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Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

reuters.com

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Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#41
post #25
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Levelized Cost of Energy for solar is 30-60$ and 100-200$ for nuclear. In the case of Spain, it is cheaper to build more energy lines with Morocco and battery storage than to use nuclear. Spain already has some of the cheapest energy in Europe thanks to renewables. In the case of Germany, nuclear makes sense, but it is not clear where you would buy fuel for it, It might still be a supply chain risk since Russia and K…

It's not that easy, and the 2025 blackout good evidence of that. Renewables need a grid that's engineered for them and that require significative investments. Without them, closing power plants (of any kind) is, IMO, nonsensical. Ironically, Spain has plenty of Uranium, but there is an environmental law that doesn't allow its mining. https://alpoma.medium.com/uranium-in-spain-8ef975763257 This country is crazy.

No it's not. Nuclear plants are not compatible with climate change. Spain and it's rivers will be too warm to cool them down: https://www.euronews.com/2025/07/02/france-and-switzerland-s...

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#42

Yeah, I live in Spain and probably once again we'll have restrictions on AC in the summer just like at the start of the Ukraine war. Hopefully, we can avoid actual blackouts. The bizarre thing is that our government still wants to close down the remaining nuclear power plants. One of the issues with our proportional electoral system is that smaller, more extreme parties can become kingmakers and in our current situat…

in the election that is running in Denmark right now it looks like nuclear power is back on the table.

Same as Sweden. Creating divisive issues from nothing decades after the possibility passed.

At least the MAGA Hard right is staring to come around. Who could have guessed that they like extremely cheap distributed energy generation!?!?

> Why MAGA suddenly loves solar power

> The Trump-led attack on solar eases as the right reckons with its crucial role in powering AI and keeping utility bills in check.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/02/katie-mil...

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#43
Anyone has any respect left for US Americans after they elected this? This is so ridiculous at so many levels:

Not US hollywood culture or whatever Americans culturally exported in the past all around the world, but this will forever represent US Americans in my mind. That this is how they overall want to be seen and represented as all around the world, seemingly:

“Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran,” President Trump posted on X. “Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG Gas facility.”

“NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar,” the U.S. president also wrote, proceeding then to threaten to “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.”

What even is this style of communication and thinking behind it from a leader of the richest country in the world? Is he a child? Who can even be impressed by this... unbelievable. Feels like we're like living in a very dumb, very deadly, reality show.

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#44
As someone who's been pushing for renewables for quite a while now it's dismaying that it's taken a war to accelerate this push, but I'm glad to see that it's happening at least.

It's doubly dismaying that my own country (US) is still doubling down on fossil fuels despite everything.

The concern about a new dependency on China is real, but renewables do have the advantage that once you have the infrastructure in place it keeps working without continuously importing fuel. Nonetheless, China has done a good job building up their PV/battery manufacturing capacity (including via subsidies for a while if I'm not mistaken) and to the extent the rest of the world wants to avoid a dependency on them we should do that too.

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#45
post #41
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that easy, and the 2025 blackout good evidence of that. Renewables need a grid that's engineered for them and that require significative investments. Without them, closing power plants (of any kind) is, IMO, nonsensical. Ironically, Spain has plenty of Uranium, but there is an environmental law that doesn't allow its mining. https://alpoma.medium.com/uranium-in-spain-8ef975763257 This country is crazy.

No it's not. Nuclear plants are not compatible with climate change. Spain and it's rivers will be too warm to cool them down: https://www.euronews.com/2025/07/02/france-and-switzerland-s...

Well only to certain point. When the rivers will naturally be too hot. You can start making them even hotter and it does not matter anymore.

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#46
post #31

The US about to discover you can't just blindly follow fanatics in religious wars without any consequences.

I mean given that our secretary of defense has a Deus Vult tattoo... and this: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/03/us-israel-iran...

I think we might be the fanatics starting a religious war.

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might need to pretend that you don’t need energy either!

I’m fasting! No need for energy at all.

Got a wind-up computer, have you?

(Maybe that OLTP project was onto something, after all)

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#49

Wonder how much WFH could help. Seems like during covid demand went way down.

But think of the commercial real estate market?!?! What about the chopped salad slop bowl market?! Dry cleaning?! This would shatter the fabric of our precious society. We need butts in seats. We need to foster open communication and cross functional pollination.

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#50

As someone who's been pushing for renewables for quite a while now it's dismaying that it's taken a war to accelerate this push, but I'm glad to see that it's happening at least. It's doubly dismaying that my own country (US) is still doubling down on fossil fuels despite everything. The concern about a new dependency on China is real, but renewables do have the advantage that once you have the infrastructure in plac…

I guess the oil industry is laughing their ass off nowadays. They can sell at such a premium. Inflation? YP.
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