$8.5 billion doesn't get you a lot when it comes to replacing conventional energy with solar and wind. In the case of South Africa, one closed coal plant, and concerns that they may want to push delays in closing more farther down the timeline.
South Africa is already beset with daily blackouts and reliance on sporadic solar and wind will make that worse, not better. Closing 13 more coal plants will be a disaster, with no indication it will help much despite what was claimed at COP26. James Hansen, the Godfather of Global Warming, said clean coal would solve the emissions problem - imagine if the world had spent $4 trillion on making existing plants cleaner rather than engaging in grift for allies and forcing solar and wind on people. With clean coal, 2 billion people could get off of using dung and wood for fuel and have centralized energy, which is obviously still better than individual fires. Instead, the World Bank won't give a loan unless it is solar or wind, and the Biden administration is first in line to block everything else.
It is not right to deny poor people air conditioners unless they can afford solar panels, it is climate injustice.
If solar and wind schemes can't work in South Africa, with just one large energy company, how can they work anywhere?
It doesn't need to work, it just needs government subsidies. The money is big. Republican Senator Mitt Romney was dismissed as an out-of-touch Plutocrat during the 2012 Presidential campaign, but left out of stories was that former Vice-President Al Gore, a Nobel laureate for his evangelizing global warming, is 4X as rich as Romney. All thanks to green energy companies he promotes. His hedge fund outperforms the S&P 500.
Progressive activists love to shriek 'follow the money' about science, but never use any skepticism about their own tribe.
