This post is taken from the newsletter ” Human warmth “, sent every Tuesday at 12 noon. Every week, journalist Nabil Wakim, who hosts the Chaleur Humaine podcast, answers questions from Internet users about the climate challenge. You can register for free here:
“Hello, many specialists say that wind turbines are useless for getting rid of coal and gas. What do you think ? Is it possible to get France out of fossil fuels without these much-criticized wind turbines? » Question posed by Philippe to the address [email protected]
My answer : There is no credible scenario for an exit from fossil fuels that does not rely massively on the development of renewable energies, and in particular on wind and solar power. This is the case for France, but more generally throughout the world. And this, even if wind and solar have a variable production, which makes the equation complex.
1 – Why is wind power essential?
Currently, around 80% of the energy produced in the world comes from fossil sources. How to part with it? To simplify, we could say that the climate transition scenarios of the IPCC (the UN expert group for the climate) are based on three points, which the economist Céline Guivarch explained to me in a previous episode of “Chaleur human rights”: first, stop developing oil, gas and coal. Then, drastically reduce energy consumption. Finally, develop carbon-free electricity production, while transferring uses to electricity (cars, heating, etc.).
However, the fastest and cheapest low-carbon technologies to deploy to produce electricity are precisely wind and solar. In ten years, the cost of solar power has been divided by ten, that of wind power, by two or three depending on the situation. Globally, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that renewables will grow at a very rapid rate, and are expected to produce more electricity than coal by 2025.
In France, the electricity transmission network (RTE) has developed several scenarios for 2050, and all foresee a strong development of renewable energies. Even RTE scenarios with lots of nuclear reactors require lots of wind turbines. For what ? Because the nuclear industry is not able to quickly build enough reactors to meet the demand for electricity. And that it is not possible to strongly develop hydroelectric dams, for geographical reasons. This is explained in detail in this episode of “Human Heat” Thomas Veyrenc, of RTE.
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