Episode 22: The Problem With Renewable Energy

[@ianmiles6634]

Agree solar panels are exponentially becoming more efficient and cheaper in price too! Tis a shame about the Severn tidal project :/

[@Group51]

124 million for wind farms, but how much tax relief do we give oil companies?

[@ThegreenageCoUk]

Definitely agree, Christopher. The UK have the biggest fossil fuel subsidies in the entire EU - despite all the talk from our politicians, the amount we spend on supporting fossil fuels (around £10.5bn a year) has gone almost unchanged for over a decade. In comparison, renewable subsidies are closer to £7.6bn. It's a huge problem, and definitely shows the hold that oil, coal and gas have in this country, both politically and economically. The thing about the constraint payments for windfarms is that until our grid becomes smarter and energy storage becomes better, that number is going to rise massively as we continue to invest in intermittent technologies without any kind of plan for how to handle them properly. We need to develop our infrastructure to handle the issue.

[@markwelsch940]

I wish we could export our wind energy from Nebraska, USA to the UK. We are known as the Saudi Arabia of wind power. We just need to build more wind towers like they have already done in Iowa, Colorado and other states in the US.

[@mil3761]

Lithium is not a rare earth metal. In fact, none of the other metals that go into a battery (e.g. nickel, cobalt, manganese) are rare earth either.

[@esbernjakobsen2955]

This could have been a really high-quality discussion but utterly ruined by the guy on the left, with his constant interjection of meaningless remarks, and distracting mannerisms interrupting the flow of the discussion. After 10 minutes they still hadn't gotten anywhere in the debate.

[@mil3761]

The fossil fuel industry has massive subsidies yet that isn't talked about. Neither is the fact that companies are not charged for the damage caused by the carbon they emit. A carbon tax only covers the environmental damage caused by the carbon. This cost will need to be paid for at some point by human kind so why not make the emitters pay for it. If you're talking about letting market forces decide then first factor in all the costs for environmental damage, remove all subsidies, do this for fossil fuels as well as nuclear, and then let market forces decide.