Climate Basics Podcast Episode 5 notes

 Ep 5 - Texas, California compared to Germany, Portugal, Spain, Scotland and other nations

Purpose of Ep 5: (1) change mind / educate US viewers re: renewables are really significant in the two largest US states; and (2) give viewers a comparison / context to other countries

Intro,
Let’s talk about leaders in green energy.
How we compare: Population, GDP, energy production, and how much of that is green/renewable.

By those means, California and Texas are so large that they compare to many countries. That’s why we’ll be comparing the global green energy transition Players as several different Nations and also California and Texas

 you really have to consider all of these because if you go for example just by what percentage of renewable energy that country takes its electricity from small nations like Paraguay or Nepal who would win even though altogether their impact is negligible compared to the biggest players.  it would also be inaccurate to go simply by who has the most green energy generated in gigawatts and terawatts that is also an accurate because it would artificially put just the biggest industries at the front whether or not they're considered green energy front liners the biggest Nations like China the U.S Germany India up to the top of the list. 

 first the good news: renewable energy is growing and continuing that nice exponential growth that investors love

 bad news:  that doesn't mean fossil fuel uses are decreasing, it's just that our overall consumption has increased that much to allow room for growth in both renewable and short-term climate changing doomsday fossil fuels.

  • Factors to discuss include:

    • Amount of growth of renewables over the past 10-15 years

    • Regulatory / Legislative environment re: govt push (ie public support) vs investment community see a good opportunity (with subsidies)

    • The inherent strengths that each location has - offshore / onshore wind, solar, other

    • Financial OPPORTUNITIES for growth:

      • Professional white collar knowledge - exporting talent to help other countries set up their systems

      • Niche manufacturing sectors

      • Electricians / labour

      • Exporting electricity to neighbouring jurisdictions

    • Impediments to growth:

      • Public support / govt make-up

      • Infrastructure / NIMBYism - i.e. permitting delays, inability to build large infrastructure projects near demand areas (i.e. more transmission, wind)

      • Heavier reliance on fossil fuels

        • Germany - turned off nuclear + Russian-Ukraine war

        • Australia - is rushing to extract as much oil out of ground as possible, is making money off coal trade to China

        • UK - voter fatigue re ambitious plans

        • Texas - trumps focus on limiting wind and solar

        • California - are permitting blocks on building more an issue?

  • Overall, nobody is winning or losing the renewable energy race. Smaller and developing nations have less to do, larger economies seem slower to change over.

  • South America is strong for hydro, Australia and Africa promise solar and wind. There is opportunity for specialization into different techs as we’ve seen with California (solar) and Texas (wind and battery)

  • Middle economies like Turkey, Brasil, Ethiopia among the fastest adapters, with significant impacts. 

  • Most importantly, it’s not just about green growth, but also decommissioning of petrol power. Another way to compare successes is just measuring who’s producing the least CO2 and smog.   

  • Texas - something about it being the land of oil / helping to create US into a superpower, then a natural gas superpower, is now quietly leading to be a battery / wind superpower


  • Texas - the laissez faire / lack of regulatory has turned out to be a boon for building renewable energy


  • Texas - Biden (with bipartisan IRA legislation) did more for Texas prosperity and Texas becoming a wind superpower than any US President in the history of the world (I’m thinking of the static “title” to our clip that viewers will see, prior to “clicking” the clip to watch it)


  • Texas - smaller than Germany but just as green (works also for UK and Australia) - and then bullet-point listing the reasons why


  • Texas - everything is bigger, including their wind farms and battery projects, then bullet point the projects / reasons why we say this


  • Texas - over the past 10-15 years of massive wind farm growth, the following was true:

    • City council (let’s pick some) - republican

    • State - republican

    • State minister of energy / resources / environment - republican


  • Texas - clean, renewable energy isn’t a red or blue state issue.  It’s a smart-money-we’re-going-to-make-lots-of-it issue, then give the bullet point reasons why

  • California - integration, policy prioritization, and leadership in ecological protection all contribute to leadership in the green transition. Strong transit systems.

  • California - solar productivity benefits from ideal weather, heavy regulations though


Location

Approximate Population

California

~ 40 million (worldpopulationreview.com)

Texas

~ 32 million (worldpopulationreview.com)

Germany

~ 84 million (worldpopulationreview.com)

Spain

~ 48 million (worldpopulationreview.com)

Portugal

~ 10 million (worldpopulationreview.com)

Scotland

~ 5.5 million (totalpopulation.co.uk)


Energy totals

Region

Total TWH 

Green TWH

Percentage

GDP

Population

California

281

162

55%

4,100b

40m

Texas

520

139

26%

2,800b

32m

Spain

286

88

25%

1,676b

48m

Portugal

46

36

71%

289b

10m

Germany

488

292

63%

4,700b

84m

Scotland

50

50

100%

223b

5.5m


Second table, comparing some nations not from the colonial core

Region

Total TWH 

Green TWH

Percentage

GDP

Population

Brasil

230

200

85%

2,200b

210m

Ethiopia 

60

60

100%

110b

130m

Morocco 

276

50

22%

165b

38m

Nepal

10

10

100%

42b

30m

Argentina

47

16

34%

630b

45m

Turkey

300

130

40%

1,340b

87m

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