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All energy problem reduce to problems of energy transportation. We have a huge fusion reactor in the sky. The challenge is capture and transit. The problem i
by unyttigfjelltol 4y ago
All energy problem reduce to problems of energy transportation. We have a huge fusion reactor in the sky. The challenge is capture and transit. The problem is not incidental; it's fundamental.
- google234123 4y agoA huge fusion reactor in the sky that isn't available in the evening or when it's cloudy.
- bambax 4y agoIt's always available somewhere, so it is, in fact, a transport problem.
- teddyh 4y agoThat’s just a different problem we can’t solve, either.
- lenkite 4y agoJust need to wait for Putin to conquer the world and build Putin Pipes.
- kkfx 4y agoDid you really think that the actual crisis is due to a single man choice? Try a small game, put PR and the emotion they push aside: who need a war today? If you are honest you have to admit that the most in need of a war are UK first, USA second. UK need a war outside to avoid a civil war inside. Having essentially lost their "empire" status they are simply unable to live anymore. A war would compact people and if won give resource of the looser. USA need a war for similar reasons, mitigated by the fact that USA can actually live on it's own, even alone, "only" correcting it's crazy economy. Not easy at all, but technically possible, so practically when crisis really bite. China do not need, but like, a war. They have a hyper big food issue, they need to conquer south America to eat. To do so they need to overpower the USA. To do so they need Russia's tech and natural resources, something Russia, a China's historic enemy, do not like that much to share to such a big & powerful giant. Russia do not like a war at all. It's something that impose agreements with China, imbalanced. EU similarly do not need a war. It simply destroy EU itself due to the lack of natural resources. So the plan is? Well. USA declare it essentially in the far 2004: https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Global%20Trends_Mapping%20the%20Global%20Future%202020%20Project.pdf https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Global%20Trends_Mapping%... oh, they are formally just acritical prediction from the intelligence to the politicians. But sounds really accurate. In more modern terms: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/RB10000/RB10014/RAND_RB10014.pdf https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/R... A bottomline: saying that UK and USA need a war means their oppressive ruling classes need it, of course NOT the people, unfortunately as most people in the world those who do need the opposite of their ruling class are the last to understand they are fighting for their own enemy that's not those on the opposite front, but those who march at their head.
- StingyJelly 4y agoUK lost their "empire" status in early 20th century and seems to be able to live without it. USA is oleophillic in nature but definitely does not need war. So does nobody else. Russia may not like a war but Russia needs resources since it wants to be the only store in neighborhood, and unfortunately, Ukraine does have resources. War was not expected outcome of the initial scare tactic but here we are.
- kkfx 4y agoThat's is, that's what I do not understand the partisanship reaching a fanatic state to the point of completely distort reality. Yes, UK have lost the "empire" status in the 20th century BUT the Commonwealth is still there. They are still a talassocracy even if their grip on some of the most important colonies (Canada, Australia) is faded. Now they start facing a real threat to them and can't defend them in any way. China overpower Australia to a point UK can't logically even try to defend it. Russia overpower Canada to a very similar point. So far both power have no reasons to go to war, of course, but they can and UK know it very well. USA are the sole former colony very able to defend itself but is also the less keen to serve UK. However both UK and USA are failed states, their extreme capitalism put too much of their population in poverty and without immigration they simply fall on their own weight. As before they NEED a war to overthought the table and start over. And they have actually created that, it's not a secret, it's written black on white if only you read their publications from RAND to G8. They use a slightly strange vocabulary but it's clear what they state. They call themselves "the international community" or "the civilized world" but it's clear they just mean their fragmented former colonies. The same have happened in the recent past with the Korea war, as it happened their former colonies start to decide it's time to detach a bit, like SK an Japan themselves https://asiatimes.com/2022/08/japan-korea-defy-us-with-big-russian-energy-deals/ https://asiatimes.com/2022/08/japan-korea-defy-us-with-big-r... and even New Zealand https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/new-zealand-will-not-join-the-us-coalition-against-china-anytime-soon/ https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/new-zealand-will-not-join-th... Australia itself suffering the submarines scam the UK and USA essentially have imposed to them ditching modern but limited French subs to exactly nothing since for a decade at least that's what they'll get (less than nothing since they have payed compensation for the late choice) start to falter undecided witch side to take. Only high treason neoliberal government in the EU keep the USA/UK side against their own Citizens interests. Some in US and UK have already understood that their war is lost and they menace them to go nuclear in that case, see https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/liz-truss-nuclear-button-ready-b2151614.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/liz-truss-nuc... and https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11110441/Henry-Kissinger-america-war-Russia-China.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11110441/Henry-Kiss... but the rest of the world, the BRICS start to unite knowing that it's freedom or death for them. They have all tested the "freedom" neoliberal nazi means, to a point in eastern Europe many would welcome back Soviet Union... The above are NOT political or ideological positions but simply facts anyone observing with honesty no matter the personal political position can't avoid to see.
- ben_w 4y agoMultiple solutions are already known, some better some worse. It's politics and economics that's in the way, and even then the world is changing.
- teddyh 4y ago> Multiple solutions are already known Care to link to some?
- ben_w 4y agoc. 1820s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_conductor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_conductor c. 1869: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis_of_water https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis_of_water 1897: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabatier_reaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabatier_reaction Antiquity or 1835: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror 1882: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current
- teddyh 4y agoAre you telling me that Sweden, a country of 10 million people, which has wildly differing electricity prices within that same small country¹, could simply use copper conductors to solve this problem, but chooses not to for political reasons? 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32618798 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32618798
- matthewmacleod 4y agoAll energy problem reduce to problems of energy transportation Don't make us tap the sign.
- looperhacks 4y agoDoes this matter if we could transport electricity from somewhere not cloudy or evening ... -y?
- Ekaros 4y agoHmm, either trans-Atlantic or a country governments blocked from global markets... Yeah, there might be some issues with that solution.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- kwhitefoot 4y agoThe sun is always shining somewhere. We need more interconnects.
- andrepd 4y agoGlobal power transfers don't work due to losses. The physics doesn't work out.
- Reason077 4y agoTell that to the proposed EuroAsia link (Greece-Cyprus-Israel) [1], or the proposed Australia-Singapore link [2]. Interconnector are getting longer and longer with each new generation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EuroAsia_Interconnector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EuroAsia_Interconnector [2] https://www.powerengineeringint.com/smart-grid-td/td-infrastructure/building-an-australia-singapore-power-link/ https://www.powerengineeringint.com/smart-grid-td/td-infrast... The electrical loss through HVDC cable is approximately 3% per 1000 km of cable, far less than with AC grids. The physics do work out, the only real barriers are economics and politics.
- candiodari 4y agoExactly, just like always before: only interconnects through oceans work because otherwise one government is entrusting its fate to another. In the best case that ends with countries paying tax to other countries' governments, in the worst case that ends in war.
- atlasunshrugged 4y agoOr it ends with a third government cutting the cable and massively disrupting the other two
- worldwideants 4y agoCan I return this Tesla resonator or at least exchange it for the powerwall?
- TheRealPomax 4y agoRemember that "transport" includes "to storage", which in turn includes some of the most efficient batteries in the form of connected reservoirs located at different heights so that gravity does the discharging work.
- eptcyka 4y agoAlso remember that there is a limited supply of single-use, liquid battery that was pre-charged long ago, but unfortunately it's exhaust is hopelessly harmful.
- TheRealPomax 4y agoWhat are you talking about? Gravity batteries are literally two lakes at different heights, connected with pipes. You pump water up when you have an electricity surplus, and let it drain down through turbines when you need power. They're about as far opposite from "single use" as you can get =)
- hef19898 4y agoSince, as of today, electriciry cannot be stored, but is consumed the moment it is generated, we have all those problems. Base and peak load, PV and wind being less (not completely unusable as real life data shows) in line with eletricity consumption... The list goes on. And that fact is part of the reason why prices are going haywire. Electricity isn't stored, it is consumed.
- TheRealPomax 4y agoI think you might not understand how a gravity battery works. You use the electricity to move water from a low basing up a mountain to a high basin. You then release that water and have it run through turbines to regenerate (a significant part of) the electricity you used to pump the water up. You don't store electricity, you store energy.
- hef19898 4y ago
- PheonixPharts 4y agoAll energy on earth, baring geothermal, is ultimately solar energy. Fossil fuels are just one, very efficient, form of storing that energy.
- ben_w 4y agoAlso nuclear and most but not all tidal.
- pclmulqdq 4y agoHave people considered battery trucks? I don't mean battery-powered trucks, but trucks full of batteries. It seems kind of silly when you can use hydrogen or natural gas in your trucks instead, but battery trucks may be the lowest-loss form of long-distance electricity transport.
- 411111111111111 4y agoNo, they're not.
- xvedejas 4y agoWithout thinking too hard about the efficiency, it's clearly just not a _safe_ proposition with our current best (most energy-dense per weight) batteries.
- 323 4y agoThere are regular train/truck transports with much more dangerous and volatile chemicals than lithium.
- eptcyka 4y agoThe current dangerous transports are not nearly as widely deployed as battery trucks would be required to be to be viable.
- PeterisP 4y agoGasoline has much more energy density per weight than batteries, and we truck that around all the time.
- RivieraKid 4y ago> The problem is not incidental; it's fundamental. WTF does that mean?
- tsm 4y agoI would've said "it's an inherent problem, not just bad luck this time".
- Smithalicious 4y agoIt's not an (isolated) incident, it's fundamental (part of the foundation, a core part of) to energy management. What that means is that the issue is expected; it's always been an issue when dealing with energy and always will be.
- bcrosby95 4y agoI assume it's borrowing language from incidental vs fundamental complexity in programming. Fundamental is core to the problem, incidental is stuff we add because of our imperfect solutions.
- jotm 4y agoAs long as people won't even try to install a solar concentrator while bitching about rising prices, I won't take any of them seriously. Such a simple design, can be used for at least heating water for 3-6 months. But nah. Same for which the roofs. You don't have a white/silver roof on your house? Fuck you. On that note, you like cruise ships? Also fuck you.
- stepbeek 4y ago> Same for which the roofs. You don't have a white/silver roof on your house? Fuck you. Why?
- atlasunshrugged 4y agoI think they reflect the sun and keep the house cool without a lot of extra energy for air conditioning.
- iso1631 4y agoI don't need air conditioning, the 3 or 4 days a year it gets hot enough that it's a problem I close the blinds on the front and open the window. I do need heating in the winter though.
- mrshadowgoose 4y ago"A person who doesn't live exactly according to my values. Fuck that person!"
- inglor_cz 4y ago"You don't have a white/silver roof on your house? Fuck you." I am one of your fuckees. The house I bought was expensive enough as it was. I am not changing a brand new dark roof for a different one for an exorbitant price right now, because budget. A perfectly new roof going down (isn't that actually waste?) for saving, say, 10 of 30 days when the AC is really needed? (I am also not even sure if roof colors are regulated by the local authorities or not. There are over thirty houses in the same project, with the same roofs. Maybe I wouldn't even be allowed to.)
- PheonixPharts 4y agoThis is why the real magic of fossil fuels isn't the energy they contain, but their energy density. An efficient, large scale global economy is only possible with incredibly high energy density (and easy to transport and convert into usage energy) energy sources. And, to your point, even global food supply is ultimately an issue of transporting energy from the sun to human bodies largely in the form of plant based carbohydrates. Human's ability to expand around the globe is predicated on the ability to transport the caloric requirements efficiently.
- systemvoltage 4y agoSolar resource isn't equally distributed, particularly Europe has poor potential: https://globalsolaratlas.info/map https://globalsolaratlas.info/map Solar energy isn't the panacea that people make it out to be. Where it is abundant, it makes sense. A lot of places do not have that luxury, yet countries like Germany made foolish investments in solar power which is 10% efficient compared to its full potential in Southwestern USA.
- JW_00000 4y agoIs an investment foolish if it has a positive ROI? I live in Belgium, and even without subsidies and before the current increases in electricity prices, solar panels had a payback period of ~ 10 years (while they generally last ~ 25 years). Why would it be foolish to invest in this? You say that they would be 10x as efficient in Southwestern USA. But how would you transport the electricity from the USA to Germany? Isn't that exactly the problem that the previous commenter is pointing out? I.e. production is not the problem, transportation is.
- systemvoltage 4y agoIt's an opportunity cost, particularly in Germany against other RET investments such as nuclear/wind: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421520301816 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142152...
- pelasaco 4y agolast time that i checked, I couldn't find any nuclear reactor to my home. I have however 8kwh solar panel on my roof and I'm quite happy with that.
- systemvoltage 4y agoThat sounds cool. Hope you live in a sunny place.