Is "Renewable Energy" Renewable?

Part 1: PV & Polysilicon

All Words are Pegs to Hang Ideas On

—Henry Ward Beecher

Labels are powerful. In energy, there is none more consequential than "renewable.” But straining at carbon gnats, we’ve swallowed a camel.

To qualify as renewable, a resource must be capable of being “replaced by natural ecological cycles...” Full Stop, dumbo! It’s self-evident that there’s nothing more natural and renewable than daily solar radiation. The planet is awash in free photons. They auto-renew every day. Case closed. Bring me a Beer.

Plaintiff (PV Solar) Exhibit 1

And now for the rest of the story.

—Paul Harvey

Fortunately for me, I’ve volunteered to defend Civilization in this trial. And it’s not a hard claim to defend. A reasonably-skilled law student could handle it. You see, free photons mark the beginning and the end of “renewability” for solar energy.

Defense Exhibit A:

To convert free photons into electricity requires, among other things, highly sophisticated Electronic Machines that employ the most sophisticated technologies and supply chains ever devised by humans, so much so that solar panels require at least 19 metals and minerals, including at least 6 “critical” minerals. Of these 19 minerals, for instance, the mineral-rich nation of Canada lacks four.

Because of the vast fossil fuels required to mine and process these minerals, (avert the gaze) China dominates the market.

This is the first in a planned series of articles focusing on these minerals: Polysilicon. Chinese Black Gold. And polysilicon is anything but renewable. It’s not even recyclable for use as polysilicon and requires constant replacement.

Polysili-what?

Polysilicon (known by different names) is an extremely high-purity, polycrystalline form of the element silicon (Si), which never appears in pure form but chiefly as an oxide, silica, or sand. Pure silicon has particularly useful properties in electronics. Polysilicon describes specific crystalline forms of silicon. Polysilocon manufacturing is made possible by a very sophisticated Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) process developed by Siemens (plasma process depicted).

What follows is a grossly oversimplified description of what the polysilicon manufacturing process entails. It requires three primary inputs:

1. High-purity silica from quartzite rock.

2. High-purity coking coal and other carbon.

3. Lots of dispatchable (fossil) electric energy.

Yet none of these is, in any sense of the label, "renewable.”

Naturally, PV promoters and ESG fact checkers seem to be the most fanatical of all about ending production of the very fossil fuel resources upon which PV depends for its existence. And PV’s fossil fuel dependence will never change - because it's not renewable.

Polysilicon: Chemical grade quartzite is relatively rare and is no more renewable than fossil fuels. There is a world-class resource near my home. I know the current owners. It was located over 100 years ago as a flux resource (Kennecott smelter).

Production drilling in chemical-grade silica formations chews through more carbide bits and drill steel than any of the mine the drilling contractors who drill it have ever seen (I personally know two of them). High-purity quartzite is one of the most abrasive stones on earth. The drilling patterns are tight because it takes a lot of explosives to achieve size reduction. Carbide drill steel production is from China. It's not renewable. But no carbide, no mining.

Next - blasting using Ammonium Nitrate / Fuel Oil (ANFO), which is 100% derived from fossil fuels. No crude oil, no gas, no ANFO. No ANFO, no mining. No quartzite. No polysilicon. No PV. None of this is renewable, nor is the diesel fuel, tires, mining equipment, etc.

Next, shot rock is sorted and fed into a primary crusher, where stone smaller than 2” is rejected and the larger stone is crushed and re-crushed into sand. For some applications, milling is required. Quartzite is extraordinarily hard and abrasive. Fossil power. Not renewable.

Second, brace for it: Coal (oh the horrors - avert the gaze). Metallurgical coal is too valuable and rare to burn for heat. It is high-carbon coal that is suitable to use in essential industrial processes such as ironmaking and polysilicon production.

Naturally, PV and renewable energy supporters, and ESG fact checkers bent on ending the use of coal, have almost destroyed the world’s production of metallurgical coal resources, so much so that China’s primary source is Russia. Ethics aside, none of this is renewable.

Utah used to be a significant producer of metallurgical grade coal but since the City of Oakland scuttled an essential bulk coal terminal, exports stopped. Dear protesters and ESG fact checkers: No metallurgical coal = No polysilicon = no solar panels, no cell phones, etc.

JUICE: When the Empire State Building spire was clad in bright aluminum, the metal was worth more than gold. Its value was determined not by the rarity of bauxite, but by the extraordinary amount of dispatchable electrical energy required to turn bauxite into aluminum.

Polysilicon is an electricity beast: “An electricity requirement for purification, ingot pulling, and wafering of ≈360–380 kWh kg−1 for silicon wafers and carbon intensity can lead to a cumulative amount of ≈16.4–58.8 Gt of CO2-eq emissions by 2050.” /14

ESG fact checkers: Ever wonder why China is cranking out hundreds of coal-fired power plants? Hint: It’s not to make t-shirts. Ever wonder what all the minerals are for? Renewable energy, naturally. /15

“If you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist.” Polysilicon’s high fossil fuel demand is a primary reason China is the world’s #1 producer.

Yet consider what France did in 10 yrs. No wind/solar/batteries. No polysilicon. No cobalt. No lithium. No child labor in Africa. Little fossil fuel. Truth is that “renewable” energy is a Rube Goldberg farcical solution to civilization’s simple thermal energy needs.

Wind/solar/batteries energy resources are not “renewable” in any material sense of the word. They do not deserve special taxonomy. Humans will need to continuously build and replace turbines, solar panels, and infrastructure. Fossil Fuels Forever.

Because of its extraordinary energy density, nuclear power generates far more energy per unit of natural resource input (mining, fossil fuel, metal, labor) than any other energy source, and significantly more than the resources arbitrarily branded as being “renewable.” Bunk.

To Support Nuclear Power is to Support Civilization. Orders of magnitude more production of what we need with orders of magnitude less burden on Mother Earth who provides for us all.