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Oil doesn't have the same use cases as electricity. Until we have electric planes, ships, heavy trucks, farm equipment and freight trains, there is still a big
by hueving 10y ago
Oil doesn't have the same use cases as electricity. Until we have electric planes, ships, heavy trucks, farm equipment and freight trains, there is still a big place for oil in transportation.
Also, until we get some good energy storage solutions, we are just going to run into the same problems of too much electricity during the middle of the day and not enough in the evening.
- foota 10y agoWind is generally stronger at night. The issue with wind is intermittency.
- tr352 10y agoWind is usually stronger during daylight.
- Someone 10y agoI expect that to be dependent on location. Near coasts, for example, the physics driving sea and land breezes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind#Sea_and_land_breezes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind#Sea_and_land_breezes) will either increase or decrease wind speed depending on local prevailing winds. It also can depend a lot on height (very important for wind turbines)
- dreamcompiler 10y agoLikewise solar. Solar contains a predictable component with a stochastic component (clouds) overlaid.
- nickik 10y agoSolar thermal can mostly solve the problem.
- eru 10y agoWith cheap enough electricity you can make artificial hydrocarbons. The process is not as efficient as batteries (or just burning oil products found in the ground), but you get similar energy densities as the normal hydrocarbons. After all, the chemistry is the same. I just wish we had functioning carbon tax or carbon emission markets. Then the government could just set the price or volume, and the market could figure out the most cost-efficient energy mix to hit the target.