Comment on Seibert, M.K.; Rees, W.E. Through the Eye of a Needle: An Eco-Heterodox Perspective on the Renewable Energy Transition. <i>Energies</i> 2021, <i>14</i>, 4508
Vasilis Fthenakis,
Marco Raugei,
Christian Breyer,
Suby Bhattacharya,
Michael Carbajales-Dale,
Michael Ginsberg,
Arnulf Jäger-Waldau,
Enrica Leccisi,
Daniel Lincot,
David Murphy,
Marc J. R. Perez,
Parikhit Sinha,
Angus Rockett,
Sascha Sadewasser,
Billy J. Stanbery,
Richard M. Swanson,
Pierre Verlinden
Affiliations
Vasilis Fthenakis
Center for Life Cycle Analysis, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
Marco Raugei
Center for Life Cycle Analysis, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
Christian Breyer
School of Energy Systems, LUT University, 53850 Lappeenranta, Finland
Suby Bhattacharya
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
Center for Life Cycle Analysis, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
Arnulf Jäger-Waldau
European Commission, Joint Research Centre, 21014 Ispra, Italy
Enrica Leccisi
Center for Life Cycle Analysis, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
Daniel Lincot
Institut Photovoltaïque d’Île de France (IPVF), CNRS UMR 9006, 18 Boulevard Thomas Gobert, 91120 Palaiseau, France
David Murphy
Environmental Studies Department, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY 13617, USA
Marc J. R. Perez
Clean Power Research, 1541 3rd Street, Napa, CA 94559, USA
Parikhit Sinha
First Solar, 350 W Washington St., Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
Angus Rockett
Angus Rockett, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, 305b Hill Hall, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401, USA
Sascha Sadewasser
INL-International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Av. Mestre José Veiga s/n, 4715-330 Braga, Portugal
Billy J. Stanbery
HelioSourceTech, 8987 E. Tanque Verde, Suite 309, PMB216, Tucson, AZ 85749, USA
Richard M. Swanson
Sunpower Founder, Retired, 24700 Voorhees Drive, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022, USA
This paper exposes the many flaws in the article “Through the Eye of a Needle: An Eco-heterodox Perspective on the Renewable Energy Transition, authored by Siebert and Rees and recently published in Energies as a Review. Our intention in submitting this critique is to expose and rectify the original article’s non-scientific approach to the review process that includes selective (and hence biased) screening of the literature focusing on the challenges related to renewable energies, without discussing any of the well-documented solutions. In so doing, we also provide a rigorous refutation of several statements made by a Seibert–Rees paper, which often appear to be unsubstantiated personal opinions and not based on a balanced review of the available literature.
