271–280 of 305 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No military. When the Dutch government gave independence to their South American colony of Suriname they advised it: do not create a military. Military in South/Middle America= failure.
But why does having an army fail these countries?
Costa Rica’s per capita electricity use (about 400W right now) is less than half of New York state’s (about 1kW). Solutions to fossil fuel use are going to have to involve drastic cuts in our electricity consumption.
> Solutions to fossil fuel use are going to have to involve drastic cuts in our electricity consumption. Why? Why can't we produce enough from wind and solar and store it in batteries? Maybe use electric cars as batteries for helping to balance the grid.
[1] https://twitter.com/drvolts/status/1405387412168052738/photo...
[2]https://jancovici.com/en/energy-transition/renewables/could-...
Costa Rica’s per capita electricity use (about 400W right now) is less than half of New York state’s (about 1kW). Solutions to fossil fuel use are going to have to involve drastic cuts in our electricity consumption.
No the solution is to impose carbon tax, and: * Let consumer decide what is more important for them, saved money or not worrying about light switches * Give capitalists incentive to produce greener electricity Yes, technically, forcing people to reduce their quality of life is a solution, but it's better to solve the problem without it.
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Isn't geothermal theoretically available everywhere?
Some available is more available than others I believe that the issue is that the Earth's crust isn't uniformly thick, and that there are places where one could drill for miles without reaching magma/suitable heat sources, and other places (Costa Rica and Iceland come to mind) where the suitable heat sources are essentially on the surface. Or, looking at it another way - oil drilling happens all over the globe and "h…
The tech is still at pilot stage, but with no fundamental problems to solve. The important question is whether it will be able to compete commercially with solar and wind, which costs are still in free-fall.
We really need two words for renewables: one for types that scale but don't provide power on demand (wind, solar), and the other for types that provide power on demand but aren't available at scale everywhere (hydro, geothermal). Costa Rica is blessed with plenty of the second type and uses it. Because we lump it all into "renewables," it sounds like it should be easy for everyone to follow their example, and that's…
> We really need two words for renewables: one for types that scale but don't provide power on demand (wind, solar), and the other for types that provide power on demand but aren't available at scale everywhere (hydro, geothermal). The wording you are looking for is "dispatchable" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispatchable_generation ).
The update is telling: > Update 3/17/2021: Our original article stated "Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Energy for 299 Days." It was pointed out to us that while Costa Rica's electric grid does run primarily on renewable energy, a better title would have been "Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity". Below the article says that the government had not burned any oil to power the country, but this would…
Cut them down and build something out of them, or bury them. I heard that charring before burning is beneficial, but never looked into why that might be.
Pulverizing the charcoal and plowing it into farm fields improves the soil.
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California does not consider hydro to be renewable, so according to California law Costa Rica has not been running on renewable energy. This is to point out California needs to redefine hydro into a renewable resource.
I thought California was running out of water because so much of the water rights are being utilized for agriculture. Would it be possible for them to utilize hydro significantly without destroying their agricultural industry?
California also generates a really large amount of its power geothermally. We don't hear much about the many mature geothermal projects.
Is there an easy answer as to why Costa Rica is doing so well? They seem to be a bit of an exception in Central/South America. EDIT: From Wikipedia "It is known for its long-standing and stable democracy, and for its highly educated workforce, most of whom speak English. The country spends roughly 6.9% of its budget (2016) on education, compared to a global average of 4.4%. Its economy, once heavily dependent on agri…
>Is there an easy answer as to why Costa Rica is doing so well? Yes. Anytime you see an article that says "X country runs on 100% renewable" ... it's hydro-electric power every time. So if your country is blessed with a type of geography that makes hydro electric power viable, you're golden! Solar and Wind cannot power a modern economy without fossil fuel back-up.
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Austria
About your last point: >
I respectfully disagree. I think solar+wind+batteries+nuclear can do the trick. Not everywhere, but many places.
I'm surprised no one talks more about how countries near the equator (DRCongo, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc.) will transition to renewables. Wind is much weaker near the equator, and building huge solar farms will mean cutting down precious rainforest. It's a real conundrum!
Is there an easy answer as to why Costa Rica is doing so well? They seem to be a bit of an exception in Central/South America. EDIT: From Wikipedia "It is known for its long-standing and stable democracy, and for its highly educated workforce, most of whom speak English. The country spends roughly 6.9% of its budget (2016) on education, compared to a global average of 4.4%. Its economy, once heavily dependent on agri…
Step one: no heavy industries
The thing that really pisses me off is that governments in the past worked SO HARD to argue that renewable energy could never work.
Nixon actually wanted to build 1000 nuclear power plants in the U.S. by the year 2000. Today there 60. Governments of the past didn't argue against renewable energy, they gave up on renewable energy in the face of political opposition, which ironically at the time came from the anti-nuclear left.
This is part of why small-scale factory-built nukes never found a foothold in the US. There just isn't the scope for wholly-legal corruption to generate the institutional support that big nukes got.