This is a highly readable and important read. I learned about what looks to be a coming diesel crisis. And it confirms that the US now does not give even a superficial damn about law. It will do what its richest want https://mstdn.social/@markhburton/115903939035687800
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More great stuff from @markhburton and colleagues here, on the ‘Renewables, carbon and the energy crisis’.
“right wing critics are largely denying the impact of fossil fuels on emissions …, but the net zero lobby is pursuing strategies that are inadequate and simplistic. If we truly want net zero, then the only way forward is *down*, with far less overall energy use and less complex technology.”
https://gettingreal.org.uk/renewables-carbon-and-the-energy-crisis-html-version/
…“Each tonne of metallurgical grade silicon requires 20 MWh of electricity and releases 5 to 6 tonnes of CO2.”
Oops.
“Then more fossil fuels are burned for the polysilicon, ingot, wafer, cell, and module production steps. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of solar panel manufacture is the use of wood products…
…“Silicon smelters around the world use charcoal from many sources, so solar silicon may be smelted with charcoal made directly from rainforest trees that were not grown on plantations.
Hardwood Chips (AKA Metchips) – Matchbox-sized fragments of shredded hardwood must be mixed into the silicon smelter pot for several reasons – to allow the reactive gases to circulate, so the liquid silicon that forms can settle to the bottom for tapping, and to allow the resulting CO … to escape safely…
…“No silicon smelter can function without this moist, low-impurity bulking agent added to the charge as up to ~60% of the mixture. Thus, perpetual deforestation is an inherent component of solar PV production”
(And I presume chip fab as well? Oh hello computing)
…“It is because of these considerations that ‘renewables’ has been written with inverted commas in this piece.
They are more accurately “non-renewable systems for capturing flows of renewable energy”.
The energy flows that are captured are indeed renewable, but the systems for making that capture, sadly, are not.”
@urlyman
A short summary article here with links to both pdf and the above html versions of the full report.
https://degrowthuk.org/2025/08/01/renewables-carbon-and-the-energy-crisis/
