5 ms·

If we were really serious about climate change, we'd build a ton of wind and solar and batteries, plus a ton of new transmission to get electricity from the win

If we were really serious about climate change, we'd build a ton of wind and solar and batteries, plus a ton of new transmission to get electricity from the windy and sunny places to our cities. That's currently the fastest way to cut our greenhouse gas emissions.

prox 3y ago
Renewable energy in the future is predicted that by 2024, solar capacity in the world will grow by 600 gigawatts (GW), almost double the installed total electricity capacity of Japan. Overall, renewable electricity is predicted to grow by 1 200 GW by 2024, the equivalent of the total electricity capacity of the US. From a study on earth.org. Solar will also become 35% cheaper is expected by 2024.
- yread 3y ago
  Soon we will have too much solar. Which is a nice problem to have but still. In 2021 Dutch solar and wind produced >100% of the demand 0.4% of the time. In 2023 it's already 5%. It's not a disaster but the producers have to switch the plants off (due to negative el. prices). Which makes the business case worse - you are not making money at night, when it's cloudy or when it's too sunny. And they will add another ~7.5GW peak solar+wind this year (60% of demand)! Hopefully, someone can figure out what to do with all the extra energy (hydrogen? synthetic fuels?)
  - natmaka 3y ago
    All this may become consistent: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/180592/european-cooperation-could-provide-more-stable/ https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/180592/european-cooperation-...
_hypx 3y ago
If we were serious about doing it with renewables, we'd skip the batteries and build as much green hydrogen capacity as possible, plus hydrogen pipelines to move it around. People who bring up batteries have failed to realize that winter exists, and in winter you will need far more energy storage than you can possibly achieve with batteries.
- ben_w 3y ago
  > People who bring up batteries have failed to realize that winter exists They really haven't, and you really need to stop being so abrasive. I know you can do that, because you've managed it at least once with me on this topic.
  - _hypx 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - natmaka 3y ago
      https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/180592/european-cooperation-could-provide-more-stable/ https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/180592/european-cooperation-...
      - _hypx 3y ago
        Which still doesn't solve the issue of intermittency at all. https://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/the-curse-of-the-dunkelflaute/111075 https://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/the-curse-of-the-d...
        natmaka 3y ago
        Because Europe, when it comes to wind and solar, is under-equipped. Dunkelflaute are not european-wide (as noted in the article you referenced it: north of Europe), therefore production units outside of this geographical zone (along with storage, backup and curtailment) are efficient ways to cope. We have to build them. Moreover it "lasts up to 24 hours" (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkelflaute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkelflaute ).
        _hypx 3y ago
        > Most of these events occur from October to February; typically 50 to 150 hours per year, a single event usually lasts up to 24 hours. You can't even quote honestly...

prox 3y ago

Renewable energy in the future is predicted that by 2024, solar capacity in the world will grow by 600 gigawatts (GW), almost double the installed total electricity capacity of Japan. Overall, renewable electricity is predicted to grow by 1 200 GW by 2024, the equivalent of the total electricity capacity of the US. From a study on earth.org. Solar will also become 35% cheaper is expected by 2024.

yread 3y ago
Soon we will have too much solar. Which is a nice problem to have but still. In 2021 Dutch solar and wind produced >100% of the demand 0.4% of the time. In 2023 it's already 5%. It's not a disaster but the producers have to switch the plants off (due to negative el. prices). Which makes the business case worse - you are not making money at night, when it's cloudy or when it's too sunny. And they will add another ~7.5GW peak solar+wind this year (60% of demand)! Hopefully, someone can figure out what to do with all the extra energy (hydrogen? synthetic fuels?)
- natmaka 3y ago
  All this may become consistent: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/180592/european-cooperation-could-provide-more-stable/ https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/180592/european-cooperation-...

_hypx 3y ago

If we were serious about doing it with renewables, we'd skip the batteries and build as much green hydrogen capacity as possible, plus hydrogen pipelines to move it around. People who bring up batteries have failed to realize that winter exists, and in winter you will need far more energy storage than you can possibly achieve with batteries.

ben_w 3y ago
> People who bring up batteries have failed to realize that winter exists They really haven't, and you really need to stop being so abrasive. I know you can do that, because you've managed it at least once with me on this topic.
- _hypx 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - natmaka 3y ago
    https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/180592/european-cooperation-could-provide-more-stable/ https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/180592/european-cooperation-...
    - _hypx 3y ago
      Which still doesn't solve the issue of intermittency at all. https://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/the-curse-of-the-dunkelflaute/111075 https://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/the-curse-of-the-d...
      - natmaka 3y ago
        Because Europe, when it comes to wind and solar, is under-equipped. Dunkelflaute are not european-wide (as noted in the article you referenced it: north of Europe), therefore production units outside of this geographical zone (along with storage, backup and curtailment) are efficient ways to cope. We have to build them. Moreover it "lasts up to 24 hours" (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkelflaute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkelflaute ).
        _hypx 3y ago
        > Most of these events occur from October to February; typically 50 to 150 hours per year, a single event usually lasts up to 24 hours. You can't even quote honestly...