Wow - Joe Biden's first executive order is a ban on estimating the costs of high VRE integration by taking the most expensive lithium ion battery, multiplying that by the deepest wind and solar trough and pretending like that's hard headed rationality!

This was way too niche but screw it, I don't care anymore

Alright you've suffered enough.....

Integrating variable renewable energy (VRE) into a grid requires a 'balance' to fill supply gaps when wind and solar are low. This can be: batteries, pumped hydro, more power lines, responsive demand, etc etc https://twitter.com/Sandy_Powell/status/1352168732278153217

Now that wind and solar are cheap, those opposed to those machines have to put their back into pretending integrating VRE is wildly expensive.

They do that by ignoring all integration options except the most expensive: lithium ion battery storage

A classic example: some red-faced dude yelling that a new batter installation will only power the entire universe's electricity demand for only 0.000000001 seconds!!

But that ain't how batteries work. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/12/commentators-who-dont-understand-the-grid-should-butt-out-of-the-battery-debate

Another very nice example of this: @Industrysuper assuming that 100% of grid integration will occur through the sole use of the most expensive shiny Tesla batteries out there (and that dodgy af analysis being repeated across media outlets) https://twitter.com/KetanJ0/status/1144141619039543296

It's a constant bug-bear of mine, and I know I said it's niche but it's actually kinda important, because it's the new front among those aggressively defending fossil fuels or attacking wind and solar.

(No: Biden didn't sign an executive order banning this, that was a joke)

Of course, if you take a fairer approach to the cost of integrating renewables - by including many more options such as better planning, power lines, pumped hydro etc, you get much lower numbers https://reneweconomy.com.au/wind-solar-and-storage-still-cheapest-by-far-latest-csiro-gencost-report-says-34929/

Anyway this is like the time I jokingly said a huge baby head with camera eyes was monitoring Oslo social distancing and a lot of people were really worried about the privacy implications

Can you imagine if Joe Biden's first EO was about energy modelling, I'd be stoked