Earlier quoted context omitted.
Up here in Alaska, heating your house with electricity would be asinine if you have any other option.
In time places like Alaska may well depopulate.
More space for me.
Electricity Prices by Country
181–190 of 312 posts
Re: Electricity Prices by Country
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah whereas in the southern U.S. a lack of air conditioning is a medical emergency. It gets insanely hot down there!
It's technically uninhabitable. It only works because we have a lot of technology, similar to NL, the arctic and so on. There are a lot of areas in the world that we have essentially only borrowed as long as we can hold on to them but that are in most senses uninhabitable and hostile to unprotected life.
Is it uninhabitable? Maybe some specific areas in Arizona / New Mexico, the South Eastern US was already established States before air conditioning was even invented.
Re: Electricity Prices by Country
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's technically uninhabitable. It only works because we have a lot of technology, similar to NL, the arctic and so on. There are a lot of areas in the world that we have essentially only borrowed as long as we can hold on to them but that are in most senses uninhabitable and hostile to unprotected life.
Is it uninhabitable? Maybe some specific areas in Arizona / New Mexico, the South Eastern US was already established States before air conditioning was even invented.
Yes, but not by these quantities of people. Critical infrastructure would be much harder to keep alive without AC and the same goes for the elderly. I would expect the average lifespan of the region to take a serious hit during a prolonged power outage in summer.
Re: Electricity Prices by Country
#184One little thing that stuck out: The USA leads the way in terms of household electric usage in the world – an average US household consumes approximately 975 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month, three times more than for example the United Kingdom. Which got me wondering how big US domiciles are versus those in the UK. Turns out: lot of big-ass houses here in the US. https://shrinkthatfootprint.com/how-big-is-a-…
I am curious about quintile statistics, or at least median. Domiciles are definitely bigger in the US, but I bet the mean average is dragged way up by the top 20% of houses. Air conditioning also uses the most electricity in a house, and the US has a lot more populated hot and humid regions than many European countries.
You would be wrong, even cheap houses in the US are quite large.
Re: Electricity Prices by Country
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
0.96 CAD per kWh just up the road here in BC. I moved to Canada from the UK and it’s still unbelievable to me how much cheaper energy is here. If you’re renting a place you don’t even pay for gas. I have unlimited gas in my apartment all year round! I’ve never been so warm in my life. I would highly recommend any young Brits reading this to seriously look at making the move. It’s amazing out here.
0.96 $CAD doesn't seem all that cheap.
I think they made an error converting cents to dollars, I just checked BC Hydro's rate and it's actually $0.0959 CAD (9.59 cents) for the first 1,350 kWh in a month (Step 1) then raises to $0.1422 after that (Step 2).[1]
[1] https://app.bchydro.com/accounts-billing/rates-energy-use/el...
Re: Electricity Prices by Country
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
To think there were nuclear reactors already built and running perfectly fine in Germany. That were closed down presumably for ecological reasons. Burning coal and natural gas instead.
They werent that many to begin with they growing increasingly expensive to run, were coming to the end of their lifespan and Fukushima was a risk that was hard to ignore. It's interesting how Poland's electricity mix has been 80% coal for decades and this passes without comment, but what really enrages some people is a few nuclear power plants in Germany being mostly swapped out with solar and wind energy. Doesnt see…
People generally present Germany strategy as a major role model for the best and most effective way to combat climate change. As such this strategy raises a lot of criticism when they start to burn coal.
If people were presenting Poland as the model for environmentalism then that strategy would likely raise even harsher criticism.
Re: Electricity Prices by Country
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
They werent that many to begin with they growing increasingly expensive to run, were coming to the end of their lifespan and Fukushima was a risk that was hard to ignore. It's interesting how Poland's electricity mix has been 80% coal for decades and this passes without comment, but what really enrages some people is a few nuclear power plants in Germany being mostly swapped out with solar and wind energy. Doesnt see…
> They werent that many to begin with they growing increasingly expensive to run, were coming to the end of their lifespan and Fukushima was a risk that was hard to ignore. That’s simply untrue. Nuclear reactors are permanently maintained and improved, especially in Germany because of §19a Atomgesetz. Nuclear power plants can run 60 years and longer. The nuclear reactor in Beznau went first online 1969 and it’s still…
Of course you can. Just like you can drive a car for a million miles.
Those reactors were never designed to operate this long. As time goes on, you'll run into increasingly rare failures which weren't even considered during their design. Getting replacement parts is going to become increasingly difficult, as you're now looking for a replacement for a one-off part which was created decades ago by a company which doesn't even exist anymore. And you're missing out on six decades of innovation - including safety improvements.
Running reactors well beyond their original design lifespan is irresponsible. We are already seeing this in practice in France: in 2022 28 out of 56 reactors were offline due to technical issues or maintenance. 2023 saw a repeat of this, with 32 out of 56 offline at the same time.
If you want a stable supply of power using nuclear reactors, you're going to have to build new ones sooner rather than later.
Re: Electricity Prices by Country
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is a paradox. The more renewables you will build, the more dependent on fossil fuels you will become.
Up to a point. Long term the idea is to get rid of fossil fuels entirely and there are good indications that this is achievable.
During this fall when journalist was interviewing every kind of energy scientists, the estimates landed around 30-50 years from now before those fossil fuel replacements will start to be built at grid scale.
That is a very long time into the future, with a very high uncertainty.
Re: Electricity Prices by Country
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
To think there were nuclear reactors already built and running perfectly fine in Germany. That were closed down presumably for ecological reasons. Burning coal and natural gas instead.
They werent that many to begin with they growing increasingly expensive to run, were coming to the end of their lifespan and Fukushima was a risk that was hard to ignore. It's interesting how Poland's electricity mix has been 80% coal for decades and this passes without comment, but what really enrages some people is a few nuclear power plants in Germany being mostly swapped out with solar and wind energy. Doesnt see…
> It's interesting how Poland's electricity mix has been 80% coal for decades and this passes without comment
Well to be fair, this comment chain was explicitly about Germany. There are lots of bad energy policies.
Re: Electricity Prices by Country
#190Prices of anything "by country" should be normalized by local average income. Ideally, for a fairer comparison, a good metric is "how many hours of work of a median citizen for each unity" of such a good. EDIT: article does something similar to that: https://www.electricrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/coun...
The original article has some of those figures.