In an address hosted in Wellington by the Electricity Retailers and Generators Association on Friday, Liebreich said the world was now “almost in the middle third” of the transition to green energy.
Wind and solar energy accounted for about 90% of all new generation worldwide, while deliveries of cars and light trucks powered by internal combustion engines were falling, after peaking in 2017, he noted.
The Middle East conflict was providing “another turn of the screw” on fossil fuels, he said.
You hear stuff like this a lot, and hey I’m all for more green energy. But cherry picking some stats is not the same as the hard data.
The International Energy Agency lists energy by type, since 1990. The share of global energy from coal, gas or oil was 81.8% in 1990. In 2023 it was 80.7%. Yes fossil fuels are a greater percentage today than in 1990. There has been a big growth in renewables but they remain
Here’s the percentage of each type of energy in 1990 and 2023:
- Oil 37% to 30%
- Coal 26% to 28%
- Gas 19% to 23%
- Biofuels/Waste 10% to 9%
- Nuclear 6% to 5%
- Hydro 2.1% to 2.4%
- Solar/Wind 0.4% to 3.3%
7 comments:
Farriers stats are an effect of short term thinking and political decisions being made to get elected, rather than what we have needed all along: long term thinking science based decisions.
The fact that China is now getting further ahead in the renewables race is all the evidence you need to support this.
With NZ First in the energy and mining companies pockets, we will see NZ falling further behind again. Most of those old buggers won’t be around to see the consequences anyway.
I find the growth in solar and wind energy actually quite disturbing.
Wind Turbines only last about 20 years and after that they end up as landfill. They can't be reused or recycled.
Solar panel have an even shorter life cycle and maintenance on either system is extensive.
Their environmental impacts are also just bloody awful.
Why retrofit a windmill. Let's make all our maritime fleet sail boats too! China is doing well on all energy fronts as it commissions coal and nuclear power plants monthly. A nuclear generator to power 3 million homes fits in a 40ft shipping container. What do you get for a 40 ft wind turbine or solar panel?
Annon 6:08 is on the right track
Think about it in terms of energy density, how much footprint is needed to generate X watts
We are in a somewhat unique position of having many geothermal and hydro options available. Both are far better than wind and solar
We also have large coal reserves. Coal power stations now capture 95+% of polluting emissions, really no issue anymore
Not many engineers or science commenting today. Shame, such discourse used to be for the informed and educated. Carry on then, chaps.
How do you know Anon 9-12 that the commentators here are not from a scientific or engineering background? All you know is that you disagree with them. Doesn't make them wrong.
Time has come to throw green energy liars to the wolves or Auckland Islands, better still a winter camping holiday in Antarctica.
The ERGA speech as David Farrar mentioned above was a talkfest paid for by the consumers , not the executives of Corporate electricity.
NZ does not need the RMA or Net Zero , we need affordable abundant energy . NOW.
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