{"id":435945,"date":"2026-03-31T18:24:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T16:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=435945"},"modified":"2026-03-31T18:24:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T16:24:44","slug":"2-trillion-later-the-green-revolution-collapsed-how-chasing-weather-power-bankrupted-the-grid-and-cost-the-world-40-trillion-in-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=435945","title":{"rendered":"$2 Trillion Later, The Green Revolution Collapsed: How Chasing Weather Power Bankrupted the Grid and Cost the World $40 Trillion in Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tony Seruga\u00a0writes on Twitter:<\/a><\/strong>

Between 2010 and 2026, governments and corporations poured roughly\u00a0$2 trillion into solar, wind, and \u201cnet\u2011zero\u201d programs<\/strong>\u00a0under the promise of an imminent clean\u2011energy transition. What the public received instead was an illusion\u2014a fragile grid, higher electricity prices, and negligible climate benefits<\/strong>. Energy remained just as carbon\u2011intensive, but far more expensive and unreliable. The fundamental error was\u00a0confusing installed capacity with delivered power.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wind and solar often produce energy only 20 % of the time; fossil and nuclear plants generate 60\u201190 % consistently. Billions went to weather\u2011dependent infrastructure that must still be backed up by coal and gas. Once backups, grid stabilization, and battery losses are factored in,\u00a0true delivered costs for renewables reach $120\u2013250 per MWh<\/strong>, double or triple those of gas, coal, or nuclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When measured by physical reality rather than marketing slogans, that $2 trillion bought\u00a0roughly the energy output of $400 billion in conventional power<\/strong>. It displaced almost no fossil fuel consumption and arguably reinforced it, since idling backup plants waste fuel. Worse, dependence on Chinese supply chains for solar panels and rare\u2011earth minerals eroded national energy independence and inflated emissions through hidden mining and shipping costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that same capital had been spent on\u00a0modern nuclear or advanced natural\u2011gas infrastructure<\/strong>, the outcome would have been transformative. $2 trillion could have built about\u00a0285 GW of nuclear capacity<\/strong>\u00a0(powering 250 million homes reliably for 70 years) or\u00a01,650 GW of efficient gas plants\u00a0<\/strong>(enough for 900 million homes for 30 years). Either path would have cut\u00a070\u201380 gigatons of CO\u2082<\/strong>, reduced global electricity costs by half, and created genuine energy security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Instead, the current \u201cgreen\u201d trajectory delivered rising utility bills, rolling blackouts, and greater reliance on geopolitical adversaries. Global power costs rose roughly 60%, contributing to deindustrialization in Europe, worldwide inflation, and a cumulative $37\u201340 trillion loss in global GDP\u2014about half of one year of global economic output. That\u2019s the price of mistaking ideology for engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lesson could not be clearer:\u00a0physics determines prosperity<\/strong>. Dense, dispatchable energy such as nuclear or gas remains the backbone of civilization, and no amount of subsidies or messaging can legislate thermodynamics. The so\u2011called green transition did not decarbonize the planet\u2014it impoverished it. The road to sustainability is not paved with solar subsidies but with unapologetic engineering and scientific honesty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between 2010 and 2026, governments and corporations poured roughly $2 trillion into solar, wind, and \u201cnet\u2011zero\u201d programs under the promise of an imminent clean\u2011energy transition. What the public received instead was an illusion\u2014a fragile grid, higher electricity prices, and negligible climate benefits. Energy remained just as carbon\u2011intensive, but far more expensive and unreliable. The fundamental error was confusing installed capacity with delivered power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":435955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[691842104,691819331,691819691,691818128,691818154,691818728],"class_list":["post-435945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-clean-energy-transition-3","tag-deindustrialization","tag-electricity-prices","tag-energy","tag-net-zero","tag-wind-and-solar","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-2-Trillion-Later-The-Green-Revolution-Collapsed-How-Chasing-Weather-Power-Bankrupted-the-Grid-and-Cost-the-World-40-Trillion-in-Growth.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1Ppn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":264888,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=264888","url_meta":{"origin":435945,"position":0},"title":"World Now Wasting $1 Trillion Or More Per Year Investing In Useless “Renewables”","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/01\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"More than USD\u00a01.7\u00a0trillion is going to clean energy, including renewable power, nuclear, grids, storage, low-emission fuels, efficiency improvements and end-use renewables and electrification.","rel":"","context":"In \"1 Trillion\"","block_context":{"text":"1 Trillion","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=1-trillion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-throw-away-money.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-throw-away-money.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-throw-away-money.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-throw-away-money.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-throw-away-money.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":275830,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=275830","url_meta":{"origin":435945,"position":1},"title":"The Energy Transition Isn’t","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/27\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite $4.1 trillion spent on wind and solar, they aren't even keeping pace with the growth in hydrocarbons","rel":"","context":"In \"CO2\"","block_context":{"text":"CO2","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/OIG.qrWZXRNavADFpwzEb.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/OIG.qrWZXRNavADFpwzEb.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/OIG.qrWZXRNavADFpwzEb.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/OIG.qrWZXRNavADFpwzEb.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":427032,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=427032","url_meta":{"origin":435945,"position":2},"title":"Miliband to \u2018miss net zero targets unless he spends extra \u00a375bn\u2019","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/19\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Only \u00a375 billion! 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