441–450 of 596 posts
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even if it ran on gasoline created from carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere?
We don't have perfectly impact-free ways of creating energy. So using less energy to achieve the same goal is always better. And carbon dioxide is not the only pollutant that cars emit.
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It's always available somewhere , so it is, in fact, a transport problem.
That’s just a different problem we can’t solve, either.
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A huge fusion reactor in the sky that isn't available in the evening or when it's cloudy.
All energy on earth, baring geothermal, is ultimately solar energy. Fossil fuels are just one, very efficient, form of storing that energy.
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Announce a $1 trillion nuclear build-out plan for the EU, to build at least 50-60 new nuclear power plants. Go big, really big, and get started on it soon. Why can't Europe go Manhattan Project / Apollo big for such a critical matter? It's cowardice, a lack of daring, if they choose not to. They have the expertise, they have the financial capability, they are lacking the will (so far). To an extent you can scare mark…
> Announce a $1 trillion nuclear ... Do you know who is in charge in Germany? The greens, which don't even want to extend the usage of 3 of the 6 available nuclear plants (supposed to "slowly" shut down at the end of this year). And now you come and say "hey sorry but we need more nuclear reactors"? Sure. Much better to go to countries which are barely respecting human rights, bow and buy their fuel and gas, because…
Remember that, while prices have soared, electricity generation has not become more expensive. The "electricity crisis" is a crisis for European consumers but a massive windfall for producers. This is a market failure - not an electricity failure.
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That's just wrong. The components of electricity generation - the fuel - has exploded in price. You may not be aware, but there's a war going on that is sort of impacting things on top of existing inflation. I realize picking a scape goat feels easy but it's poor form and leads to not fixing the actual problem.
If that were true countries that don't depend on russia would not be affected. Greece uses little natgas, and only only 4% of it is russian, yet it sees some of the most steep rises.
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The sun is always shining somewhere. We need more interconnects.
Global power transfers don't work due to losses. The physics doesn't work out.
The cables are designed for crossing relatively small bodies of water such as the Mediterranean or the North Sea, and can be tweaked for more efficiency if the goal is to cross the Pacific Ocean, but even without that, it would still work.
Remember that, while prices have soared, electricity generation has not become more expensive. The "electricity crisis" is a crisis for European consumers but a massive windfall for producers. This is a market failure - not an electricity failure.
It's not a market failure. Markets are not supposed to keep a steady profit margin regardless of demand. Production cannot be scaled up and down infinitely and immediately. The price is a market signal. The fact that production cannot be immediately scaled to serve the customer demand and bring prices (and therefore profits) back down to a "normal" level is not a market failure either; it's simply a physical reality.
1. The Western governments have spent a decade demonizing fossil and nuclear energy. For that whole time, big funds have divested, and investors punished. No major fund is going to touch this sector, especially not if the intent is a capital project. Nuclear is just seeing a turnaround as some governments regain their rationality (e.g. Japan), but others seem to be utterly hopeless (Canada, Germany).
2. The above means that schools stopped offering the programs necessary to train the workers for the industry. There is an entire generational gap now in oil and gas trades, from the roughneck to the engineers.
3. The government's incompetence has caused rampant inflation which, affects these industries too. Suddenly you have to deal with the labour shortage, there being no raw inputs (the year supply of anything from pipe to mud was sold out in most markets by Q1 of '22), and you have no idea what great ideas government will pass by next quarter so you have to price high to build a buffer. All of this leads to huge uncertainty.
The worst part in my eyes, is that we're only really seeing the beginning of this. Governments are still on their ESG-above-reality stance. Approval from their UN SDG and WEF cronies is still more important than their constituents well-being.
I honestly feel for the Europeans that saw this coming and voted accordingly - but more for the Africans and Asians who will be bid out by Europe and be faced with starvation of freezing. They had no say in this and they will pay the steepest price for Europe's ESG hubris.
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As long as people won't even try to install a solar concentrator while bitching about rising prices, I won't take any of them seriously. Such a simple design, can be used for at least heating water for 3-6 months. But nah. Same for which the roofs. You don't have a white/silver roof on your house? Fuck you. On that note, you like cruise ships? Also fuck you.
"You don't have a white/silver roof on your house? Fuck you." I am one of your fuckees. The house I bought was expensive enough as it was. I am not changing a brand new dark roof for a different one for an exorbitant price right now, because budget. A perfectly new roof going down (isn't that actually waste?) for saving, say, 10 of 30 days when the AC is really needed? (I am also not even sure if roof colors are regu…