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US can reach 100% clean power by 2035, DOE finds

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Re: US can reach 100% clean power by 2035, DOE finds

#31

We can have 100% clean energy by 2035 if we assume the US is China and the state can build whatever it wants despite any local objections. And assume we increase battery supply by 40x (even though lithium price is going up dramatically now). And assume that clean power is actually 100% clean. It's good to have a vision for clean energy though that is shared with the country that we start working towards. I can see th…

Lithium price declined recently due to over supply.

The US can do this without objection by declaring a state of emergency. We’ve done it before and we can do it again

Re: US can reach 100% clean power by 2035, DOE finds

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd think what they want is a solution to switch over to renewable energy sources that can meet or exceed current demands at comparative costs. No, they just want to get rid of fossil fuels. It doesn't matter if the new system can meet the demand at all, or how much it will cost. Look at California. Banning lawn mowers and ICE cars. Their power grid can't even support EV charging, and they're sending out notices as…

That does not represent anything in the article. > Their power grid can't even support EV charging, This is categorically false, and a ridiculous thing to say.

> The California Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s power grid, sent a Flex Alert asking all residents to voluntarily reduce their electricity use between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and warned that more alerts were possible through the Labor Day weekend.

> A spokeswoman for the governor, Erin Mellon, said that the request to avoid charging electrical vehicles has been misrepresented by critics of California’s efforts to curb emissions.

> “We’re not saying don’t charge them,” she said. “We’re just saying don’t charge them between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/us/california-heat-wave-f...

Re: US can reach 100% clean power by 2035, DOE finds

#34
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we were to start that now, it would add only 1% generation capacity, and that's assuming that all projects finish within 13 years (unlikely) and that none of the construction projects are abandoned as unfinishable in any way that makes financial sense (which happened to 50% of the reactors started in the US in the 2000s). There's an assumption that we can simply rebuild what we built in the past, but technology ha…

> ... and in France, and in Finland ... We might be about to discover that every power policy in Europe has failed, there are a lot of people hoping for a warm winter. I'd be very nervous if their fossil fuel, nuclear, renewable or gas policies were being adopted where I live. There is a serial problem in the west where people aren't taking energy security seriously. If we were, we'd have been building nuclear reacto…

I think the wind turbines froze up: https://www.newsweek.com/texas-wind-turbines-frozen-power-wh...

Re: US can reach 100% clean power by 2035, DOE finds

#35

"Nuclear is likely to be 9% to 12% of generation in 2035" - this is absurd. We should have much more aggressive targets for nuclear. Because it is the cleanest, safest and most reliable source of 0-emission power. France gets 70% of its electricity from nuclear now.

That’s less than the 20% we get now.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_the_United_...

“ for 20% of the nation's total electric energy generation.[3] In 2018, nuclear comprised nearly 50 percent of US emission-free energy generation.”

Didn’t the United States build 100 nuclear power plants in about 25 years?

Re: US can reach 100% clean power by 2035, DOE finds

#36
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That page doesn't really describe how to fix the problems. Clearly you didn't actually read it because there's a large section describing exactly how to improve the economics of nuclear construction: https://whatisnuclear.com/economics.html#improving-modern-nu...

From the conclusion: - Multiple hypothetical approaches to reduce nuclear costs are ongoing. No one knows for sure if any of them will work, or which one will work best And it didn't address the time scale issue at all. OTOH, solar power has a 5 decade history of 90% cost reductions per decade.

Solar power also has a decades long history of only working during a day.

Re: US can reach 100% clean power by 2035, DOE finds

#37

We can have 100% clean energy by 2035 if we assume the US is China and the state can build whatever it wants despite any local objections. And assume we increase battery supply by 40x (even though lithium price is going up dramatically now). And assume that clean power is actually 100% clean. It's good to have a vision for clean energy though that is shared with the country that we start working towards. I can see th…

> local objections

That's a big component of all this. NIMBYism in this country is becoming a big problem in a lot of ways.

Want to build a dense, mixed use development that is less carbon-intensive than single family suburbia? NIMBYs oppose it.

Build a transmission line from your green energy source? NIMBYs, again!

Build a solar farm? NIMBYs will try and block it.

Re: US can reach 100% clean power by 2035, DOE finds

#38

"Nuclear is likely to be 9% to 12% of generation in 2035" - this is absurd. We should have much more aggressive targets for nuclear. Because it is the cleanest, safest and most reliable source of 0-emission power. France gets 70% of its electricity from nuclear now.

The full paragraph is:

"Nuclear is likely to be 9% to 12% of generation in 2035 under three of NREL’s scenarios but could more than double to 27% with siting and permitting constraints on generation and transmission, models found. But that is unlikely because the cost-effectiveness of investments in wind, solar, storage and transmission is “clearly” better than that of new nuclear, NREL’s Denholm said."

Re: US can reach 100% clean power by 2035, DOE finds

#40
post #37

We can have 100% clean energy by 2035 if we assume the US is China and the state can build whatever it wants despite any local objections. And assume we increase battery supply by 40x (even though lithium price is going up dramatically now). And assume that clean power is actually 100% clean. It's good to have a vision for clean energy though that is shared with the country that we start working towards. I can see th…

> local objections That's a big component of all this. NIMBYism in this country is becoming a big problem in a lot of ways. Want to build a dense, mixed use development that is less carbon-intensive than single family suburbia? NIMBYs oppose it. Build a transmission line from your green energy source? NIMBYs, again! Build a solar farm? NIMBYs will try and block it.

If by NIMBYs you mean paid actors attending council meetings and incredibly loud reactionaries from other places, then yeah.

There aren't that many actual NIMBYs for this shit.

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