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Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

reuters.com

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Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#51

Post by elil17 »

Chyzwar wrote: post #17
schnitzelstoat wrote: post #2

Yeah, I live in Spain and probably once again we'll have restrictions on AC in the summer just like at the start of the Ukraine war. Hopefully, we can avoid actual blackouts. The bizarre thing is that our government still wants to close down the remaining nuclear power plants. One of the issues with our proportional electoral system is that smaller, more extreme parties can become kingmakers and in our current situat…

Levelized Cost of Energy for solar is 30-60$ and 100-200$ for nuclear. In the case of Spain, it is cheaper to build more energy lines with Morocco and battery storage than to use nuclear. Spain already has some of the cheapest energy in Europe thanks to renewables. In the case of Germany, nuclear makes sense, but it is not clear where you would buy fuel for it, It might still be a supply chain risk since Russia and K…

Even if it didn't make sense to build new nuclear, that doesn't mean it makes sense to shut of existing nuclear.

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#52

Post by coldtea »

tfourb wrote: post #32
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in the election that is running in Denmark right now it looks like nuclear power is back on the table.

Why would you invest in nuclear power, which is several times more expensive per kwh than wind + battery in Denmark, which also has excellent links to reliable hydropower from Norway and Sweden? Especially when your greatest external security threat is Russia which has openly threatened targeting nuclear reactors of a country they are trying to invade? Not to speak of the inconvenient fact that Uranium is not a resou…

>Why would you invest in nuclear power, which is several times more expensive per kwh

Because the related lobby pays well and a huge power station project (which runs well into the tens of billions) has much larger space for bribes

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#54

Post by markus_zhang »

lelanthran wrote: post #47
markus_zhang wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m fasting! No need for energy at all.

Got a wind-up computer, have you? (Maybe that OLTP project was onto something, after all)

Seriously, might consider buying a few solar panels, but just for camping needs. It’s impossible to setup locally due to regulation and such.

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#55

Post by giarc »

sharemywin wrote: post #10

Wonder how much WFH could help. Seems like during covid demand went way down.

WFH and the almost 100% shutdown off airline travel at the beginning of the pandemic resulted in nearly 0 change in CO2 emission and levels in the atmosphere.

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/...

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#56

Post by cpursley »

lm28469 wrote: post #33
pibaker wrote: post #18

I wonder where the gulf states are going to end up. They have tried hard to build economies that aren't just fossil fuel exports. Tourism, trade, finance, luxury living for rich foreigners… but everything they have tried is contingent on peace in the region. I doubt foreigners are looking forward to layovers in Dubai now there are Iranian drones heading their way. Maybe future travelers will not see two trunkless leg…

They also spent decades sending money to the US to buy influence and protection, which instantly vaporized the second a missile was launched their way.

The big story I think is how handily they took out billions of dollars of US radars and that these air defense systems are not up to the task (we actually already knew this from Ukraine, but media worked overtime to ignore this fact). In a way, all this supposedly "superior" US and Israeli tech (at least on the defense side, offense is a different story) has been exposed. I do think focused engineering efforts could close this gap, that was needed already 4 years ago.

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#57

Post by mrmlz »

tfourb wrote: post #32
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in the election that is running in Denmark right now it looks like nuclear power is back on the table.

Why would you invest in nuclear power, which is several times more expensive per kwh than wind + battery in Denmark, which also has excellent links to reliable hydropower from Norway and Sweden? Especially when your greatest external security threat is Russia which has openly threatened targeting nuclear reactors of a country they are trying to invade? Not to speak of the inconvenient fact that Uranium is not a resou…

As a Swede i'd like to cut the cord to Denmark/Germany. That would greatly reduce our electricity costs in south/mid Sweden.

Let them enjoy their "cheap" wind and battery solution.

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#58

Post by kuerbel »

schnitzelstoat wrote: post #9
jmclnx wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The bizarre thing is that our government still wants to close down the remaining nuclear power plants. That is very weird, even Germany stated recently that closing down their Nuclear Plants was a big mistake. For a very long time, I have always said France is smarter than what people give them credit for. Spain should take a peek over the mountains at France to see what a sane energy policy looks like.

Even France shut down the Superphénix. It was just built too! A waste of ten billion dollars because the government gave in to these extremist environmental groups. One of them even fired an RPG at it while it was being built.

... it was shut down in 1998, relevant section from German Wikipedia as the English version is lacking details:

In June 1997, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin announced the closure of the power plant as one of his first official acts. He justified this step by pointing to the enormous costs the plant incurred. In the preceding ten years, it had produced no electricity for most of the time due to malfunctions. It even consumed considerable amounts of electricity to keep the sodium in the cooling system above its melting temperature. Each pipe carrying sodium and every tank was equipped with heaters and thermal insulation for this purpose.

... so it used a lot of energy while being shut down because of malfunctions for most of those 10 years. Seems like shutting it down was the best course of action.

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#59

Post by Sol- »

From what I've read, the immediate effect will likely be worse for CO2 emissions, because the alternative to (liquefied) gas is often coal power. Also, the various inputs that are needed for global manufacturing are also affected, so maybe even renewable tech gets more expensive.

I'm not saying that the dependence on the middle east was good, but I think it's good to keep in mind that this was a pretty stable equilibrium even with the various questionable countries involved until the US initiated a global supply shock without a good reason.

Re: Iran war energy shock sparks global push to reduce fossil fuel dependence

#60

Post by Zardoz84 »

schnitzelstoat wrote: post #2

Yeah, I live in Spain and probably once again we'll have restrictions on AC in the summer just like at the start of the Ukraine war. Hopefully, we can avoid actual blackouts. The bizarre thing is that our government still wants to close down the remaining nuclear power plants. One of the issues with our proportional electoral system is that smaller, more extreme parties can become kingmakers and in our current situat…

> Yeah, I live in Spain and probably once again we'll have restrictions on AC in the summer just like at the start of the Ukraine war. Hopefully, we can avoid actual blackouts.

I live on Spain . What the hell restrictions are you talking about ?

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