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Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

ckrapu.github.io

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Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#111

Post by ViewTrick1002 »

yodsanklai wrote: post #67
xbmcuser wrote: post #19

This year ie 2024 world will add more solar power than the total consumption growth. This is despite the tariffs and sanctions on Chinese panels and batteries. I think the world is at the cusp of dramatic change that would come faster if not for western countries trying to protect their industries. I think adding more renewables as fast as possible specially solar is the best option as this will make essentially ener…

To put this statement into perspective, see this graph "Global primary energy consumption by source" https://ourworldindata.org/global-energy-200-years 1. Share of solar is negligible 2. New sources of energy have always come on top of existing sources, never replaced them

Primary energy usage is an awful metric. When replacing ICE cars with EVs we do not need to replace the energy used with a 1:1 ratio. The ICE is 20-35% efficient, and this is spread across the supply chain for both the fuel and the car itself.

See this amazing flow chart on useful vs. rejected energy:

https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#112

Post by codethief »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #74
carapace wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you imagine we will box up our terrestrial waste heat and launch it into the sun? The portion people who leave the Earth do not matter, the fate of the portion who remain remains the same. See "Arithmetic, Population and Energy: Sustainability 101", Al Bartlett https://www.albartlett.org/presentations/arithmetic_populati... Full length video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI1C9DyIi_8

The point is that you can have exponential growth in human energy consumption without exponentially heating the Earth by having the growth take place off-planet. Which is hardly irrelevant to the people still there, e.g. if you find your data centers are using too much power, put them in space. The computation may take a megawatt-hour but transmitting the result back to the surface is only a few watt-seconds for a ra…

> e.g. if you find your data centers are using too much power, put them in space.

…put them in space how far away from Earth exactly? If they're too close, the heat they radiate away will end up on Earth again. If they're too far away, latency & maintenance will become an issue.

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#113

Post by sokoloff »

pama wrote: post #77
yodsanklai wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To put this statement into perspective, see this graph "Global primary energy consumption by source" https://ourworldindata.org/global-energy-200-years 1. Share of solar is negligible 2. New sources of energy have always come on top of existing sources, never replaced them

Please also see this article, which includes useful extrapolations: https://www.economist.com/interactive/essay/2024/06/20/solar... Also, please notice that between 2021 (the date of your link) and today the amount of global solar power quadrupled and the growth is exponential.

The growth looks exponential (and technically probably is, just not in the normal sense of that phrase).

Like any physical process, it’s likely to be limited and follow something more like a Logistic function, which looks exponential at the start but ceases to follow that curve forever (which matters for making multi-decade projections).

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

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#114

Post by realusername »

AstralStorm wrote: post #13
philipkglass wrote: post #7

I'm going to share my own insane idea for drawing down atmospheric CO2. Capture CO2 as biomass or with direct air capture. Pyrolyze biomass to charcoal or use the Bosch reaction to recover pure carbon from CO2 chemically [1]. Then combine the carbon with silicon to form silicon carbide via the Acheson process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheson_process Silicon carbide is extraordinarily resistant to mechanical ero…

Direct CO2 capture is thermodynamically unviable, and literally every plan and attempt involving it was highly expensive in energy.

What does thermodynamically unviable means? There's no thermodynamic laws specifically on carbon.

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#115

Post by zizee »

philipkglass wrote: post #7

I'm going to share my own insane idea for drawing down atmospheric CO2. Capture CO2 as biomass or with direct air capture. Pyrolyze biomass to charcoal or use the Bosch reaction to recover pure carbon from CO2 chemically [1]. Then combine the carbon with silicon to form silicon carbide via the Acheson process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheson_process Silicon carbide is extraordinarily resistant to mechanical ero…

Why not make the silicon Carbide into bricks, and build stuff out of it?

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#116

Post by jillesvangurp »

gmuslera wrote: post #34
xbmcuser wrote: post #19

This year ie 2024 world will add more solar power than the total consumption growth. This is despite the tariffs and sanctions on Chinese panels and batteries. I think the world is at the cusp of dramatic change that would come faster if not for western countries trying to protect their industries. I think adding more renewables as fast as possible specially solar is the best option as this will make essentially ener…

So far we are still increasing the rate at which we extract fossil fuels, even with all the investment in renewables and alternate power sources in the last decades ( https://ourworldindata.org/fossil-fuels ). The Jevon paradox seem to still be valid in this, even with a few countries that managed to have most of their energy matrix on clean sources. And with all the time that CO2 remains in the atmosphere it is not…

Any timelines we impose are artificial. Setting deadlines hasn't really helped accomplish as much as simply changing the economics has in recent years. The reason solar power is popular is simply that it saves people money on their electricity bills. That wasn't always true. But now that it is, we see huge growth at both grid level and domestic level of its deployment.

You are right we are still expanding the use of fossil fuels. But we do seem to be on a path where the peak usage is happening in the reasonably near future. The faster than expected adoption of renewables is bringing that moment forward.

I regularly read what Bloomberg NEF publishes on this topic. They published an interesting article recently: https://about.bnef.com/blog/designing-and-delivering-net-zer...

They are calling for short term policy changes to accelerate things. Most of those policies are simply about incentivizing people doing the right things.

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#118

Post by zizee »

jeisc wrote: post #100

we created the problem by abusing technology so I doubt more technology will solve it. We need to change our consumerism culture from throw away to keep forever.

Given that it is proving near impossible to get everyone to "do the right thing", technology is the only realistic way out of this.

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#119

Post by FrustratedMonky »

""I hope other companies follow Gitpod's lead and support the high achievers that our digital society is built upon by enabling them to become independent artists that build truly open ecosystems""

This a great idea.

It forgets that most artist starve.

The meme of the "Starving Artist" working as a barista, is not in our cultural zeitgeist for nothing.

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#120

Post by alex_duf »

xbmcuser wrote: post #19

This year ie 2024 world will add more solar power than the total consumption growth. This is despite the tariffs and sanctions on Chinese panels and batteries. I think the world is at the cusp of dramatic change that would come faster if not for western countries trying to protect their industries. I think adding more renewables as fast as possible specially solar is the best option as this will make essentially ener…

Focusing on reducing emissions is important, but it's only the first step of the plan. If we want to be anywhere near the 2°C scenario, starting from 2050, we need to be sequestering carbon directly from the atmosphere.

So I'm okay with people spending a little effort on step 2 of the plan now, especially given that we don't have yet proven technology to realise it.

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