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California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

electrek.co

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Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#51
post #9

Spain as a whole 45 million country with diverse geography and scattered population is producing 75 percent of its electricity from renewables and gas and carbon have been down to almost technical zero. It's rained a lot over the last month's and water reservoirs are used as battery. I made a website to track this: https://energy.antizone.online During the day, a huge chunk of the produced energy is sold to other cou…

But the government is closing down the nuclear power stations so we'll be back to gas and coal soon enough!

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#52
post #25
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most striking thing is how incredibly flat the line for nuclear is.

It's flat on all sides though. https://www.tvo.fi/en/index/news/pressreleasesstockexchanger... Nuclear makes for square supply curves which are kind of hard to handle, especially if you have a large percentage of your supply from a few reactors like they do in Finland.

Can't the control rods allow the output to be controlled?

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#53

I'm not sure how many want to hear this, but western deinstustrailization and shifting of domestic production to imports makes most of this irrelevant. In 20yr nigeria alone will have a larger population than the whole of europe, and is industrializing. Total carbon consumption by westerns is always rising due to shifting it to imports; and in any case, we're only 1bn people. Actually stopping carbon consumption by w…

> makes most of this irrelevant. We do export a ridiculous amount of food and green technologies. > and actually stopping climate change requires changing the industrialization trajectories of many non-western countries. So.. colonialism by a new name. I had really hoped we grew out of this by now.

Industrial emission of CO2 is the main factor; there's not much deindustrializing economies can do beyond deindustrailizing. And, of course, pat themselves on the back as they do so.

There's zero economic, social or political cost to western policies at the moment and they arent reducing CO2 emissions. It's very much "green theatre".

The goal is to stop the actual levels of Co2 ppm from rising. This is all fairly meaningless; it does nothing to change the actual outcome.

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#54
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you, as a German paying absurd electricity prices I applaud this nuance.

I'd like to thanks the German government's policies for the past decades for making me pay absurd electricity prices since the Russian invasion started, even though I live in Sweden with 90+% of renewable electricity generation I'm forced to pay the highest spot price in the EU (aka, gas in Germany) because of Germany's decision to burn coal and gas all the way into 2022... The inertia on modernising Germany is start…

Same in Norway. We in effect subsidize German poor decision making. And unlike when Greece collapse happened, the voices in Berlin are suspiciously quiet about austerity. Oh well, as long as they learn the lesson…

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#55
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's flat on all sides though. https://www.tvo.fi/en/index/news/pressreleasesstockexchanger... Nuclear makes for square supply curves which are kind of hard to handle, especially if you have a large percentage of your supply from a few reactors like they do in Finland.

Can't the control rods allow the output to be controlled?

Yes, but reducing power output won't reduce the plant's mortgage payments.

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#56

I'm not sure how many want to hear this, but western deinstustrailization and shifting of domestic production to imports makes most of this irrelevant. In 20yr nigeria alone will have a larger population than the whole of europe, and is industrializing. Total carbon consumption by westerns is always rising due to shifting it to imports; and in any case, we're only 1bn people. Actually stopping carbon consumption by w…

If solar and wind can be used economically in the west then of course developing countries can also use them. In fact, most of Africa has more sun-hours than typical western countries. Solar and wind can also be used where there are poorly developed electricity grids as it can be produced where it is consumed.

The goal is to stop co2 ppm from rising in the atmosphere beyond dangerous levels, these arent policies to stop that happening, they're polices to replace minor sources of co2 emission (electricity use in developing countries).

I mean if people want to believe all this matters, so be it; but it doesnt. The goal isnt to replace coal power stations with solar ones, it's to stop co2 levels from rising. They're rising 20ppm/decade, iirc, and none of this does anything to change that. maybe it stops them from rising faster than they would have done.

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#57
post #9

Spain as a whole 45 million country with diverse geography and scattered population is producing 75 percent of its electricity from renewables and gas and carbon have been down to almost technical zero. It's rained a lot over the last month's and water reservoirs are used as battery. I made a website to track this: https://energy.antizone.online During the day, a huge chunk of the produced energy is sold to other cou…

But the government is closing down the nuclear power stations so we'll be back to gas and coal soon enough!

Why is that a concern if already over 66% of energy is made of renewable sources?

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#59
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

running solar at night would be a real achievement!

I have fun news for you https://x.com/bennbuilds/status/1767961251186163857

So batteries are too expensive, but space launches aren't? Even assuming the light can be sufficiently focused to bypass the inverse-square law, it'll still need precision manufacturing to actually deliver the power to the panels reliably. And that's assuming mirrors are enough, and you don't need space-side solar panels and microwave/laser beams (which will be even more expensive than hundred-mile-focus mirrors).

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#60
post #9

Spain as a whole 45 million country with diverse geography and scattered population is producing 75 percent of its electricity from renewables and gas and carbon have been down to almost technical zero. It's rained a lot over the last month's and water reservoirs are used as battery. I made a website to track this: https://energy.antizone.online During the day, a huge chunk of the produced energy is sold to other cou…

But the government is closing down the nuclear power stations so we'll be back to gas and coal soon enough!

Not until 2035 at least https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Spain

That's 10 years to build alternatives assuming no further extensions or new nuclear.

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