6 ms·
Really? Please look up some references. Eg. https://jancovici.com/en/ https://jancovici.com/en/
by polotics 8y ago
Really? Please look up some references.
Eg. https://jancovici.com/en/ https://jancovici.com/en/
- toomuchtodo 8y agoGermany and other nations that poured subsidies into renewables early on (and are to be commended for their economic sacrifice for doing so) are outliers. The rest of the world caught up as soon as renewables were cheaper than fossil fuels. Capital markets don't have feelings. Humanity lucked out that solar and wind costs were driven down as rapidly as they were through manufacturing scale. We'd be screwed otherwise ("ie business as usual carbon output estimates"). Somewhat related but unrelated: it's not bad if fracking goes south. It'll drive the price of natural gas up, which will make existing nuclear and existing/new renewables more cost competitive. It'll also drive adoption of energy storage faster. We want natural gas prices to rise, since we're not going to internalize the CO2 emission cost through regulation. This allows for market forces to kick in that are beneficial to climate change mitigation. Disclaimer: I have brokered one tax equity partnership arrangement for a solar plant rated @ >1MW (Indianapolis suburbs), and have done my research.
- Gibbon1 8y ago> Humanity lucked out Humanity didn't luck out. The Chinese communists invested heavily in solar while the US was wasting money on fracking.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Spooky23 8y agoThat’s just a clueless statement. How are people going to heat their homes? Solar is amazing, but isn’t the be all end all.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoHeat pumps and weatherizing. Likely some homes in very cold climates will still need natural gas service (propane tanks, more likely) for emergency heat when the polar vortex hits, but a tight envelope and an efficient heat pump do most of the heavy lifting.
- scottlocklin 8y agoYou live in the Bay Area, don't you? No, heat pumps (which take energy; duh) and "weatherizing" are not going to heat houses in Canada or Maine.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoOne of my properties is in northern Illinois, no problems running off a heat pump almost year round. Natural gas bill is about $150/year for monthly service connections and rare use. I’ve never lived in California.
- roenxi 8y agoYour comment omits an important but interesting detail here - how common is "rare use" and what is it being used for?
- Spooky23 8y agoAir source heat pumps become less effective as the temperature drops. At 17F, you lose about 25% of BTU capacity as compared to 48F. Hot water is another huge use — it’s really expensive to use electricity for that purpose.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoHeat pump water heaters exist. "Heat pump water heaters use electricity to move heat from one place to another instead of generating heat directly. Therefore, they can be two to three times more energy efficient than conventional electric resistance water heaters. To move the heat, heat pumps work like a refrigerator in reverse." https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/water-heating/heat-pump-water-heaters https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/water-heating/heat-pump-w...
- adventured 8y agoYour history is incorrect. The US and several other leading industrial nations invented nearly everything of consequence in the solar industry's modern history. NASA was busy innovating on solar all the way back in the 1960s. Look at the history of solar inventions from 1950 to 2010, you won't find much Chinese invention in there. China lowered the cost of manufacturing of tech invented by other nations.
- Gibbon1 8y agoYou're talking about development of solar prior to 2000. I'm talking about after 2000. The big investment in solar production was at the behest of the Chinese government. They are the ones that spent the hundreds of billions needed to commercialize solar, not the US. At the same time the US spent a $1T on fracking. And a couple of $T on pointless wars.
- Scarblac 8y agoWe didn't luck out, global CO2 output is still increasing, we have never output so much as in 2018. All the green energy we've added so far is only in addition to burning fossil fuels, it hasn't replaced any yet.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- danielvf 8y agoMany individual nations have simultaneously reduced total fossil fuel generation while increasing renewable use. At least in some places in the world, replacing is probably the right word.
- selimthegrim 8y agoMaybe you can come down to New Orleans and explain this to our bought and paid for City Council that can't seem to understand the sentence "Peakers will be stranded assets by 2025"
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- onlyrealcuzzo 8y agoWe would've never gotten into this mess if people would recognize the concept of negative spillover / externalities and that the world is worse off for them not being taxed appropriately.
- benj111 8y agoAre we to read the entire website? I'm not even sure which part you disagree with.