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Who do you think is using renewable power that is not connected to a grid? Poor off-grid communities are pretty much exclusively burning fossil fuels or biomass

Who do you think is using renewable power that is not connected to a grid? Poor off-grid communities are pretty much exclusively burning fossil fuels or biomass for primary energy, which are most certainly not carbon-neutral or good for the environment.

jacquesm 3y ago
Biomass is carbon neutral.
- mcjiggerlog 3y ago
  There's nothing green about chopping down forests for energy - biomass being called carbon neutral is one of the greenwashing scams of the century. Whether burned forests are ever regenerated at all is something that I'm incredible sceptical about - there's very little oversight into companies' claims. Even if they are being replanted, you are tearing down potentially primary forest and important habitat and replacing it with tree farms. Finally, burning wood is incredibly polluting and awful for anyone in the region of said power plants.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    Nobody is chopping down old growth forest to burn in electrical plants. What happens is that combustible waste and young growth (especially the bits unusable by the lumber industry) get burned. This is a cylcle, not to be compared with coal or oil. Yes, it's still polluting.
    - mcjiggerlog 3y ago
      > Nobody is chopping down old growth forest to burn in electrical plants. I wouldn't be so sure. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63089348 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63089348 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/26/biomass-carbon-climate-politics-477620 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/26/biomass-ca... https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/estonia-holy-forests-threatened-by-industrial-tree-farming https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/estonia-h...
      - jacquesm 3y ago
        Indeed, material from logging can end up in a plant to be burned for electrical power. But: that's after the lumber industry has had its way with the logs and by that time you have sawdust and odds and bits, these are pulped and compressed into pellets, those are then burned.

jacquesm 3y ago

Biomass is carbon neutral.

mcjiggerlog 3y ago
There's nothing green about chopping down forests for energy - biomass being called carbon neutral is one of the greenwashing scams of the century. Whether burned forests are ever regenerated at all is something that I'm incredible sceptical about - there's very little oversight into companies' claims. Even if they are being replanted, you are tearing down potentially primary forest and important habitat and replacing it with tree farms. Finally, burning wood is incredibly polluting and awful for anyone in the region of said power plants.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Nobody is chopping down old growth forest to burn in electrical plants. What happens is that combustible waste and young growth (especially the bits unusable by the lumber industry) get burned. This is a cylcle, not to be compared with coal or oil. Yes, it's still polluting.
  - mcjiggerlog 3y ago
    > Nobody is chopping down old growth forest to burn in electrical plants. I wouldn't be so sure. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63089348 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63089348 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/26/biomass-carbon-climate-politics-477620 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/26/biomass-ca... https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/estonia-holy-forests-threatened-by-industrial-tree-farming https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/estonia-h...
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      Indeed, material from logging can end up in a plant to be burned for electrical power. But: that's after the lumber industry has had its way with the logs and by that time you have sawdust and odds and bits, these are pulped and compressed into pellets, those are then burned.