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Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

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Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#281

Post by azernik »

groby_b wrote: post #264
azernik wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany is actually a very illustrative example. They started remilitarization in earnest in 1933, Britain and France started around 1936, and those few years of head start let Germany trounce everyone around for the first few years of WWII despite their inferior industrial base.

That's ignoring the Free Corps, though. There was a lot of staffing up via paramilitaries. (Sort of like piling all your armies into Australia in Risk ;) And I think it's worth calling out that Britain and France deliberately slowed down as a result of appeasement policies, not because they missed that Germany was rearming. That's what I meant in the GP post when I said "people willing to stand by and ignore obviousl…

The Freikorps were not a useful force for conflict with peer states. The long-lead-time rearmament that Germany started early was gearing up industry and producing equipment. The Weimar efforts at deniable weapons development was nowhere near the open military work of Britain or France.

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#282

Post by asteroidbelt »

realreality wrote: post #273
asteroidbelt wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No. Capitalism is not capable of addressing the climate and ecological crisis.

I explained how it will work.

Care you explain where I'm wrong or present any arguments to substantiate your point of view?

Otherwise you comment is equivalent to just "I disagree", which contributes zero to the discussion.

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#283

Post by asdff »

ncmncm wrote: post #280
asdff wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nixon wanted to build nukes because nuke construction projects are almost ideal conduits for graft. When a nuke plant construction project goes 400% over budget and 3x over schedule, do we get 400% more nuke plant? No, but every penny goes into somebody's pocket . The ratepayers invariably end up paying through the nose. This is part of why small-scale factory-built nukes never found a foothold in the US. There just…

Why is a nuke plant an ideal conduit for graft versus any other government contractor project? Is there evidence for this?

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#284

Post by asdff »

belval wrote: post #252
asdff wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think foreigners can get a mortgage though, you might have to buy property outright.

If median salary is $9k/year I would assume their housing market to be a lot more affordable than Toronto's.

Actually if thats really the median salary then Costa Rica is far less affordable than Toronto. Look at these prices on this website (albeit one of the first search hits that comes up) (1) I'm seeing 3-4 bedroom homes for at least $500k USD in some cases. If you can afford to pay that outright with no financing as a foreigner in Costa Rica, you can certainly afford a down payment in Toronto's housing market today.

1. https://www.propertiesincostarica.com/homes.html

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#285

Post by nytgop77 »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #256
macspoofing wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because those are intermittent power sources. That is, there are times when the wind isn't blowing, and sun isn't shining, and there is no battery technology (now or coming) that is capable of storing enough energy to bridge this intermittency gap. This is why solar and wind need fossil fuel back-up. Natural gas companies are some of the biggest proponents of solar and wind projects.

Can you elaborate on the "or coming" part of your post? What makes you think batteries won't be substantially better 20 years from now?

My heuristic for pessimism:

We use enourmous amounts of energy and we invest enourmous amounts of money in energy production. At the same time we have neglible storage and and neglible investment in storage.

some numbers:

194MWh - capacity of Hornsdale Power Reserve in Australia

161 million A$ - it's cost (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornsdale_Power_Reserve)

4 700 000 MWh - Australia's daily total consumption of energy of all fuel types (https://www.energy.gov.au/data/energy-consumption)

4700000 / 194 = 24226 - number of same power reserves to store australias power for one day.

24226 * 161 millions = 3.9 trillions of A$ - money needed to build a days capacity in Australia at current price.

(for comparison, Australia GDP is near 2 trillion A$, US GDP is 27 trilion A$)

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#286

Post by stjohnswarts »

belval wrote: post #3

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…

Without corruption from top to bottom you can get a lot done. Most bureaucracies and police forces in central america are rotten to the core, and then you have the gangs who take advantage of that. It's a really hard feedback loop to break out of. Costa Rica has managed to beat that.

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#287

Post by stjohnswarts »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #256
macspoofing wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because those are intermittent power sources. That is, there are times when the wind isn't blowing, and sun isn't shining, and there is no battery technology (now or coming) that is capable of storing enough energy to bridge this intermittency gap. This is why solar and wind need fossil fuel back-up. Natural gas companies are some of the biggest proponents of solar and wind projects.

Can you elaborate on the "or coming" part of your post? What makes you think batteries won't be substantially better 20 years from now?

Because we've been working pretty hard on batteries pretty hard for over 200 years, it will take a 10-20X improvement over current technology and we're not really seeing anything that is exponential like that anytime soon. I mean obviously it could happen, it's just unlikely given the past 200 years of steady improvement and not step function improvements.

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#288

Post by stjohnswarts »

nicoburns wrote: post #25
belval wrote: post #3

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…

Not pissing off the United States? My understanding is that most Central and some South American countries have had their governments intentionally destabilised by the US because they were perceived as too left wing.

Maybe 50-70 years ago? yeah. Now? no. USA barely does anything in Central and South America any longer.

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#289

Post by stjohnswarts »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #108
tohmasu wrote: post #80

70-80% Hydro [~90% Hydro+Geothermal]. ~10% wind and almost no PV. It's important to keep in mind that wind and solar aren't really a part of this success story.

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 Cali was killing off hydro by attrition because they say it damages river ecosystems?

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#290

Post by stjohnswarts »

awakeasleep wrote: post #24
BitwiseFool wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Costa Rica is a small nation with favorable geography, a great balance of population and density with some fantastic externalities that let them focus on domestic affairs.

Also, while its nice, its not especially wealthy, nor situated in a way to become an important geopolitical chess-piece.

He said compared to its neighbors tho
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