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If you want to be a bit paranoid, but not entirely unrealistic, you might see a connection between Germany's aversion to nuclear power and our reliance on Russi

If you want to be a bit paranoid, but not entirely unrealistic, you might see a connection between Germany's aversion to nuclear power and our reliance on Russian gas. I wouldn't go as far as to believe that Russia has infiltrated our whole politics to the point where they can dictate what energy sources we use, but they may well have taken some degree of influence over public perception of nuclear power as inherently "dangerous". Either way, even if it is for the "wrong" reasons, I do think that the nuclear power aversion isn't necessarily a bad thing; the technology is old, requires massive investments before it can be used and still requires its own type of fuel to run. Most renewable sources, meanwhile, can be built up more gradually, and every finished wind turbine, solar panel, etc. starts producing energy right away. Acquiring know-how in these fields could also prove very valuable whenever the rest of the world decides to rely more heavily on these technologies (assuming cold fusion doesn't become viable before then)

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
You don't need to be paranoid to think that Russia is influencing energy policy: > Speaking at a global manufacturing conference, the president said: "Wind-powered generation is good but are birds being taken into account in this case? How many birds are dying?" > "[Wind turbines] shake, causing worms to come out of the soil. This is not a joke," he said. ... > A study published in 2009 looking at the US and Europe estimated that wind farms were responsible for about 0.3 bird deaths for every 1GWh of electricity generated, compared with 5.2 deaths per 1GWh caused by fossil-fuelled power stations. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48936941 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48936941 Russia is currently wasting their own money, which they could spend on wars and other useful stuff, by not deploying wind energy, and that's only going to become more true: > The introduction of a cross-border carbon tax by the EU in the near future or the fact that customers out- side Russia want to decrease their purchases of pollut- ing energy carriers may become a significant incentive for the RES development in Russia, including wind en- ergy. Russian exporters will be interested in investing in renewable energy to save on carbon duties. The entire Russian economy will also be interested in this as it is more profitable to invest the financial resources in the development of green industries within the country than allowing the duties to be paid abroad. https://wwindea.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/210319-FESMOS-windenergy-en.pdf https://wwindea.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/210319-FESMOS...

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

You don't need to be paranoid to think that Russia is influencing energy policy: > Speaking at a global manufacturing conference, the president said: "Wind-powered generation is good but are birds being taken into account in this case? How many birds are dying?" > "[Wind turbines] shake, causing worms to come out of the soil. This is not a joke," he said. ... > A study published in 2009 looking at the US and Europe estimated that wind farms were responsible for about 0.3 bird deaths for every 1GWh of electricity generated, compared with 5.2 deaths per 1GWh caused by fossil-fuelled power stations. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48936941 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48936941 Russia is currently wasting their own money, which they could spend on wars and other useful stuff, by not deploying wind energy, and that's only going to become more true: > The introduction of a cross-border carbon tax by the EU in the near future or the fact that customers out- side Russia want to decrease their purchases of pollut- ing energy carriers may become a significant incentive for the RES development in Russia, including wind en- ergy. Russian exporters will be interested in investing in renewable energy to save on carbon duties. The entire Russian economy will also be interested in this as it is more profitable to invest the financial resources in the development of green industries within the country than allowing the duties to be paid abroad. https://wwindea.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/210319-FESMOS-windenergy-en.pdf https://wwindea.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/210319-FESMOS...