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Electricity Prices by Country

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251–260 of 312 posts

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"Uninhabitable" becomes meaningless if you dilute it to mean "you couldn't build a city-scale population centre here without some infrastructure". All cities need infrastructure!

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#252
post #62

Earlier 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…

> Fukushima was a risk that was hard to ignore. Politically hard to ignore? Yes. Practicaly hard to ignore? No. Germany doesn't get any tsunamis and even if it did, the consequences of a fukushima level accident every few decades are less bad than the direct pollution effects of coal, even ignoring the CO2.

Practically too. The $800 billion clean up bill also comes on top of the already gargantuan cost of building and maintaining nuclear power stations. It's a roll of the dice.

The next nuclear catastrophe probably won't look like Fukushima or Chernobyl but I imagine it will happen partly as a result of skimped/badly done maintenance on a plant whose operating life has been extended a bit too far.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $0.0005 / kWh A typo, surely?

In July 2022, the average price I paid was 0.0192 NOK / kWh - so that's around $0.0018 / kWh. But that was the monthly average price, the daily minimum can be much lower.

Keep in mind this is just the price for electricity, in addition you have to pay to be connected to the grid. Where I am that's around 0.5 NOK/kWh.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#254
post #146
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kw/H -> kWh It really is quite impressive to write a 3-letter unit with 4 errors.

And yet, you seem to have figured it out.

No, he's right. You want Joules. kW is Joules per second, dividing by hours gives Joules per second per second.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#255
post #186
post #62

Earlier 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…

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.

>As such this strategy raises a lot of criticism when they start to burn coal.

Except they didnt. Unlike Poland they reduced the amount of coal they used by rather a lot.

While US media is extremely critical of Germany for "not reducing its use of coal fast enough" it is apparently entirely unbothered by Poland not reducing it at all.

This is the American media feigning environmental concern because Germany was less obedient than Poland in following American foreign policy goals.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#257
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd guess that a far bigger factor is that the US has a much higher percentage of houses the use electricity for room heating. I believe that it is similar for water heating. In the US there is also a high percentage of houses that use electricity for the stoves and oven and for clothes drying. A brief didn't turn up how much electricity is used for those things in the UK, but if it is like much of the rest of Europe…

Not to mention cooling. How many people in the UK even have air conditioning?

Spot on it’s very hot where I am and I run the AC about 9 months a year. My house has 2 units. Even in the winter there could be hot days where I’ll need to run it.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yea no. Been to Costa Rica many times and no one has AC. People aren’t dying on the streets. My brother in law lived there for 10 years with no AC and it’s hotter, for longer, than my home in the Deep South.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#259
post #62

Earlier 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. Not for Japan[1]. The truth is that after Fukushima, the pro-nuclear parties lost a few state elections, which caused them to panic and give up on nuclear. Today, even Japan is over it, but in germany no one wants to admit that mistake. [1]: https…

Japan isnt really over it but theyve become increasingly focused on nuclear weapons potential after North Korea got nukes and started lobbing missiles over their heads. Their trust in the US nuclear umbrella isnt unlimited.

It's the same reason Iran, Sweden and South Korea maintain a nuclear industry despite it not being particularly economic for any of them. They all have geopolitical concerns that drive them to want to be able to manufacture a nuke at short notice.

Unlike with Sweden, South Korea and Japan we are told to believe that Iran is pursuing nuclear power as a means of being able to acquire weapons.

Re: Electricity Prices by Country

#260
post #62

Earlier 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…

> 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.

Kind of my point. Germany's energy policy has gotten a disproportionate amount of attention and criticism in the US media for "not reducing its coal usage fast enough" for about a decade and this filters through to hacker news which discusses Germany's electricity system a lot and Poland's almost not at all.
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