Bust

Another day, and another sobering article highlighting the reality of renewable energy. European solar supply chains are going bust. Bankrupt. Those that aren’t going belly up are pausing production, closing factories, and restructuring debt. Moves of a strategic nature which tell of an industry on the rack. The blame burger is cheap imports from China, where the whole industry is fuelled by subsidised coal. Hence the cheap imports. That Europe’s gleaming solar farms are built on subsidised Chinese coal is a further ironic twist to the whole affair. And its not just solar. Wind too has had its high-profile whoopsies, and now certain voices are whispering that Electric Vehicles have peaked. That’s it. Mass adoption is not going to happen. EVs are supposed to reduce carbon emissions, but the whisper is that the accepted wisdom is wrong. Plain wrong. Replacing the old rusty Renault 5 with something shiny and battery powered, may increase carbon emissions. Say WHAT? It’s all down to what emissions you include. How you slice the data. If there is any reliable data. It’s controversial and not good suburban dinner party chat, but the truth often is. It is argued that the energy consumed in all the diesel powered digging up and manufacturing of an EV means that, any carbon savings of silently ghosting the streets of the Mayor’s ULEZ zone, largely vanish. And look at Norway for an example of what happens when subsidies, which appear to be the only way of getting consumers to trade up from the rusty Renault 5, for an example of how it plays out. Not only are the government’s finances under increasing pressure and subsidies being withdrawn, but also despite widespread adoption, EVs don’t appear to have had much impact on either demand for fossil fuels, or carbon emissions. It’s a vexing issue, and wildly unpopular, but with the likes of Hertz cutting their global EV fleet on soggy take up, it is something at least worth thinking about. The heater may not work but perhaps, in the interest of the planet, it may be better to keep the Renault 5 on the school run. For people in the West, long accustomed to a warm and comfortable standard of living, the only sure way to reduce carbon emissions is to change. Consume less. Travel less. Upload fewer cat pictures. But that too, is wildly unpopular.