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Many of these oil countries and companies are lacking in vision. They could survive and even thrive in a post-fossil fuel world if they would invest now and se
by bit_logic 6y ago
Many of these oil countries and companies are lacking in vision. They could survive and even thrive in a post-fossil fuel world if they would invest now and see oil as not just fossil fuel, but a means of storage and transport.
The key weakness of renewables (wind and solar) is a mismatch between production and use. It's intermittent, you can't control when the wind blows or sun shines. The solution many think of is giant batteries like those produced by Tesla.
But there are technologies that can take a CO2 source+water+electricity and create synthetic oil. The Middle East is a giant desert, perfect for covering with solar. Texas is known to be a great place for wind. Imagine if these economies went all in on solar/wind + synthetic oil generation. They already have the full oil infrastructure in place to process/refine/transport throughout the world. Just switch the source from the ground (fossil fuel) to solar/wind+synthetic oil generation. If they're smart, they would push hard for carbon tax at the same time. Because solar/wind+synthetic oil is carbon neutral (take CO2 from the air, burn later during combustion). It would put out of business their competitors still stuck on old fossil sources.
- bagacrap 6y agoTexas is leading the US on wind. I don't think the American energy companies plan to die out as fossil fuels lose preeminence.