{"id":262328,"date":"2023-06-16T11:38:10","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T09:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262328"},"modified":"2023-06-16T11:38:13","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T09:38:13","slug":"governments-new-net-zero-plan-might-be-its-most-idiotic-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262328","title":{"rendered":"Government\u2019s new net zero plan might be its most idiotic\u00a0yet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

h\/t Me GrimNasty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know whether Grant Shapps ever took out a subscription to Look and Learn when he was young, but circumstantial evidence would suggest that he might well have done. It was in the long-defunct children\u2019s magazine, I have a vague recollection, that I first read about the idea of beaming solar-generated power down from space. Shapps is now so taken with the idea that he has just approved a \u00a34.3 million grant to UK universities to help develop it. A quarter of Britain\u2019s energy, he claims, could one day be obtained in this way.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t begrudge the technologists their public money. It is a perfectly proper role of government to fund the development of science and promising technologies which might otherwise struggle to obtain private funding in their early years. And who knows, maybe it will one day turn out to be a practical means of generating energy. Up in space, of course, it is always sunny \u2013 and the sunlight is much stronger, having not had to travel through the Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a quarter of the UK\u2019s energy, and in time to help Britain reach its 2050 net zero target? Dream on. There is a reason that the exploitation of solar energy from space has remained a pipe dream for the past 50 years. It is fantastically difficult. First, you have to design solar panels which are light enough to launch into space and will continue to generate massive amounts of power without maintenance for many years \u2013 not just generating enough electricity to power a few instruments for a few months, as a solar panel on a space probe flung into outer space might do. But the far bigger issue is, how do you then transmit the power down to Earth so that it can be used? The Californian Institute of Technology says it has succeeded in beaming a small amount of energy wirelessly from a satellite to Earth. But there is a long, long way to go between that and commercial operation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shapps\u2019 enthusiasm can be quite endearing. \u201cPeople thought it was impossible to land a man on the Moon, or impossible to split the atom. You follow the science and the impossible becomes possible,\u201d he said in backing the UK\u2019s effort for harnessing solar energy from space. What he didn\u2019t do, of course, was to list the many miracle technologies which have remained pies in the sky. Everyone remembers President Kennedy\u2019s promise in 1961 to put a man on the Moon by the end of that decade.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Few recall Nasa\u2019s promise to put a man on Mars by 1980. Nor have the promised tourist jaunts to the Moon yet materialised. What is possible and what makes commercial sense are two very different things. No-one yet knows what the price of solar power generated in space will be \u2013 if it ever comes to fruition. Nor, incidentally, do we yet have the nuclear fusion-generated power which the head of the US nuclear energy industry told us in 1954 would be \u2018too cheap to meter\u2019 by his grandchildren\u2019s day. In fact, we still don\u2019t have a single functioning nuclear fusion power station.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m no Luddite. Let\u2019s have a go at all this stuff. Trouble is, though, that the government has committed Britain to reach <\/em>net zero<\/em><\/a> greenhouse gas emissions in 27 years\u2019 time on the presumption that multiple as-yet unproven technologies will miraculously arrive in time. There is a fine line between optimism and Panglossian foolishness, and Grant Shapps, I fear, is on the wrong side of it.<\/em>    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2023\/06\/13\/the-governments-new-net-zero-plan-might-be-its-most-idiotic\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t know whether Grant Shapps ever took out a subscription to Look and Learn when he was young, but circumstantial evidence would suggest that he might well have done. It was in the long-defunct children\u2019s magazine, I have a vague recollection, that I first read about the idea of beaming solar-generated power down from space. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":262333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820247,691818154,691818248],"class_list":{"0":"post-262328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-earths-atmosphere","9":"tag-net-zero","10":"tag-uk","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0AA13JRQT.jpeg?fit=2500%2C1667&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-16f6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":255437,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=255437","url_meta":{"origin":262328,"position":0},"title":"Net zero or busted: Shapps could face potential imprisonment for not having proper plan","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/05\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Cue intensified attempts to reach so-called climate targets at inevitably vast public expense. 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