"This is nuts:" European power prices go negative as springtime renewables soar

[NNadir]

16. I'm certainly not looking for anyone to pay me anything.

I just want to stop people from exploiting other people with oblivious ruthlessness. Of course, Elon Musk isn't oblivious so much as ruthless.

The fact is, however, as air pollution is killing 7 million people per year, that the specious claim that "batteries are the answer" to address exactly how useless wind and solar is - an unworkable bandaid for an already unworkable system - is merely a glib toleration of these deaths.

Now, I'm sure their are provinical battery systems built for provinicials who buy little greeting cards for one another certifying that the cobalt in their batteries was sustainably mined.

I understand how provinicials think. I used to be one after all, and like to hold myself forth as an example of how a provincial can become worldly.

There is not enough cobalt on this planet to back up even the worthless 12 Exajoules that wind and solar produced combined in 2021, after at 3.331 trillion dollar investment in this soon to rot garbage over a period of just 15 years.

I made this point, citing data on Apartheid Boy Musk's Tesla Powerwalls as grid power here:

The Number of Tesla Powerwalls Required That Would Address the Current German Dunkleflaute Event.

Some text:

The Last 30 Days of German Electricity Production, Carbon Intensity and "Percent Talk" Sources.

For the calculations in this post, I will rely on the 30 day results found on the Electricity Map for Germany for the period from November 15, 2022 to December 14, 2022, during which the average continuous carbon dioxide intensity for Germany was 693 g CO2/kWh.

By contrast, over the same period, the carbon intensity of France, even though its once magnificent nuclear infrastructure is damaged by a dubious decision to defer maintenance and upgrades in order to fund the useless "solar and wind will save us" fantasy, still had a was 137 g CO2/kWh, roughly, in "percent talk" 19.8% that of Germany, or put it another way, German electricity is 505% dirtier than that of France.

Continuing with the calculation:

... Here are the specifications of Tesla Powerwalls®: Specifications of Powerwalls®.

It is claimed they have a useable capacity of 13.5 kWh after being charged with 14 kWh of electricity, presumably at 25°C, with a putative thermodynamic efficiency - should you choose to believe it - of 96%. The maximum continuous power output is said to be 5 kW. The power requirements to match the combined coal and gas average continuous power of combined German coal and gas over the last 30 days, 44.4 GW would require 8,880,000 million Powerwalls®, to cover each day of Dunkelflaute; for 30 days, given that the wind wasn't blowing that much over that period, 266,400,000 Powerwalls®.

The specifications say that each Powerwall® weighs 114 kg, meaning that 30,369,600,000 kg of Powerwalls® would be required just for Germany.

According to Forbes, 15% of the weight of a Tesla Powerwall is cobalt, mined by Elon's happy Congolese slaves, meaning that the happy Congolese cobalt slaves would be required to mine and isolate 4,555,400 metric tons of cobalt to make Powerwalls® to cover this instance of Dunkleflaute with batteries.

This is 31.63 times as large as the world production of cobalt in 2021 according to the US Geological Survey

I'm sorry!!! I forgot to use "percent talk!" The demand for cobalt to cover month long Dunkleflaute in Germany observed in Nov-Dec 2022 would be 3163% the demand for all the world cobalt supply in 2021...

Batteries are unsustainable with or without Musk's cobalt slaves.

Unfortunately we have people arguing for disastrous policies that they have not made any kind of serious effort or even a lazy effort to understand resources.

Provincials forced into their way of life by a lack of opportunity and/or a lack of resources deserve our attention and care. All of humanity should work to lift them up by giving the resources they need to become fully realized human beings.

On the other hand bourgeois provincials who have access to ways of finding things out but can't be bothered to do so inspire nothing other than a sense of disapproprobation.

We're at 424 ppm of the dangerous fossil fuel waste in the planetary atmosphere, after 50 years of bullshit excuses for the failure of so called "renewable energy" to either address poverty, prevent climate change, and to provide for future generations.

This reactionary exercise has lots of people chanting dogma which has now taken on the quality of religion; no amount of information can move the dogma.

It's appalling. History will not forgive us, nor should it.