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Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

newyorker.com

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Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#471

Post by AlexandrB »

unbalancedevh wrote: post #375
rel_ic wrote: post #347

Renewable energy is great, but we're not replacing fossil fuels with it, we're just adding more energy usage. And our energy usage is destroying the environment. Don't let these advancements in solar make you think things are getting better. We need to reduce fossil fuel usage, not just increase solar usage. https://pocketcasts.com/podcasts/b3b696c0-226d-0137-f265-1d2...

The article notes several examples of reduced use of fossil fuels: > California is so far using forty per cent less natural gas to generate electricity than it did in 2023 > total carbon emissions in China had actually decreased > kept the country’s coal use flat and also cut the amount of natural gas used during the same period in 2024 by a quarter

Meanwhile Germany shut down its nuclear plants while keeping coal and natural gas around to supplement renewables. One of the biggest unforced errors I've heard of recently.

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#472

Post by pfdietz »

idiotsecant wrote: post #335
Mengkudulangsat wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not feel as optimistic about any uptick in cables as I do about solar and wind. Solar and wind can grow through a multitude of small, plug-and-play projects. Cable projects like HDVC are still giant, long-term punts.

This is literally the problem. Transmission is desperately needed, much more than generation right now. The issue is that it's hard to explain to people why this is, and even when they understand they react like you do. RENEWABLES NEED TRANSMISSION!!! We need to be building unprecedented Manhattan project levels of transmission, yesterday! But instead we will put some solar panels on a car park and feel like we did o…

With sufficiently cheap storage, no transmission is needed. There's a tradeoff, and batteries are rapidly improving.

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#473

Post by kragen »

Gravityloss wrote: post #192
kragen wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plausible alternatives to cables include ships full of synthetic diesel, ships full of iron, ships full of aluminum, or ships full of magnesium. Inside China HVDC cables are indeed carrying solar power across the continent, but the Netherlands have not managed to erect any yet. Cables provide efficient JIT power delivery, but they're vulnerable to precision-guided missiles, which Ukrainians are 3-D printing in their…

There's at least one HVDC cable connected to Netherlands, Norned: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NorNed . As probably everyone knows, Netherlands is very flat and Norway very mountaneous. Norways is also very rainy. So it's a match made in heaven - Norway's mountain reservoirs can act as balancers for dutch wind power.

Thank you for the correction! It's also immune to quadcopters.

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#474

Post by kragen »

ViewTrick1002 wrote: post #218
Gravityloss wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's at least one HVDC cable connected to Netherlands, Norned: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NorNed . As probably everyone knows, Netherlands is very flat and Norway very mountaneous. Norways is also very rainy. So it's a match made in heaven - Norway's mountain reservoirs can act as balancers for dutch wind power.

And to Denmark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBRAcable While Denmark in term essentially is a trading hub for electricity between Scandinavia, the UK and continental Europe.

Thank you for the correction! That one is immune to quadcopters too.

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#475

Post by kragen »

globalnode wrote: post #313
kragen wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plausible alternatives to cables include ships full of synthetic diesel, ships full of iron, ships full of aluminum, or ships full of magnesium. Inside China HVDC cables are indeed carrying solar power across the continent, but the Netherlands have not managed to erect any yet. Cables provide efficient JIT power delivery, but they're vulnerable to precision-guided missiles, which Ukrainians are 3-D printing in their…

As well as electricity to ammonia, ship it around the world by boat and then crack or burn it at the destination. or just use it as-is.

Yes, ammonia is another candidate.

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#476

Post by GrumpyNl »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #175

The article doesn't mention a technology that deserves some attention because it counters the biggest and most obvious deficiency in solar: the sun doesn't always shine. That technology is cables. Cables allow us to move energy over long distances. And with HVCD cables that can mean across continents, oceans, time zones, and climate regions. The nice things about cables is that they are currently being underutilized.…

Despite all the great technology and improvements over the years, consumer energy in Europe has never been so expensive.

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#477

Post by shawabawa3 »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #245
Mengkudulangsat wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not feel as optimistic about any uptick in cables as I do about solar and wind. Solar and wind can grow through a multitude of small, plug-and-play projects. Cable projects like HDVC are still giant, long-term punts.

A lot of the wind projects could be classified as "giant, long-term punts". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornsea_Wind_Farm

What exactly does that mean?

The project you linked to was completed pretty quickly and is supplying 2.5GW to the UK grid

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#478

Post by HPsquared »

fpoling wrote: post #389
HPsquared wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with free electricity, the capital (and maintenance, consumables etc) costs of the process could easily be too high.

Consider a chemical synthesis that needs carbon. Right now it uses oil. But is has to be extracted and transported. With carbon capture from the air that no longer required. And maintaining the extra facility at the chemical factory can be cheaper than maintaining the extraction and supply chain for oil or coal.

Yes. But it still has to compete with all the various types of biomass, for example.

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#479

Post by cryzinger »

zitsarethecure wrote: post #444
matwood wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an LG. They look to cost a premium in the US above heated air one. They also seem to be gentler on clothes since they pump in warm dry air vs. super heated air.

Out of curiosity, is it a "smart" appliance that requires an app to function?

I have an LG washer/dryer (not the cool new heat pump dryer, though) and both have "smart" features that are optional and non-intrusive. You don't have to hook up either appliance to the LG app, but if you do you can get push notifications when a cycle is complete or use it to run diagnostics as needed. Honestly one of the few times where I think smart connectivity is a net benefit and not a reason to steer clear.

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#480

Post by kragen »

lukan wrote: post #193
kragen wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plausible alternatives to cables include ships full of synthetic diesel, ships full of iron, ships full of aluminum, or ships full of magnesium. Inside China HVDC cables are indeed carrying solar power across the continent, but the Netherlands have not managed to erect any yet. Cables provide efficient JIT power delivery, but they're vulnerable to precision-guided missiles, which Ukrainians are 3-D printing in their…

Ships carrying energy are a pretty easy explosive target as well. Local ressilence is needed in any case and mass produced batteries can provide that safety.

Yes, it's easy to imagine cases where people go around sinking ships; narcosubs, Red Sea oil shipping, and Russian warships in the Black Sea are of course dealing with that threat currently, but as hostilities escalate it's likely to increase. But energy in the form of shipped fuel intrinsically provides some minimal level of such local resilience—for it to work, you need at least a stockpile of fuel big enough to last until the next ship is expected to unload, which is orders of magnitude longer than the milliseconds before a cable cut affects you—and can provide arbitrarily large amounts of it.

The metal fuels in particular have the merit that you can use them in precisely such mass-produced batteries rather than to produce thermal power. As I alluded to in my grandparent comment, aluminum-air batteries were mass-produced in the 01960s.

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