Andreas Malm breaks this down really well in Fossil Capital. Pretty much, capitalists haven't shifted to wind/solar/water energy because the opportunity for surplus value extraction is nowhere near that of coal and other fossil fuels. You don't need to dig it out of the ground, it's already free.
The only way to harvest exchange value out of it is capturing, converting, storing it in technology. And like all capitalist resources it's subject to economies of scale, so once mass production slashes the cost of it the profitiability doesn't stack up at all to fossil fuels.
Proves conclusively that green capitalism can't save us, it's a literal oxymoron. Renewables are an anathema to the capitalism system- fossil fuels have always been and will continue to be baked into capitalism.
You don’t need to dig it out of the ground, it’s already free.
Making solar panels is incredibly power intensive because you can't just dig rocks out of the ground and turn them into PV cells (though it's getting better as newer panels need less silicon per watt).
Andreas Malm breaks this down really well in Fossil Capital. Pretty much, capitalists haven't shifted to wind/solar/water energy because the opportunity for surplus value extraction is nowhere near that of coal and other fossil fuels. You don't need to dig it out of the ground, it's already free.
The only way to harvest exchange value out of it is capturing, converting, storing it in technology. And like all capitalist resources it's subject to economies of scale, so once mass production slashes the cost of it the profitiability doesn't stack up at all to fossil fuels.
Proves conclusively that green capitalism can't save us, it's a literal oxymoron. Renewables are an anathema to the capitalism system- fossil fuels have always been and will continue to be baked into capitalism.
rare earth minerals in Bolivia are free real estate when you remove the indigenous opposition.
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Making solar panels is incredibly power intensive because you can't just dig rocks out of the ground and turn them into PV cells (though it's getting better as newer panels need less silicon per watt).
It shows declining rate of profit pretty clearly too