361–370 of 596 posts
To put this into context: https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eu-natural-gas I call this “the Greta curve”.
It wouldn't have been so devastating if we took Greta seriously and switched to fossil-free energy sources.
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Why not then just charge batteries where you need them and keep them at place for when the Sun goes to sleep? Why would you transport batteries around?
Because some places have excess amounts of hydropower and other places have huge energy shortfalls. Not everyone is using solar/wind power. It is a pretty straightforward arbitrage. I have no idea if it's worth doing, though.
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The transmission issues will be solved: more and more HVDC interconnections start construction in Europe every year. Grids that still rely heavily on coal and natural gas can, and will, be improved. An EV bought today will only get cleaner as the grid gets cleaner. A new fossil-fuel vehicle today will always be dependent on fossil fuels, and will always pollute at least as much as the day it was purchased.
How many neighbors on a block of houses can have simultaneous charging?
As we can all boil a kettle (3kW), or have a shower (10kW), or cook a sunday roast (5kW), and indeed do those at the same time, it's not a problem.
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We're not screwed. We're just witnessing the accelerated death of the fossil fuel based power generation industry and it's making renewable power extremely lucrative. Prices are high because of gas prices. Except it's August and Europe is producing a lot of solar power and a fair bit of wind power. That's why there are no blackouts. There is no power shortage; just a gas shortage. Europe has plenty of reserves to gen…
I agree with all that, but in the short term things are going to be very expensive. As I already wrote, I see it as an opportunity to do what you said - ditch fossil fuels for good. There's no point in doing anything else, like whining. But if you think the landing will be anything other than rough, then we'll have to disagree.
Everything else is something we should have done 5 or even 15 years ago so as to not end up in this position.
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Germany’s obsession with solar and wind is absolutely baffling. It takes very little to know that Germany simply does not have the conditions for large scale solar. Yet it was pushed so heavily in lieu of nuclear power. Absurd.
In an ideal world countries like Spain and Greece invest in solar but they're completely incompetent. So you get the absurd situation that the Netherlands is European leader in solar energy lol. Most densely populated country in Europe has solar parks for fuck sake.
But it failed in securing energy resilience. I hope it has learned its lesson.
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Why not then just charge batteries where you need them and keep them at place for when the Sun goes to sleep? Why would you transport batteries around?
Because some places have excess amounts of hydropower and other places have huge energy shortfalls. Not everyone is using solar/wind power. It is a pretty straightforward arbitrage. I have no idea if it's worth doing, though.
Even non Battery electric trains can speed up or slow down at different points (while still staying on schedule) to act as a variable demand for the local grids. Batteries just extend that.
https://arstechnica.netblogpro.com/science/2021/11/can-we-ru...
> The analysis becomes very interesting when the researchers leave freight behind and start thinking about what could be done with many big, mobile batteries. Even without moving them, freight companies could use their capacity to provide grid stabilization services or sell back power when the price gets high. In extreme cases, this system could actually pay for the entire infrastructure.
> "Preliminary estimates of the most expensive 90 hours per year in the ERCOT [Texas] market, for example, show that batteries could be discharged at $200/kWh, potentially generating enough revenue to pay for the upfront battery cost in a single year," the study says.
> The batteries could also be moved to locations that have been struck by power outages or natural disasters, towed there by locomotives running on diesel instead of draining the batteries.
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All energy problem reduce to problems of energy transportation. We have a huge fusion reactor in the sky. The challenge is capture and transit. The problem is not incidental; it's fundamental.
As long as people won't even try to install a solar concentrator while bitching about rising prices, I won't take any of them seriously. Such a simple design, can be used for at least heating water for 3-6 months. But nah. Same for which the roofs. You don't have a white/silver roof on your house? Fuck you. On that note, you like cruise ships? Also fuck you.
I am one of your fuckees. The house I bought was expensive enough as it was. I am not changing a brand new dark roof for a different one for an exorbitant price right now, because budget. A perfectly new roof going down (isn't that actually waste?) for saving, say, 10 of 30 days when the AC is really needed?
(I am also not even sure if roof colors are regulated by the local authorities or not. There are over thirty houses in the same project, with the same roofs. Maybe I wouldn't even be allowed to.)
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California has to shut down their grid occasionally just because it's in such poor repair that wildfires are a risk. I can't imagine how they are going to handle everyone getting EVs.
Solar and distributed storage help fight this. A significant amount of charging off peak also actually reduces the load, making things more reliable and cleaner. Fire related grid shutdowns are usually hyperlocal, meaning the few who need to charge during that time can just run a town over. (keep in mind that EVs can be charged just less than once a week for average use)
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As long as people won't even try to install a solar concentrator while bitching about rising prices, I won't take any of them seriously. Such a simple design, can be used for at least heating water for 3-6 months. But nah. Same for which the roofs. You don't have a white/silver roof on your house? Fuck you. On that note, you like cruise ships? Also fuck you.
"You don't have a white/silver roof on your house? Fuck you." I am one of your fuckees. The house I bought was expensive enough as it was. I am not changing a brand new dark roof for a different one for an exorbitant price right now, because budget. A perfectly new roof going down (isn't that actually waste?) for saving, say, 10 of 30 days when the AC is really needed? (I am also not even sure if roof colors are regu…
I'm talking people building or renovating and then bitching about expensive AC. Talk about idiotic.
I'm in a town where more than half the roofs are black. BLACK! It has been over 30 degrees and sunny for two months of summer. Guess what complaints I kept hearing?
Reflective paint helps in summer much more than it hurts in winter.
But beyond that, I just hate people going "Reeee we need to do something about the climate change" who do absolutely nothing themselves.
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The sun is always shining somewhere. We need more interconnects.
Global power transfers don't work due to losses. The physics doesn't work out.
The physics works out just fine. Where did you get your information from?
See also:
"On the technology front we have covered significant ground in the past two decades. We have raised power capacity from 50MW to more than 1,400MW – enough to power several million households. We have enhanced voltage levels from 80kV to 525kV, thereby increasing distance capability from 70km to over 1,000km. And at the same time we have continually brought down transmission losses which are now at less than 1 percent." https://eepower.com/news/abb-doubles-hvdc-capacity-and-celeb...