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It's not that simple. Less than 1% of energy comes from wind and solar and we aren't looking at more than 3-4% in 2030. Wind and solar require either nuclear,

It's not that simple. Less than 1% of energy comes from wind and solar and we aren't looking at more than 3-4% in 2030. Wind and solar require either nuclear, gas, coal and oil as backup. Nuclear is completely out of vogue and will take years to build. It's not just concrete and air travel it's ships, trucks, steel production, anything that require large amount of heat. You can't power a hospital based on solar and wind etc. Fossil fuels are not going anywhere until we either get fusion or some sort of fuel cell technology, but they require som fundamental breakthroughs we aren't close to meeting just yet. The problem is doing things at scale not just proving in some lab what is theoretically possible.

adrianN 6y ago
It's that simple going up to maybe 70% of energy consumption. As you note we're still in single digits. Until we reach critical points where large scale storage becomes truly necessary we still have time to get things that work in small scales up to mass production. For example batteries and Power-to-X technology. The only thing missing is political will to address the problem.
- ThomPete 6y ago
  No it's not that simple and if it was we would already have done it. It's not just a matter of political will it's a matter of what makes sense from a market perspective. It doesn't make any sense to rely on wind and solar. The are not and will never be the primary source of energy for our needs. We will have fusion before we have wind and solar covering just 50% of the worlds energy consumption.
  - adrianN 6y ago
    If we don't have wind and solar covering more than 50% of the world's energy consumption in the next twenty years the climate will be fucked beyond repair.
    - ThomPete 6y ago
      We won't, it's simply not physically possible. And of course we won't be fucked. Climate catastrophism is the last thing we need.
      - adrianN 6y ago
        It's not physically impossible to cover 2-4% of the land with solar panels and wind turbines, replace ICE vehicles with electrics and home heating systems with heat pumps. It just costs money. And as the COVID response shows, when we want to, trillions suddenly become available.

adrianN 6y ago

It's that simple going up to maybe 70% of energy consumption. As you note we're still in single digits. Until we reach critical points where large scale storage becomes truly necessary we still have time to get things that work in small scales up to mass production. For example batteries and Power-to-X technology. The only thing missing is political will to address the problem.

ThomPete 6y ago
No it's not that simple and if it was we would already have done it. It's not just a matter of political will it's a matter of what makes sense from a market perspective. It doesn't make any sense to rely on wind and solar. The are not and will never be the primary source of energy for our needs. We will have fusion before we have wind and solar covering just 50% of the worlds energy consumption.
- adrianN 6y ago
  If we don't have wind and solar covering more than 50% of the world's energy consumption in the next twenty years the climate will be fucked beyond repair.
  - ThomPete 6y ago
    We won't, it's simply not physically possible. And of course we won't be fucked. Climate catastrophism is the last thing we need.
    - adrianN 6y ago
      It's not physically impossible to cover 2-4% of the land with solar panels and wind turbines, replace ICE vehicles with electrics and home heating systems with heat pumps. It just costs money. And as the COVID response shows, when we want to, trillions suddenly become available.