[ExI] Silence in the sky-but why?

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sun, Sep 22, 2013 at 06:35:47PM +0200, Tomaz Kristan wrote:

> Isn't wind and solar always there? At least as I understand you posts about
> this matter?

The energy flux is sure there, but you need to invest energy in 
order to be able to tap that flux. 

The only useful wind (with wortwhile EROEI) are large >1 MW
installations, nevermind grid upgrades and storage buffers
necessary to make use of a large fraction of wind.
PV is sure smaller-grain, but if everybody suddenly decides
to buy a few measly 100 Wp overnight you'll hit instant production 
limits, nevermind at >30 year life time you need to pay the EI part
of EROEI *now*. No overdraft granted at the energy bank. At 3 TWp/year, 
and EROEI over many years that's a lot of energy you no longer 
have once past energy cliff. Do not ask for credit, you've
been given ample credit already. There's not much more
where that came from.

Renewable deployment rate runs short a factor of 100, and that
deployment gap is cumulative. The longer you wait, the more
it's going to hurt. The energy supply gap means one thing: austerity.
Demand destruction. Cutting back consumption not because it's
a worthwhile thing, but because you no longer can afford it.
Death by a million of papercuts.

The more or less reliable results for today's local national
votes are just in, and the majority emphatically does not
want the Energiewende, having ousted the neoliberals (FDP)
but having issued a vote of confidence for Merkel (CDU/CSU),
which are staunchly anti-renewable.

In case you were wondering whether we really are yeast:
yes, we are. We can't deny it. 
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