3 ms·

... do we really need another energy demand to drive R&D? We're already working with an energy budget equivalent to 1/3 the decay that powers the Earth's fiery

... do we really need another energy demand to drive R&D? We're already working with an energy budget equivalent to 1/3 the decay that powers the Earth's fiery core. Is it really fair to credit any new breakthroughs to the last ~12 GW of demand, instead of the first ~18 TW?

jude- 6y ago
Yes, building more solar panels and and batteries gives the industry more experience at doing so, which (for a time) will allow it to refine the tech through multiple iterations, making future capacity cheaper and better-quality. EDIT: this is to say, renewable tech production is still following a learning curve (https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth)
- wmf 6y ago
  We have plenty of work to do just replacing existing power generation with renewables, so it's not clear to me how additional demand accelerates such replacement. (This is in answer to both you and tshaddox.)
  - jude- 6y ago
    It's faster and cheaper to build out new capacity and then later retire old capacity than it is to do an in-situ replacement. Build the battery-backed solar and wind farms now, and then watch the coal and gas plants go bankrupt.
    - MrMan 6y ago
      Then bitcoin miners will buy the old coal plants and we are back to square one
      - jude- 6y ago
        Not if you make coal-fired plants illegal to operate. Easy to enforce, since you can see the CO2 emissions and just go seize and demolish the plant if it turns on. Can also seize the coal mines. This will have to happen regardless of whether or not cryptocurrency exists.
tshaddox 6y ago
You seem to be asking that rhetorically with the implication that the answer is obvious “no.” But that’s certainly not obvious to me. Seems to me that adding energy demand is a good thing for the advancement of renewable energy. Surely a decrease or stasis in energy demand would be devastating to the renewable energy industry.

jude- 6y ago

Yes, building more solar panels and and batteries gives the industry more experience at doing so, which (for a time) will allow it to refine the tech through multiple iterations, making future capacity cheaper and better-quality. EDIT: this is to say, renewable tech production is still following a learning curve (https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth)

wmf 6y ago
We have plenty of work to do just replacing existing power generation with renewables, so it's not clear to me how additional demand accelerates such replacement. (This is in answer to both you and tshaddox.)
- jude- 6y ago
  It's faster and cheaper to build out new capacity and then later retire old capacity than it is to do an in-situ replacement. Build the battery-backed solar and wind farms now, and then watch the coal and gas plants go bankrupt.
  - MrMan 6y ago
    Then bitcoin miners will buy the old coal plants and we are back to square one
    - jude- 6y ago
      Not if you make coal-fired plants illegal to operate. Easy to enforce, since you can see the CO2 emissions and just go seize and demolish the plant if it turns on. Can also seize the coal mines. This will have to happen regardless of whether or not cryptocurrency exists.

tshaddox 6y ago

You seem to be asking that rhetorically with the implication that the answer is obvious “no.” But that’s certainly not obvious to me. Seems to me that adding energy demand is a good thing for the advancement of renewable energy. Surely a decrease or stasis in energy demand would be devastating to the renewable energy industry.