This is why the people who are screaming about all the carbon in the environment do not understand, everything takes power to produce, and no one is willing to give up on their widgets.
... BTW Solar and Wind is not the answer, it can never produce enough energy run all the manufacturing. Keep in mind Manufacturing use big power high wattage, High Voltage and High Current.
Can you sit down and think about what you just said in bold, ask yourself why you thought and wrote it down, please? You are implying that electrical circuits don’t work, which they obviously do.
“First US steel plants powered by wind, solar energy are coming for industry with big carbon footprint
Nucor’s $250 million micromill in Sedalia, Missouri, is set to be the first U.S. steel plant to run on wind energy.
A recycled steel plant run by EVRAZ in Colorado is transitioning from coal to solar in a partnership with Xcel Energy and a solar developer half owned by BP.
The Nucor plant will employ around 250 people and will use energy produced by Evergy, including from a new wind farm, to power electric arc furnaces that will melt scrapped steel and turn it into new, recycled steel.”
These are small plants, but it is a start. They aren’t smelting iron with electricity just yet, but that’s going to follow a similar trajectory to aluminum smelting. They may do electrolysis like for the Al Apple is buying from Elysis, they can use carbon neutral fuels for heating, or they can even use solar concentrators that Bill Gate’s has a hand in.
The technological solutions will all be there for a 100% renewable electricity based economy. It will require processes to mature, an evolved grid design & electricity market, and different political structures/agreements to get there, but there aren’t any showstoppers technology wise. Even air travel will get there. Short flights can be powered by batteries. Long flights can be powered by direct captured, carbon neutral fuels. Same thing for heating and cooking. A refrigerator sized box can be designed that uses solar to extract CO2 from the air, separate the C from the O2, and combined it with H from water, and you can get gas (CH4) to cook and heat your home with, if you so choose or if there is a market for it.
I have made a personal commitment to be totally carbon free, and have totally eliminated that element from my life.
(yes, that was sarcasm...)
It would be great if you were net-neutral CO2 emissions. Carbon is short hand. However, you are part of the carbon cycle, and can’t be carbon free. You eat food which is sourced primarily from CO2 in the atmosphere. Plants are made from CO2 in the air, water, and photosynthesis. That carbon can go through several cycles of animals before it reaches you. You ultimately used it to build your body and after maturity, you are mostly in an equilibrium point of eating carbon and excreting carbon, CO2, and others through your body’s orifices.
The cause of global warming is that we are digging up hundreds to tens of millions of year old carbon from the ground, burning, and releasing its exhaust into the air. This is adding CO2 and other greenhouse gasses into the air, which is causing the surface of the planet to heat up. The downstream consequences of this have been discussed ad infinitum. We fix it be changing how we generate energy, and we have the technological means to do this through renewable energy. It’s just a technology transition in how we generate energy.
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(yes, that was sarcasm...)
Then, by coincidence in timing with your post, there is this bit of news:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/07/first-us-steel-plants-powered-by-wind-solar-energy-are-coming.html
It would be great if you were net-neutral CO2 emissions. Carbon is short hand. However, you are part of the carbon cycle, and can’t be carbon free. You eat food which is sourced primarily from CO2 in the atmosphere. Plants are made from CO2 in the air, water, and photosynthesis. That carbon can go through several cycles of animals before it reaches you. You ultimately used it to build your body and after maturity, you are mostly in an equilibrium point of eating carbon and excreting carbon, CO2, and others through your body’s orifices.
The cause of global warming is that we are digging up hundreds to tens of millions of year old carbon from the ground, burning, and releasing its exhaust into the air. This is adding CO2 and other greenhouse gasses into the air, which is causing the surface of the planet to heat up. The downstream consequences of this have been discussed ad infinitum. We fix it be changing how we generate energy, and we have the technological means to do this through renewable energy. It’s just a technology transition in how we generate energy.