11–20 of 101 posts
Wind and geothermal is good options as well. The biggest problem is storage.
We'll get there. I'd just like to make sure we remember that absolutely everything has a cost. The cost of anything is the value it has in its alternative uses.
If we're subsidizing renewable energy, we're not spending money on something else (and we're reducing people's incomes in the process).
Wind and geothermal is good options as well. The biggest problem is storage.
A big problem with wind energy in Germany is a very vocal minority of old people who think that wind park visually destructs nature and it looks horrible. Personally I think wind parks look awesome but there is a lot of opposition.
Another is how many birds it kills a year. (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-many-birds-do-w...)
That's not to say we shouldn't build it. Just that we need to consider what it costs before we do.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The transportation fuels example is even more exciting, IMO. Transportation fuels are basically simple hydrocarbons that burn with oxygen to turn into CO2 and H2O. There's only engineering, capital, and energy costs that need to be overcome - then we can run that process in reverse and turning our current transportation infrastructure carbon-neutral.
> run the process in reverse Does the fact that CO2 makes up a very small portion of the atmosphere make this hard?
Wind and geothermal is good options as well. The biggest problem is storage.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I particularly liked his point about bringing processes with a high electricity demand to those areas and cutting down on cost across the board. He gives aluminum, ammonia, and desalination as examples, which could do a lot for reducing costs of production while still overall "greening" the process. If they can take advantage of the cycling in prices, I can see regions like the American Southwest selling this as a bu…
It's not a novel idea. E.g., Dubai produces a lot of aluminum, since importing ore and exporting Al is cheaper than exporting natural gas. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubal
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The transportation fuels example is even more exciting, IMO. Transportation fuels are basically simple hydrocarbons that burn with oxygen to turn into CO2 and H2O. There's only engineering, capital, and energy costs that need to be overcome - then we can run that process in reverse and turning our current transportation infrastructure carbon-neutral.
> run the process in reverse Does the fact that CO2 makes up a very small portion of the atmosphere make this hard?
So yes, it's difficult to do cheaply.
"Admits" seems a bit harsh, like he was doing his best to hide something from the world. By all accounts, it looks like he had written out a reasonable explanation as to why he predicted solar would not become cost effective. At the end of the day, if something doesn't make financial sense, it won't last long without subsidies from the government. The assumptions behind his predictions changed and therefore so did th…
I particularly liked his point about bringing processes with a high electricity demand to those areas and cutting down on cost across the board. He gives aluminum, ammonia, and desalination as examples, which could do a lot for reducing costs of production while still overall "greening" the process. If they can take advantage of the cycling in prices, I can see regions like the American Southwest selling this as a bu…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A big problem with wind energy in Germany is a very vocal minority of old people who think that wind park visually destructs nature and it looks horrible. Personally I think wind parks look awesome but there is a lot of opposition.
That's what I mean. Wind might be generated "for free," but one cost is what it looks like. Another is how many birds it kills a year. ( http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-many-birds-do-w... ) That's not to say we shouldn't build it. Just that we need to consider what it costs before we do.
They do want to avoid building them on busy migration routes though.
Amazingly popular talking point amongst hypocritical fossil fuel industry supporters and semi-professional contrarians though.