New forms of solar and wind do not use oil and coal or add carbon dioxide.

Judged as of July 2024. True if solar and wind power generation does not burn oil or coal and does not emit CO2 when operating. Mostly true if operation is free of fossil fuels and CO2, but manufacturing, mining and construction use fossil energy and cause some lifecycle emissions that are small compared with fossil generation. In that case the claim is broadly right with a detail overstated, since the lifecycle emissions are not zero. Mostly false if solar and wind are shown to depend substantially on oil or coal, with lifecycle emissions comparable to fossil sources. False if they burn fossil fuels or emit CO2 when operating.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Annex III: Technology-specific cost and performance parameters (Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change, IPCC WG III AR5) IPCC Working Group III / Cambridge University Press · 2014

   “Table A.III.2 | Emissions of selected electricity supply technologies (gCO2eq / kWh)i”

2. E2 [PDF] AR5 FOD Chapter 07 - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC · 20 July 2012

   “The literature reviewed in this section shows that a range of technologies can provide electricity with less than 5% of the life‐cycle GHG emissions of coal power: wind, solar, nuclear and run‐of‐the‐river hydro power.”

3. E3 Wind U.S. Energy Information Administration

   “Producing the metals and other materials used to make wind turbine components can also affect the environment, and fossil fuels may be used to produce those components.”

4. E4 Electric Power Sector Basics | US EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · 15 February 2022

   “Energy sources range from emissions-intensive (e.g., coal) to zero-emitting (e.g., nuclear, solar, wind, and hydro).”

5. E5 Life Cycle Emissions Factors for Electricity Generation Technologies National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR, formerly NREL) NLR Data Catalog · 23 August 2021

   “This dataset consists of a table containing the distribution of literature estimates of greenhouse gas emissions for the following electricity generation and storage technologies: biopower, coal, concentrating solar power, geothermal, hydrogen storage, hydropower, lithium-ion battery storage, natural gas, nuclear, ocean, oil, photovoltaic, pumped-storage hydropower, and wind.”

The EPA calls solar and wind zero-emitting energy sources, so they burn no oil or coal and emit no CO2 when operating (E4). The EIA notes that fossil fuels may be used to make wind turbine components (E3). An IPCC draft puts lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions for wind and solar at less than 5% of coal power's (E2). That fits the "mostly true" criterion: operation is fossil-free, but small lifecycle emissions mean the claim overstates one detail.