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In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

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741–750 of 809 posts

Re: In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

#741
post #691

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, in face of OP’s tone I allowed myself some sarcasm. Obviously there needs to be additional energy. You’d have some equilibrium with those reactions and OP didn’t make any argument why that can’t be controlled in favor of reducing Fe2O3. It’s also borderline unbelievable OP never heard of hydrogen in future steelmaking, if they are at all invested in the topic. You’d need a special kind of ignorance to think pe…

Yeah, I did not thats why I asked. Water and Steel doesnt like each other. But thanks for the info.. It seems it can be done in controlled way. Now I wonder how cost effective it is :)

> Now I wonder how cost effective it is :)

I believe right now, it's expected to cost about 30% more. But we don't have an hydrogen economy yet, or 1000 years of experimentation as with carbon as reducing agent. There is probably still some room for innovation in material science for every part of the process.

Re: In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

#742

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Co2 tax is less about externality and more about putting this extra money into renewables. When ren are underperforming but bidding low prices, they will still be compensated by the merit order which is artificially bumped even higher with CO2 tax. And the worst thing is other regions like US or China don't have such a tax, causing industry offshoring. It's a noble case to want to subsidize ren sector, but this metho…

They could put the money into renewables, but there's nothing mandatory about that policy choice. The idea of a Pigouvian tax is to eliminate the market distortion negative externalities create. In general, you want to tax things you don't want, like pollution, not things you want, like productive work.

yes, but since this tax is done only at EU level, it causes industry offshoring and $ redistribution. EU could have just subsidized ren more instead of this tax. This way electricity/production prices would be lower while ren tech still supported

Re: In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

#743

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is not moronic. This is done everywhere in the world. In fact, merit order does justify more ren deployment even if economics aren't that great, because operators will be paid according to merit order, needing less cfd's. You can also check out how much of the gas electricity price is just carbon tax. And how transmission spending evolved. And how CFD's for different tech evolved in each AR round

It helps overly subsidize renewables and prevents price drops arriving directly at the consumer's bill.

if you dont want to oversubsidize ren, remove CO2 tax. The higher the tax, the more will ren receive in the merit order

Re: In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

#744

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even accounting for fukushima/chernoble nuclear is between solar and wind in terms of human deaths. And new units are safer than both. EPR went 'just add one more thing' to be more expensive, AP1000 went passive safety way but westinghose imploded and they needed to ask Korea for help

An accident spreading hazardous substances over a large geographical area that are difficult to contain (or waste of this type) is unique to nuclear power; no renewable energy source poses such a threat. Another problem is the urgency (due to the impacts) combined with the difficulty of modifying power plants as required by "lessons learned," in other words, bug fixes. Modifying or repairing solar panels or wind turb…

renewables are still made from different substances, one of which is copper. One byproduct of copper is extremely toxic- arsenic, and it's spills are not that different in terms of dangers. That's the point. For nuclear at least, over time decay happens, esp for most dangerous isotopes, but for chemical waste - it's forever.

Nuclear still has higher capacity factor than any VRE.

Evacuation numbers for Fukushima are accounted in the stat. But it's also worth mentioning Japanese govt acknowledged most of the deaths are caused by extreme evacuation measures that werent needed, but govt ignored the data it had to enforce them. The panic against nuclear caused them, not radiation.

Re: In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

#745
post #547

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I ain't gonna use the dishwasher when the system wants me to, but when I can or want. I pay low energy prices during night than day, that's normal, but I'm still not gonna do laundry at 9 pm, I'd rather pay the 10/20 cents more during the day.

Yeah, but your dishwasher or washing machine isn't the big electricity eater. Your car is. And honestly, you'd rather charge the car at night so that you don't blow a fuse when you're running the dishwasher, microwave, dryer, oven, induction stove and charging your car :) I have never blown a fuse being getting an EV, and so far still only once. But charging at night is preferable for that reason, and I couldn't care…

It would be preferable to charge the car in solar panel shaded parking lots at work during the day. You have to charge it at home, because charging EVs has only recently entered architectural and city planning. For the most part, EVs are the battery to buffer peak sun energy.

Re: In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

#746

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could put the money into renewables, but there's nothing mandatory about that policy choice. The idea of a Pigouvian tax is to eliminate the market distortion negative externalities create. In general, you want to tax things you don't want, like pollution, not things you want, like productive work.

yes, but since this tax is done only at EU level, it causes industry offshoring and $ redistribution. EU could have just subsidized ren more instead of this tax. This way electricity/production prices would be lower while ren tech still supported

Industry offshoring is dealt with via CO2 tariffs, which the EU has also introduced.

Subsidizing production is itself a market distortion.

Re: In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

#747
post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do time my dishwasher and washing machine to align with peak solar where I live. I'd like to appeal to you to evolve that frame of mind. To help avoid first world problems (I can't wash a dish by hand, I need it now ) devolving into third-world ones (power cuts, crop failures, torrid tropical nights on mid latitudes, mountains disintegrated). Sometimes its important to remind we're on a generational mission, and it…

This whole thread (up and down) is why a lot of people like me don't do any of this mental gymnastics to 'lower my footprint'. It's exhausting, I mean if I bike to work today, that offsets that steak I ate. Just no (just an example). When we are serious about this issue, we'll price it all in. The only way to affect change for most humans is incentive based decisions right in your face.

You should bike to work every day so you’ll be fit for the Climate Wars.

Re: In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

#748
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? Few more of these (1) and you should be golden. One years auction will be 12% of all uk demand. 1 https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-what-uks-record-auction-for-o... )

If either one of the two alternative government parties of the UK get in they will scrap all. Reform UK sets out plans to tax renewable energy, conservatives are all for the oil. 2030 is four years away & the next election is in 2029. The Labour party is unlikely to get in again, and if they do it'll be a miracle. Far-Right or Fascist Right. Reform UK won't get enough seats to sit in parliament this election but if i…

Similar to Trump and MAGA, Reform UK's popularity relies on Farage's cult of personality. Without him, they're significantly less of a threat. He's not a young man (not as old as some, but not young), and he smokes and drinks heavily; make of that what you will.

Re: In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

#749

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to read precisely what's happening. Ontario wants to front finance all refurbs and SMRs instead of spreading the financing over years like it's usually done. BWRX is expensive for sure. It'll cost more per GW than the failed french FLA3 or Vogtle. To me this seems a mistake considering Canada had Candus, an own authentic design that doesn't rely on enriched fuel and they did some very serious refurbs recentl…

> even Barakah built as new by Korea is competitive You bet it does: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korean_nuclear_scandal

I know about it, affected components were replaced. They still built it relatively on time and on budget

"On 7 February 2014, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission declared that its investigation since mid-2013, they found eight cases out of 2,075 samples of foreign manufactured reactor components that were supplied with fake documents."

Re: In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels

#750

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would have to overbuild by a factor of 20 at least. Not at all practical or economical.

Citation? We get 25 units in the sun and 5 in heavy rains.

I'm in the UK. I covered my whole roof with 6.5kW of panels (it's pretty ideal south facing etc.)

I just checked our stats. Average consumption 16kWh/day. Sunny summer day we get 30-40kWh. Sunny winter day 10-20kWh. Cloudy winter day it's 0.5-2kWh.

Also that's without a heat pump... Which you mainly use in the winter.

And without an electric car but I doubt they're as big of an issue because you can charge them from cheap overnight power anyway.

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