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I would like to see country try go the full route of building 500§ wind and solar. Twenty five years ago we did have a country in EU that started this route. D

by belorn 4y ago

I would like to see country try go the full route of building 500§ wind and solar. Twenty five years ago we did have a country in EU that started this route. Denmark reached 100% capacity 10 years ago. At that point the interest to build more wind and solar drastically dropped. Imports (which are around 1/3 to 1/2 of consumption) of nuclear and hydro energy is critical to keep their gird operational, and their investments into wind and solar would not function without those imports. We also have countries like France that relied on their nuclear power plants the last 25 years and are now in dire need to modernize their plants. We have Sweden which heavily relied on their hydro power plants and are now in dire need to replace and repair them unless multiple species end up extinct. We got Germany and others that depended on cheap fossil fuel, primarily with the plan to upgrade into green hydrogen some time in the future. None of those strategies ended up being a winner and everyone is rushing for new strategies. In 25 years from now we will see which bets won, if any. Maybe it will be that undersea cable from north Africa. We don't know, through I expect all of them to be more expensive than the cheapest option.

jltsiren 4y ago
There is no one-size-fits-all strategy. Energy production is a regional problem with regional solutions. You can't copy a strategy from somewhere else and expect it to work under different conditions without major changes. In the Nordic countries, clean electricity is essentially a solved problem. The current mix of wind, hydro, and nuclear works well enough for now. Of course, the target is always moving. You can always do something better, and sometimes old solutions become obsolete. But right now, electricity generation is not a pressing issue. Heating, industrial processes, and transportation are more acute problems. Decarbonization of transportation is moving particularly slowly.

by belorn 4y ago

jltsiren 4y ago

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy. Energy production is a regional problem with regional solutions. You can't copy a strategy from somewhere else and expect it to work under different conditions without major changes. In the Nordic countries, clean electricity is essentially a solved problem. The current mix of wind, hydro, and nuclear works well enough for now. Of course, the target is always moving. You can always do something better, and sometimes old solutions become obsolete. But right now, electricity generation is not a pressing issue. Heating, industrial processes, and transportation are more acute problems. Decarbonization of transportation is moving particularly slowly.