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Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life

briangitt.com

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Re: Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life

#31
post #6

I recently heard (on HN, maybe you did too) about a form of energy that sounds pretty utopian to me. Ultra deep bore geothermal. Geothermal has been around for a long time and has problems like causing earthquakes and needing very specific geological formations that only exist in certain places. But these limitations are mostly due to the fact that we can't bore that deep. Geothermal energy exists under every point o…

Ultra deep bore geothermal is a science project right now.

A science project that could indeed be worth it.

Re: Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life

#32
post #16

I don't really understand his conclusion. If I understand it correctly, it boils down to: Fossil fuels are cheaper (better ROI) than renewables, therefore changes/improvements to fossil fuels did more to reduce CO2 than renewables. My work on "utopian energy" didn't have the effect I wished it had. Climate change is a problem. Just because gas, oil, and coal are cheaper and made improvements doesn't change a thing ab…

He wanted to be a hero and when that didn’t work out he got embarrassed and switched sides.

Instead of learning about technology cycles, when life gave him lemons he said fuck the lemons and bailed.

Re: Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life

#35
> I used to think that the world was transitioning to solar, wind, and batteries. This, too, was false. Trillions of dollars were spent on wind and solar projects over the last 20 years, yet the world’s dependence on fossil fuels declined only 3 percentage points, from 87% to 84%.

> I used to believe nuclear energy was dangerous and nuclear waste was a big problem. In fact, nuclear is the safest and most reliable way to generate low-emission electricity, and it provides the best chance of reducing CO2 emissions.

These two points taken together make me wonder how many trillions of dollars would have to be invested in nuclear to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels from 84% to zero? Also, I wonder how nuclear holds up in the "Security: Does an energy source enable a country to maintain its autonomy" department. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_uranium_p..., over 40% of Uranium is coming from Kazakhstan, which is itself not a democratic country and a close ally of Russia. And the countries with the most nuclear plants have next to no Uranium production of their own. So much for autonomy...

Re: Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ultra deep bore geothermal is a science project right now.

A science project that could indeed be worth it.

Yeah - put R&D and money in it, and maybe it'll work in a couple decades. But don't bank on it just yet as a solution to climate change.

Re: Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life

#37
> I used to believe nuclear energy was dangerous and nuclear waste was a big problem. [...]

The only way I could imagine someone being an expert, work in the industry so many years and hold this false assumption just as long is to be motivated to not know.

Re: Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life

#38
post #14

During the current situation I learned an interesting thing about nuclear power plants: if you bomb them, the amount of radioactivity that will be released into atmosphere because of waste products storage on site is vastly larger than the one that would be released by a nuclear explosion in a random place. Because unfortunately most nuclear waste is stored on site because of the NIMBY problem. So every nuclear power…

My (not totally serious but kinda serious though uninformed) solution to the problem: Build a few big underground atomic bunkers around the world and store the long term waste there until we can find a solution (or leave it there). Do it in the middle of a desert far away from any people. No NIMBYs, not interesting for attacks.

Re: Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life

#39
post #29

I clicked the "next" button and found a similarly structured story about how ESG guidelines are also not the answer and how oil and gas companies can improve their image. I am concerned that this article isn't expressing genuinely held beliefs and is instead part of a marketing effort (and not just for the author).

Oil and gas usually runs five to ten years behind on new technologies, so it’s about time for them to take up Cambridge Analytica.

Re: Chasing utopian energy: How I wasted 20 years of my life

#40
post #6

I recently heard (on HN, maybe you did too) about a form of energy that sounds pretty utopian to me. Ultra deep bore geothermal. Geothermal has been around for a long time and has problems like causing earthquakes and needing very specific geological formations that only exist in certain places. But these limitations are mostly due to the fact that we can't bore that deep. Geothermal energy exists under every point o…

Fervo (https://www.fervoenergy.com) is another deep bore geothermal startup.
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