4 ms·

I look forward to the day when renewables provide >90% of our energy, and old men on the Internet are still bloviating that it can't be done. As for me, I'm loo

by ploden 5y ago

I look forward to the day when renewables provide >90% of our energy, and old men on the Internet are still bloviating that it can't be done. As for me, I'm looking at pallets of solar panels on eBay to expand our PV system.

VaxWithSex 5y ago
Leben mit der Energiewende TV! https://www.youtube.com/c/LebenmitderEnergiewende https://www.youtube.com/c/LebenmitderEnergiewende
realusername 5y ago
I'll believe it when the tech for that will exist, you can't bet the future of the country on non-existing tech which might come up from R&D
- SkyMarshal 5y ago
  What is the tech that doesn’t exist?
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  The tech exists today with solar, wind, batteries, transmission, hydro (pumped and otherwise), demand response, and electrification using heat pumps and EVs. We're not waiting on anything groundbreaking, no heroic technologies are needed. There is no magic. It's just a matter of manufacturing/install capacity and funds. It's like insulation for buildings: not sexy, but it works and it's a known quantity. Work backwards from first principles based on how much energy the Sun delivers to the planet. US: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/faculty-and-impact/news/recent-news/the-us-can-reach-90-percent-clean-electricity-by-2035-dependably-and-without-increasing-consumer-bills https://gspp.berkeley.edu/faculty-and-impact/news/recent-new... Australia: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544217309568 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036054421... | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.05.168 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.05.168 Europe: https://www.energyplan.eu/smartenergyeurope/ https://www.energyplan.eu/smartenergyeurope/ | https://www.irena.org/publications/2018/Feb/Renewable-energy-prospects-for-the-EU https://www.irena.org/publications/2018/Feb/Renewable-energy... | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261918312790 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626191... Central/South America: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173820 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173820 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173820 (if anyone has other resources for geographies I didn't mention, please comment with them to contribute to the knowledge graph!)
  - realusername 5y ago
    There's no battery which can handle months of consumption of a whole country and hydro is built to full capacity already
    - throwawaygh 5y ago
      > There's no battery which can handle months of consumption Why would this be necessary except in extreme environments (which don't exist in Germany)? If solar produces 0 watts in Germany for an entire month we're all dead anyways.
      - realusername 5y ago
        The sun isn't likely to change, the lowest production of solar will always be on winter ... where you need the most electricity. Right now https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/DE https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/DE as an indication, Germany is at around 30% production of their solar capacity.
        _ph_ 5y ago
        Yes, but in the winter wind is quite strong. There will be large storage needs, but mostly in the range of days. The electricity networks are connected all over Europe and production and consumption is already handled on an European level. This will extend more and together with the built-up of much capacity mean, that storage needs are not as high as some put them.
        realusername 5y ago
        With wind they are other issues, it's very unpredictable far ahead, you need a lot of places to put them and it's already at maximum theoretical efficiency already after 100 years of evolution so there's not even a hope it will improve unlike solar. At the end yeah you can get out of all of these issues by building 10x the required capacity, but that is reflected on the price and the space to build all of this though.

by ploden 5y ago

VaxWithSex 5y ago

Leben mit der Energiewende TV! https://www.youtube.com/c/LebenmitderEnergiewende https://www.youtube.com/c/LebenmitderEnergiewende

realusername 5y ago

I'll believe it when the tech for that will exist, you can't bet the future of the country on non-existing tech which might come up from R&D

SkyMarshal 5y ago
What is the tech that doesn’t exist?
toomuchtodo 5y ago
The tech exists today with solar, wind, batteries, transmission, hydro (pumped and otherwise), demand response, and electrification using heat pumps and EVs. We're not waiting on anything groundbreaking, no heroic technologies are needed. There is no magic. It's just a matter of manufacturing/install capacity and funds. It's like insulation for buildings: not sexy, but it works and it's a known quantity. Work backwards from first principles based on how much energy the Sun delivers to the planet. US: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/faculty-and-impact/news/recent-news/the-us-can-reach-90-percent-clean-electricity-by-2035-dependably-and-without-increasing-consumer-bills https://gspp.berkeley.edu/faculty-and-impact/news/recent-new... Australia: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544217309568 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036054421... | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.05.168 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.05.168 Europe: https://www.energyplan.eu/smartenergyeurope/ https://www.energyplan.eu/smartenergyeurope/ | https://www.irena.org/publications/2018/Feb/Renewable-energy-prospects-for-the-EU https://www.irena.org/publications/2018/Feb/Renewable-energy... | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261918312790 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626191... Central/South America: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173820 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173820 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173820 (if anyone has other resources for geographies I didn't mention, please comment with them to contribute to the knowledge graph!)
- realusername 5y ago
  There's no battery which can handle months of consumption of a whole country and hydro is built to full capacity already
  - throwawaygh 5y ago
    > There's no battery which can handle months of consumption Why would this be necessary except in extreme environments (which don't exist in Germany)? If solar produces 0 watts in Germany for an entire month we're all dead anyways.
    - realusername 5y ago
      The sun isn't likely to change, the lowest production of solar will always be on winter ... where you need the most electricity. Right now https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/DE https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/DE as an indication, Germany is at around 30% production of their solar capacity.
      - _ph_ 5y ago
        Yes, but in the winter wind is quite strong. There will be large storage needs, but mostly in the range of days. The electricity networks are connected all over Europe and production and consumption is already handled on an European level. This will extend more and together with the built-up of much capacity mean, that storage needs are not as high as some put them.
        realusername 5y ago
        With wind they are other issues, it's very unpredictable far ahead, you need a lot of places to put them and it's already at maximum theoretical efficiency already after 100 years of evolution so there's not even a hope it will improve unlike solar. At the end yeah you can get out of all of these issues by building 10x the required capacity, but that is reflected on the price and the space to build all of this though.