Energy Factoid: The copper required to replace 80% of fossil fuel energy today with wind and solar highlights the impossibility of the task
Posted 3-22-2023 on Linkedin by Hooman Askari, Professor Mining Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada
Hooman Askari• 2nd• 2ndProfessor at University of Alberta professor at the University of Alberta
✅ Based on the report by Geological Survey of Finland - The Mining of Minerals and the Limits to Growth
✅ To replace 80% of energy coming today from fossil fuels by wind and solar this is what we need:
✅ 2.1 million wind turbines
✅ 27.6 billion solar panels
✅ To only look at one metal – Copper - that is required to make this happen
✅ We will need 4.5 billion tonnes of copper > this is 6 times more copper than has been mined in the history of mankind!
✅ If we redirect all the copper mining capacity in the world towards this goal – it will take 190 years to accomplish!
✅ Even if we can wait the 190 years – 4.5 billion tonnes of copper is 5 times more than all the proven copper reserves in the world!
✅ And this does not include the copper required for new power transmission lines.
✅ And this is only for the first generation of solar panels and wind turbines!
Thanks, John. The same problem is true for dozens of other minerals and rare earth minerals that are required for wind turbines, solar panels and batteries. Green dreams are rapidly becoming nightmares.
While the Green Climate alarmist tilt at windmills and chase the impossible dream of energy independence without fossil fuels the facts keep getting in the way. The lack of Copper availability is just one of a myriad of problems of their quest. I guess we could go back to the 1950s and reintroduce aluminum wiring, as that turned out well…NOT!