Energy Expert Shuts down Liberal Environmentalists on Twitter Says There's Not Enough Solar and Wind Power to Fulfill America's Electricity Needs

In an appearance on MSNBC on Tuesday, energy expert and author Richard Rhodes told the network’s Ali Velshi that we did not have the technology to support an electric grid powered by renewable sources like solar and wind.



“You can run [coal and natural gas] day and night, and the problem with renewables, desirable as they are in many ways, is that the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine,” he said.



Even if the United States wanted to move to solar and wind, Rhodes added, we would have to use power sources like coal or natural gas as a critical backup.



“Electricity isn’t stored,” the author explained. “It’s manufactured, and it’s instantly at the wall plug.”



Velshi told Rhodes that a lot of people claim that the energy grid can store electricity until it is needed. “We don’t have enough ability to store that energy in a way to make the grid reliable,” he said, adding he is “a big fan” of renewables.



Rhodes confirmed Velshi’s statement, saying that the batteries aren’t even close to holding the requisite amount of energy.



Rhodes is the author of “Energy: A Human History.”