For years, the media has supported politicians, NGOs, and environmentalists in the West who have been warning us about the harm fossil fuels are causing to the environment. We are continuously told that we need to invest in renewable energy in order to prevent a climate catastrophe. This narrative tells us that switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is not only going to save the planet, but it will also significantly lower our energy bills. It will unleash a new post-scarcity green society with cheap, abundant energy that can power the world for eternity. If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

The radical experiment with renewable energy has been underway for some time. The United Kingdom’s carbon emissions target was enshrined in law in 2019 by former British prime minister Theresa May, thereby mandating the nation to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050. A crucial aspect of the policy calls for us to shift away from fossil fuels and towards more affordable, sustainable energy sources. In order to achieve net zero, we must have a reliable domestic renewable energy source.

Renewable energy companies in the UK receive a guaranteed price for electricity that is subsidised. The government sets this price before wind and solar farms are constructed. The theory is that government funding will spark a technological revolution and that future innovation will result in more affordable renewable energy projects. But things don’t operate in this manner. The British government raised the cost of offshore wind by 66 per cent, supposedly costing the consumer £44 per megawatt hour. In actuality, the cost rose to £73.

Energy costs have increased in every nation that has adopted the trendy theory of renewable energy. Consider Australia. The federal government wants to generate four-fifths of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, a target of 82 per cent. Australia now produces one-third of its electricity from renewable energy sources, so consumers should be benefiting from lower energy costs. The average wholesale price of electricity was $87 per megawatt hour in the first three months of 2022, a 141 per cent increase from the same point a year earlier. The Australian Energy Regulator attributes the price decline that started around the same time last year to the increased availability of black coal. Supply and demand work.

The same is true in California. Known as the renewable capital of the United States, the price of electricity increased five times faster in this state between 2011 and 2017 than it did in any other. Or Germany, which is among the biggest investors in renewable power in the world. The nation started its transition to a low-carbon, nuclear-free economy in 2010. It plans to phase out coal power by 2038 under a policy known as Energiewende, and it closed its last three nuclear plants in April of last year. As a result, electricity costs increased by 50 per cent between 2006 and 2017 – one of the most expensive in Europe.

But the primary problem with renewable energy sources is unpredictability. They are unreliable because their power generation depends on the whims of the weather. In today’s globalised world, where instant access to power is essential, this is not ideal. During the winter, when we most need electricity, renewables produce very little of it. Winter nights that are longer and colder are not ideal for solar power. It doesn’t help that wind speeds are a lot slower during colder months. The ironic situation is described by the Germans as Dunkelflaute –dark doldrums. Nature is a cruel mistress.

She’s not done yet. There are periods when the sun shines too brightly and the wind blows too fast. This also brings about problems. According to a report from Sky News UK, the Brits gave wind farm owners £215 million to compensate them for the days when the wind was too strong and they had to be turned off. Left to run, they could substantially overload the national grid. The same is true with solar energy: too much heat raises the possibility of blowout. The absurd situation we find ourselves in is having to switch them off on the sunniest days. California pays neighbouring states to take its excess solar energy.

Storage is the answer to the reliability issue. But there isn’t any technology that can store this extra energy in batteries. Building a battery facility in the US that could store solar and wind energy for just 12 hours would cost approximately $2.5 trillion – roughly one-third of all US federal spending, according to the MIT Technology Review.

Then there’s the restriction based on geography. To generate the same amount of energy, a solar farm would need to be 450 times larger than a nuclear power plant, requiring more land and causing real environmental damage. As for net zero? According to a report co-sponsored by the University of Melbourne, more than 120,000 square kilometres of land are needed to produce enough renewable energy to meet Australia’s net zero goal – equivalent to 90 per cent of England’s landmass, or half the size of Victoria.

And such renewables must be environmentally friendly, right? Hardly. Fossil fuels are used in the extraction and production processes. The carbon fibre used to make wind turbine blades needs both gas and oil. Polysilicon, which is produced using coal, is used in solar panels. A decommissioned solar farm, meanwhile, generates 300 times more toxic waste than a nuclear power plant.

Due to the release of energy from fossil fuels, the West has experienced unprecedented levels of material prosperity for the past 250 years. The number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen from 89 per cent in 1820 to just under 10 per cent today. We are living in a time that historian Deidre McCloskey calls ‘the great enrichment’ because of fossil fuels. An activity as elementary as flicking on a light switch is the result of two hundred years of innovation and free trade. Something lost on our green comrades.

Western elites need to be more honest and forthright about the cost of net zero. There’s a reason that only three per cent of the world’s energy comes from renewables. Dunkelflaute indeed.