A Quote by Michael Shellenberger

Solar makes electricity expensive for two inherently physical reasons. Sunlight is dilute, requiring 10 to 15 times as much materials and mining, and up to 5,000 times more land, than non-renewables. And sunlight is unreliable, which reduces the value of solar as it becomes a larger part of energy supplies.

Michael Shellenberger

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Becomes Electricity Energy Expensive Inherently Land Larger Makes Materials Mining More Much Part Physical Reasons Solar Sunlight Supplies Than Times Two Unreliable Up Value Which

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Michael Shellenberger
American - Author
Born: 1971

Sunlight and wind are inherently unreliable and energy-dilute. As such, adding solar panels and wind turbines to the grid in large quantities increases the cost of generating electricity, locks in fossil fuels, and increases the environmental footprint of energy production.

Michael Shellenberger

The value of solar and wind decline in economic value as they become larger shares of the electricity grid for physical reasons. They produce too much energy when societies don't need it and not enough energy when they do.

Michael Shellenberger

The sunlight ... that strikes Earth’s land surface in two hours is equivalent to total human energy use in a year. While much of that sunlight becomes heat, solar energy is also responsible for the energy embodied in wind, hydro, wave, and biomass, each with the potential to be harnessed for human use. Only a small portion of that enormous daily, renewable flux of energy will ever be needed by humanity.

Christopher Flavin

We live in a world bathed in 5,000 times more energy than we consume as a species in the year, in the form of solar energy.

Peter Diamandis

The underlying problem with solar and wind is that they are too unreliable and energy-dilute.

Michael Shellenberger

I actually argue that renewables are worse than fossil fuels. It's a physical manifestation of lower power densities. More land, more materials, more mining, more metals, more waste.

Michael Shellenberger

We live in a world bathed in 5,000 times more energy than we consume as a species in the year, in the form of solar energy. It's just not in usable form yet.

Peter Diamandis

All renewables thus require a material throughput - from mining to processing to installing to disposing of the materials later as waste - that is orders of magnitude larger than for non-renewable energy sources.

Michael Shellenberger

An acre of windy prairie could produce between $4,000 and 10,000 worth of electricity per year - which is far more than the value of the land's crop of corn or wheat.

Denis Hayes

Seoul citizens are becoming the owners of solar power plants by directly participating in solar generation through installation of mini solar photovoltaic, energy cooperative activities, or raising solar funds.

Park Won-soon

Bringing solar as a renewable energy resource for those who are not able to install solar panels on their roofs allows more communities to benefit from a solar array.

Jeff Van Drew

Since Sunrun introduced solar as a service in 2007, it has become the preferred way for consumers to go solar in the nation's top solar markets. Sunrun has deployed more than $2 billion in solar systems and has raised more than $300 million in equity capital.

Lynn Jurich

There are two kinds of solar-heat systems: passive systems collect the sunlight that hits your home, and active systems collect the sunlight that hits your neighbors' homes, too.

Dave Barry

Tribes have the potential to provide almost 15 percent of the country's electricity with wind power, and have 4.5 times the solar resources to power the entire U.S.

Winona LaDuke

Solar and wind advocates say cheaper solar panels and wind turbines will make the future growth in renewables cheaper than past growth but there are reasons to believe the opposite will be the case.

Michael Shellenberger

It is sunlight in modified form which turns all the windmills and water wheels and the machinery which they drive. It is the energy derived from coal and petroleum (fossil sunlight) which propels our steam and gas engines, our locomotives and automobiles. ... Food is simply sunlight in cold storage.

John Harvey Kellogg

A Quote by Michael Shellenberger

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