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Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

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Re: Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

#401

Post by ako »

freewilly1040 wrote: post #395
pmiller2 wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oil is not running out in Saudi Arabia anytime soon. They have reserves underneath their desert land equal to over 200 years' worth of current consumption. [0] What they need to do is stop pumping it, and soon, otherwise climate change will cook us all. --- [0]: https://www.worldometers.info/oil/saudi-arabia-oil/

At this point it seems demand for oil will run out before supply

We'll still need oil, not for energy, but as a raw material for production of plastics and many other products.

Re: Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

#402

Post by mariuolo »

arjun-menon wrote: post #235
discordance wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel" - Saeed Al Maktoum

The quote is actually likely from a member of Dubai Royal Family. An interesting fact here is that the UAE will never become poor . The UAE has saved up over 1.3 million USD dollars per citizen [a]. And this is just the government’s savings. Obviously, there’s immense private wealth on top of that as well. Even if with investment returns as low as 4% per year drawn out, that would translate to $52,000 per citizen . T…

> the UAE will never become poor

But their land might become uninhabitable in a few decades.

Re: Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

#403

Post by hollerith »

ako wrote: post #401
freewilly1040 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point it seems demand for oil will run out before supply

We'll still need oil, not for energy, but as a raw material for production of plastics and many other products.

And plastic does not turn into CO2.

Re: Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

#404

Post by akie »

jacobush wrote: post #164
mrDmrTmrJ wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"everyone else who tries it will do better because Germans ate the costs?" Yes on both your points. Sadly, German industry didn't get the benefit. Which makes it harder to convince the country to do stuff like this again. Very different from Tesla, where a bunch of silicon valley people ate the cost (e.g. VCs, roadster, 2012 model-S) and then many benefitted as they own stock.

They got a less fucked world. That’s good for Germans too, and we are blessed they are big enough to make a difference.

Not sure why you're being downvoted here.

Re: Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

#405

Post by mariuolo »

redisman wrote: post #400
Qwertious wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What do you suppose happens when, for example, Saudi Arabia can no longer feed itself? It just peacefully and gently starves to death? Saudi Arabia has a sovereign wealth fund with trillions of dollars. The obvious answer is that they'll build a ton of renewables and build a ton of [hydroponic/aquaponic/aeroponic/etc] farms to make food locally. Indoor farming is expensive but very water-efficient, which suits Saudi…

They have a lot of money to invest and they could also export solar if they want to stay in the energy business. Lots of sunlight there.

> they could also export solar

I remember an old discussion about this. The main problem is that transmission lines to potential customers would have to traverse unfriendly countries.

Re: Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

#406

Post by birdsbirdsbirds »

jussij wrote: post #280
vbezhenar wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my perspective those costs are massive. I'm considering building a whole house from bricks which will cost $30-$40k. I probably won't spend $15k for electricity for all of my life. I don't understand western economy. You've got extremely costly electricity and you're claiming that solar power is good. It might be true for you, but it won't ever come to me at those prices. I'm paying $0.03 for kW⋅h. I'm spending…

> I probably won't spend $15k for electricity for all of my life Living in a two bedroom unit in Sydney my last quarterly electricity bill was over $500.00 which comes to over $2000.00 a year. Basically here in Sydney we have high electricity prices and my washer, drier and air conditioner love to chew up electricity.

Where does the heat of you drier go? Into the room to be moved again by the air conditioner, or directly to the outside?

Re: Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

#407

Post by DoingIsLearning »

manfredo wrote: post #169
dieortin wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's sad to see people downvote correct information. I'm confused, there's no downvote button in HN.

There is you need a certain amount (200?) of karma to use it. Posts with negative votes have more lightly colored text. The above post no longer has negative votes so it's normal colored now.

For completion, am not sure if it was 200 before but it's 1000 now.

Re: Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

#408

Post by guerby »

anonuser123456 wrote: post #348
vbezhenar wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kazakhstan.

Interesting. I looked it up and that sounds about right for domestic users. The cost of solar in the US is highly dependent on labor costs and the regulatory process. So OPs system would cost less in Kazakhstan based on lower labor costs. Residential solar is also an expensive way to produce solar. In the US we have industrial scale plants that produce at $0.018-0.024/kWh.

According to:

https://www.iea.org/reports/kazakhstan-energy-profile

Coal fuels around 70% of electricity generation (in 2018), followed by natural gas (20% in 2018).

(rest seems to be hydro)

I assume cheap because no carbon tax.

Re: Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

#409

Post by WanderPanda »

mariuolo wrote: post #402
arjun-menon wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quote is actually likely from a member of Dubai Royal Family. An interesting fact here is that the UAE will never become poor . The UAE has saved up over 1.3 million USD dollars per citizen [a]. And this is just the government’s savings. Obviously, there’s immense private wealth on top of that as well. Even if with investment returns as low as 4% per year drawn out, that would translate to $52,000 per citizen . T…

> the UAE will never become poor But their land might become uninhabitable in a few decades.

It is already almost uninhabitable and has been for a long time. Nevertheless ~10M people live there. Technology is solving this, either the root cause or the symptoms

Re: Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

#410

Post by brazzy »

mariuolo wrote: post #405
redisman wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a lot of money to invest and they could also export solar if they want to stay in the energy business. Lots of sunlight there.

> they could also export solar I remember an old discussion about this. The main problem is that transmission lines to potential customers would have to traverse unfriendly countries.

Power-to-gas* might become their salvation.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-gas

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