What are the real plans available to get abundant and cheap energy for the world, and why aren’t startups working on this?
Solar + wind & thousands of startups are working on it.
Russian gas flows via Yamal pipeline to Germany halt, bids remain
111–120 of 156 posts
Re: Russian gas flows via Yamal pipeline to Germany halt, bids remain
#112Without natural resources Russia GDP would be lower than Polish. I think the whole reason for this war is the green transformation of the world. Military dictatorship played the wrong game and didn't mange to reform the country (it seems to be a case for all countries run by military). This is Proxy war with US/Nato to get a trade deal in exchange for balancing China with military power (last card they've got). Franc…
Russia’s GDP (per capital) is about 30 % below Poland’s
Re: Russian gas flows via Yamal pipeline to Germany halt, bids remain
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's an argument here that this war is a step in the transition from wars over "oil" (read: energy supply) to wars over water. There's a little bit of both here, and it's made the war difficult for outsiders to read.
With enough energy and access to sea water you can desalinate I guess
You need it for agriculture, probably much more water than it's feasible to desalinate.
Re: Russian gas flows via Yamal pipeline to Germany halt, bids remain
#114Without natural resources Russia GDP would be lower than Polish. I think the whole reason for this war is the green transformation of the world. Military dictatorship played the wrong game and didn't mange to reform the country (it seems to be a case for all countries run by military). This is Proxy war with US/Nato to get a trade deal in exchange for balancing China with military power (last card they've got). Franc…
North stream 2 was in reach. If this is what they wanted why start this proxy war?
North stream 2 has very little to do with this whole conflict. Because mining is quite expensive in Siberia, Russian gas may not be price competitive as soon as 2030. Renewable energy is getting cheaper. At some point, natural gas turbines will use hydrogen produced with nuclear and renewables to balance the peaks.
Re: Russian gas flows via Yamal pipeline to Germany halt, bids remain
#115I am quite afraid of Russia shutting off the gas and oil supply. I hope Europe doesn't give up on sanctions then, at least not right away. Betting on Russia needing the income more than we need the resources. Power will go out completely around here and partially in many other regions, but we can live through that. Having solar (plus wind and batteries) is a major boon, and this would undoubtedly drive demand through…
Russia has no need of the income because it is in a denomination they can’t now spend. Countries only need to export to the extent that they can get imports. Anything beyond that is a waste - and clearly so now that foreign reserves are being frozen and defaulted on. Russia is keeping the gas on to keep the EU out of the war.
They keep nukes to keep EU (well, NATO) out of the war. The gas is flowing because it's their last card, if they stop the gas they will lose it and EU will be forced to look for alternatives asap and won't come back.
Selling more to China is not a good short option because as I understand there is no infrastructure, most pipes go to the west. Russia needs this money to trade with China, they won't accept Rubble.
Re: Russian gas flows via Yamal pipeline to Germany halt, bids remain
#116I'm surprised any gas was still flowing from Russia to the EU - it would seem like that would be the first thing they would have stopped in response to sanctions.
Re: Russian gas flows via Yamal pipeline to Germany halt, bids remain
#117I'm surprised any gas was still flowing from Russia to the EU - it would seem like that would be the first thing they would have stopped in response to sanctions.
Most of it is still running because it's needed. Same goes for the exports to the US.
In fact there is pressure in Switzerland to block the trading of gas since 80% is done here but it would hurt the EU so there is no way this will be done unless the EU decides that they also want to sanction this.
The blocking of Swift also has an exclusion for trading of this gas.
Re: Russian gas flows via Yamal pipeline to Germany halt, bids remain
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
The nuclear announcement makes nice headlines for nationalistic dreams. What they actually do tells the real story. > France will also increase its solar power capacity tenfold by 2050 to more than 100 gigawatts (GW) and target building 50 offshore wind farms with a combined capacity of at least 40 GW. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/macron-bets-nuclear-... So they are adding ~10 GW nuclear (6 * 1.6 GW) and a…
> The real reason for this is likely continue have an industrial base for their naval submarine reactors by subsidizing a complementary civilian industry. Interesting, I've never read about that angle. Nuclear is a great complement to Wind/Solar as it provides a steady base load.
The thing is, they don't complement each other at all. They both compete for the same share of the market: the cheapest most inflexible power generation. Renewables win there and force nuclear plants to be more flexible.
Due to the extremely high fixed costs and lower marginal costs of nuclear plants they then have to make the money back in fewer hours, driving cost even higher.
The other issue is the costly steam turbine side. The reason gas won over coal is the efficiency and tiny footprint of gas turbines. Tack on a tiny steam side for the last percent of efficiency and you have a CCGT plant. Coal and nuclear share the same steam side, both have been dead ends since the 80s.
Re: Russian gas flows via Yamal pipeline to Germany halt, bids remain
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better yet, Ukraine should build some well fortified military bases on top of/next to the pipelines. It seems like Russia's only advantage in this war right now is artillery. But if an errant shell could shut down one of the last remaining sources of revenue, maybe the will think twice?
> Better yet, Ukraine should build some well fortified military bases on top of/next to the pipelines. It seems like Russia's only advantage in this war right now is artillery. But if an errant shell could shut down one of the last remaining sources of revenue, maybe the will think twice? That would only hurt Ukraine's allies. Russia is probably going to end up pivoting to exporting energy to China, anyway. Russia's…
IIRC there are no pipelines between Russia's main oil fields and China, all the pipelines go to Europe
Re: Russian gas flows via Yamal pipeline to Germany halt, bids remain
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
If only they used the profits to build a great economy with more to offer. They have no shortage capable and even brilliant people, but they've got a management problem at the national level.
The resource curse tends to be the rule, not the exception.
Norway seems to have avoided it the past few decades by following the advice Tony Montana didn’t: don’t get high on your own supply. They dampen the effects of easy oil money by putting most of the profits into their sovereign wealth fund and, unlike just about every other oil producing country, taxing fossil fuels even harder than countries like Germany and Denmark (which tax them pretty hard).