3 ms·
There basically _are_ no problems left, it's mainly economic and production volume now. None of those counter points points really hold up under scrutiny: 1)
by matt2000 7y ago
There basically _are_ no problems left, it's mainly economic and production volume now.
None of those counter points points really hold up under scrutiny:
1) Renewable power _is_ clean. It is also becoming baseload and dispatachable with the addition of batteries. Battery price is on a reducing price curve similar to solar experienced, during which we heard the following progression of arguments: It's too expensive for anything, it's too expensive to matter, it's too expensive for most regions, it's not a solution for everything, ok it's the cheapest source of power but we'll still need natural gas because... batteries are too expensive for anything!
2) Panel disposal is a TINY problem compared to climate change. Panel disposal is also TINY compared to environmental damage of other energy sources.
Nuclear would have been nice, but it's probably too late for that now, not worth the downsides, and also we don't need it (see battery price curve).
- tarsinge 7y agoI don’t know if it’s too late for nuclear but in France the pair renewables / nuclear complement each other pretty well without batteries [1] (even if the renewable part can be improved). [1] An interesting twitter thread with an analysis of how the systems adapt depending on the conditions (in French sorry) : https://twitter.com/tristankamin/status/1102620969808658432 https://twitter.com/tristankamin/status/1102620969808658432
- matt2000 7y agoFrance is an interesting look at an alternate future where Nuclear was done properly. If world energy production was more like France we'd definitely be in better shape.