charge Electric Vehicles, Days After Announcing Gas Car Ban” —MyStateLine.com, Aug. 31, 2022

“We have arrived at a moment of decision. Our home—Earth—is in danger. What is at risk of being destroyed is not the planet itself, of course, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human beings.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jan. 28, 2009

“Swedish Scientist Advocates Eating Humans to Combat Climate Change,” “After Söderlund’s presentation, 8% of the audience raised their hands when asked if they would be willing to try human flesh.” —Think Big, Sep. 8, 2019

Green Breakdown is now available from Amazon or bookstores. Ebooks are available from Amazon, Apple, Google, and Barnes and Noble. Steve will send you a signed copy if you buy from his website: Steve Goreham

Please pick up a copy and learn the likely future of the demanded energy transition.

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Steve Goreham is a professional speaker, researcher, independent columnist, and the author of four books on energy, sustainability, climate change, and public policy. His previous posts at MasterResource can be found here.