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Costa Rica has gone 76 days using 100% renewable electricity

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Re: Costa Rica has gone 76 days using 100% renewable electricity

#111

Post by beat »

antr wrote: post #99
beat wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you looking into storage as well? The engineer in me says caching is the way to convert an intermittent source to a steady load. I'm really curious what a wind investor is thinking about this!

Have we looked at it, yes. Are we investing in battery storage, no. It's too early for us to invest in this technology. This should be interesting for energy investors with a slightly higher risk appetite.

Ah, that makes sense. It's a very early market. I'm excited for the possibilities, though. If storage can solve the intermittency issue, solar/wind can become baseline load sources more easily, and we'll need far less actual generation in place to maintain the grid. I firmly believe the way out of our power dilemma is just make wind/solar cheaper per kwh than fossil fuels.

Re: Costa Rica has gone 76 days using 100% renewable electricity

#112

Post by metaphorm »

noir_lord wrote: post #85
sabertoothed wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially "_human_ flourishing and happiness". Why only human? Why not the well-being of all conscious creatures?

When someone comes up with an objective measure of consciousness lets consider that. In the meantime I see no issue with optimising for human happiness in the general case.

you seem to be fixated on the notion of consciousness as being "consciousness sufficiently similar to a human that I would interact with it as if it was a human". maybe some domesticated animals and particularly precocious apes and cetaceans meet those criteria.

In many religious and philosophical traditions though the principle of Panpsychism is the guideline. It means, approximately, that consciousness is an inherent building block of reality and some form of consciousness is an emergent phenomena of just about any sufficiently complex system. This posits the existence of many forms of consciousness that are utterly alien to human consciousness and that we could not readily interact with.

Re: Costa Rica has gone 76 days using 100% renewable electricity

#114

Post by Flimm »

unprepare wrote: post #94
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes think they reject the idea that the whole point of existence is human flourishing and happiness. Yes, many people reject this idea. As a matter of fact, this is the first time I've ever heard anyone express this idea.

theres also religious folks who believe the earth was created specifically for humans, and so everything here is for us and us alone. I find it a rather disgustingly self centered ideology. To presume that one (or ones species) is the most important thing in the world (or universe) is basically the definition of narcissism

Which moral worldview do you find superior? I presume you have one, because you're making a moral judgement.

Re: Costa Rica has gone 76 days using 100% renewable electricity

#115

Post by pjc50 »

millettjon wrote: post #29
jfaucett wrote: post #19

Notice this is because 80% of the energy obtained was from Hydroelectric power, which is a great energy source because it is reliable - unlike wind and solar which in this case provided 7% and 0.01% respectively and are not reliable. It frustrates me that so many environmentalists are still against hydro because it alters ecosystems when nature itself is inherently violent, dangerous and in a constant state of flux.…

In Chile, the mining companies in the North use a disproportionate amount of energy. They are located in one of the driest deserts in the world and could easily supply their power needs from solar with minimal impact. Instead they continually fight to build dams in pristine temperate rain forest in the South.

I think the power cost breakeven point has only recently been passed for solar vs hydro there. Nonetheless, they do need a 24 hour supply for a lot of operations, especially pumps and lighting.

Re: Costa Rica has gone 76 days using 100% renewable electricity

#116

Post by tunap »

unprepare wrote: post #94
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes think they reject the idea that the whole point of existence is human flourishing and happiness. Yes, many people reject this idea. As a matter of fact, this is the first time I've ever heard anyone express this idea.

theres also religious folks who believe the earth was created specifically for humans, and so everything here is for us and us alone. I find it a rather disgustingly self centered ideology. To presume that one (or ones species) is the most important thing in the world (or universe) is basically the definition of narcissism

"To presume that one (or ones species) is the most important thing in the world (or universe) is basically the definition of narcissism."

Not "one" nor the species, but exclusively for the "believers". Non-believers, heretics & infidels be damned.

Re: Costa Rica has gone 76 days using 100% renewable electricity

#117

Post by icc97 »

crdoconnor wrote: post #44
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #17

" its per capita electricity consumption is about one-quarter of, say, France or Belgium." Its in the bottom quartile worldwide I believe. Also the recommendations for the USA are way off. The "only way" to reach this goal is apparently to build lots of wind and solar. No mention whatsoever of nuclear, which is by far the more practical solution. And far less ecologically damaging.

>No mention whatsoever of nuclear, which is by far the more practical solution. And far less ecologically damaging. The UK's new Hinckley point power plant is both more expensive than solar/wind and puts the UK's energy generation in Chinese hands. There's a reason why Angela Merkel (relevant: probably the only physicist head of state) decided to shift to wind and solar.

> Angela Merkel (relevant: probably the only physicist head of state)

That's actually fascinating. She was a physical chemist research scientist, not just undergraduate [1]. I wonder how many other scientist heads of state there have been.

Margaret Thatcher was a research chemist (food scientist) [2], but that's the only other one I know of.

Edit: she was the first British Prime Minister with a Science degree [3].

  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel 
  [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher
  [3]: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n11/david-runciman/rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat

Re: Costa Rica has gone 76 days using 100% renewable electricity

#118

Post by mbloom1915 »

As great as this is and large step for other countries very soon, decarb can only be achieved through transport efforts. transport makes up over 1/3s of emissions so why residential/commercial consumption energy efficiency is great, it is a tiny fraction of achieving overarching goal

Re: Costa Rica has gone 76 days using 100% renewable electricity

#119

Post by pkulak »

jfaucett wrote: post #19

Notice this is because 80% of the energy obtained was from Hydroelectric power, which is a great energy source because it is reliable - unlike wind and solar which in this case provided 7% and 0.01% respectively and are not reliable. It frustrates me that so many environmentalists are still against hydro because it alters ecosystems when nature itself is inherently violent, dangerous and in a constant state of flux.…

I don't think you even need to invoke such a controversial argument as "all non-human lives don't matter". Drastic climate change is likely to impact every species. Considering the vast amount of cheap, safe, carbon-free power that's available from hydro, it's probably the right call for salmon to take one for the team here.

I live in the heart of the PNW and most of my power comes from COAL. The rest; natural gas. It's insane. We could power three states by damming a few rivers. I'm not an expert, but I also think it's more than possible to do that in a way that still let's salmon spawn, depending on how well things like fish ladders and run-of-the-river actually works. I'm pretty sure BC get's the majority of their power from hydro, and from how much time local fishermen spend up there, the salmon are doing just fine.

Re: Costa Rica has gone 76 days using 100% renewable electricity

#120

Post by amorphid »

taneq wrote: post #39

Objection: Geothermal technically isn't renewable.

Geothermal also produces radioactive waste! Water gets pumped into the ground, becomes steam, the steam rises, and is used to generate power. The steam brings with it toxic sludge, which needs to be disposed of. Not sure why, but they don't wanna pump the sludge back into the ground.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power#Environmental...

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