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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 mu
by 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 agoWe 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 agoIt'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 agoThen bitcoin miners will buy the old coal plants and we are back to square one
- jude- 5y agoNot 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.