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> Nigeria isn't going to wait decades to build a solar plant when they can build several coal power plants right now. Solar is cheaper & quicker to build & run
by dflock 6y ago
> Nigeria isn't going to wait decades to build a solar plant when they can build several coal power plants right now.
Solar is cheaper & quicker to build & run than coal plants. And it can be built incrementally and start generating power and profits very quickly, compared to traditional power plants, which are large construction projects that don't generate power or profit until after they're completed.
- konjin 6y agoAnd without grid scale storage, which doesn't exist, solar at noon is about as useful as coal in the middle of Australia. Renewable only is a pipe dream and is distracting from the fact that we need to build nuclear plants if we want to have a planet by the end of the century.
- kolinko 6y agoWith solar+hydrogen you have a higher stability than nuclear. When solar process fall by additional 50%, this setup will be even cheaper than coal.
- konjin 6y agoSo on the one hand we have a technology that works, on the other we have a pipe dream. I sure know which one I want to bet the future of the planet on.
- Hypx 6y agoNeither one's really a pipe dream anymore. Solar+wind+hydrogen is at the point where it can replace all fossil fuels. This doesn't mean you can't have nuclear, but it's no longer necessarily.
- adrianN 6y agoYou can do 50% renewables without any storage. The world is pretty far away from that.
- konjin 6y agoGermany, Australia and California say otherwise.
- adrianN 6y agoI don't understand what you want to say. Germany is relatively close to 50% renewable electricity without a lot of grid scale storage.
- chelical 6y agoGermany is hovering around 41% renewable electricity, but its primary energy supply is still 78% fossil fuels. https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/germanys-energiewende-20-years-later https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/germanys-energie...
- adrianN 6y ago41% is "fairly close" to 50%.
- Solocomplex 6y agoMaybe in California, where everyone here seems to be from.
- jansan 6y agoSource tell me that the weather in Nigeria is not completely unsuitable for solar energy, either.
- tuatoru 6y agoNigeria prefers coal because it involves lots of heavy construction, which means lots of kickbacks for the political elite. Acemoglu and Robinson's concept of "extractive elites" is useful here.[1] 1. http://whynationsfail.com/blog/2012/5/1/who-are-the-extractive-elites.html http://whynationsfail.com/blog/2012/5/1/who-are-the-extracti...