When the Sun Goes Down, or the Wind Isn't Blowing

Energy Secretary Doug Burgum was testifying in Congress, and he was asked by more than one person about wind turbines and solar panels. Burgum answered the question before the end of its formation.

He pointed out that wind turbines don’t create energy if there isn’t enough wind, and solar panels don’t produce any energy when it’s dark. And he was right. But he and his questioners were talking about opposite things. His questioners were talking about alternate sources of energy, and Burgum was talking about how essential were sources like burning oil or coal, or operating nuclear energy plants.

The Congressman who was given the answer about how solar panels don’t produce any energy when the sun goes down asked for inclusion in the record of a remarkable device called a “battery,” which he argued the Chinese, for example, are using with very satisfying benefit.

And if Burgum had replied that there might be days in a row when there’s little or no active enough wind, there are certainly not days in a row when there’s no sunlight. So the Congressman appeared to have made an excellent point that using batteries to store electricity is a very good idea.

I heard two different clips of two different Congresspeople questioning Burgum, with the same response, but I don’t know if the other problem was addressed.

Wind might be irregular, and sunlight is not continuous, but both occur. And will continue to occur indefinitely. Wind and sunlight are referred to as “renewable” sources of energy. But Burgum’s preference is to rely on burning energy sources that are fossils of one kind or another. They are not renewable. As world population increases, and as more things rely on energy, energy companies, and the countries where they are, work increasingly hard to find and access these non-renewable fossil sources. Over time, the price rises. At some point, these non-renewable fossil sources will be gone, and we’ll have to do what some of us have tried so desperately hard not to do. Or even think about.

And as we keep our heads buried in the sand about the inevitable end of non-renewable fossil sources of energy, and the damage they do in the process of getting them to release that energy, we do increasing damage to the planet. The “there’s no planet B” planet.

So Burgum is right that most renewable sources, except maybe water, don’t reliably and continuously produce energy. But he’s wrong to think that’s the end of the discussion. I, for example, have solar panels on my roof. I produce more electricity than I consume probably every day, and most certainly every month. I do not yet have batteries, because when I got the panels, there were no batteries I could use every day without eroding them. Now, there are. And I have an electric car. I can now operate almost all of the energy-requiring parts of my life without burning anything. I myself am old enough that the availability of non-renewable sources of energy will outlive me. But they won’t outlive everyone for the next couple of generations.

As I said, we will all eventually do what some of us have tried so desperately not to have to do. And since delaying causes damage, it’s better to do it now. Even though a brisk wind isn’t reliable all the time, and the sun is only “up” for half of every day.