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Or peppering every outdoor surface with solar panels. What a techno-noir nightmare that will be. Otherwise, electricity generation via natural gas/coal would me

by zer8k 3y ago

Or peppering every outdoor surface with solar panels. What a techno-noir nightmare that will be. Otherwise, electricity generation via natural gas/coal would mean you may as well just stick with ICE.

JohnFen 3y ago
> electricity generation via natural gas/coal would mean you may as well just stick with ICE. I'm not sure about this. As I understand it, burning fossil fuels to generate electricity at a central facility is far more efficient than running millions of small engines.
- pjc50 3y ago
  Correct - there's an efficiency benefit, although it's very marginal in the case of coal generation. That's mostly gone in Western Europe with the sore exception of Germany.
  - pests 3y ago
    Benefit of centralized waste and pollution management tho.
WorldMaker 3y ago
Solar panels on every outdoor surface would look great. You don't want people walking or driving on them so it would mean a lot more pavilions and shades over the otherwise terrible heat deserts of the world's parking lots. Asphalt is a net heat radiator making the world around every parking lot hotter. Solar panels would be a net heat reducer, and with them overhead on pavilions it would make the ground below much cooler and nicer. People might actually want to start walking to places again on the ground levels. That sounds pretty far from a nightmare to me.
dymk 3y ago
haha imagine thinking that solar panels are an aesthetic nightmare compared to a gas/coal power plant spewing out waste
- zer8k 3y ago
  I live in a place with exactly 1 natural gas energy plant and something like 300 square miles of solar panels. The solar panels are placed in the wilderness and an eye sore. At least with a coal plant I can expect it. I wish I was as delusional as most pro-EV people. Not only is EV an environmental nightmare (batteries? Where does energy come from?) the options right now for renewables are wholly inefficient and an eyesore. We'd do more to stop people from flying aircraft and driving large cruise liners. But that would get in the way of profits. Champagne socialists are hilarious.
  - dymk 3y ago
    So you'd rather energy generation needed for our society just be swept under a rug somewhere you can't see, rather than confronting the realities of modern consumption? Homes need to be heated, people need to be transported. You can only play a shell game for so long.
Ekaros 3y ago
Could work. And then only allow charging when they are producing power. Then the EV drivers could wait at these stations until it is sunny for their carbon-free future.

by zer8k 3y ago

Or peppering every outdoor surface with solar panels. What a techno-noir nightmare that will be. Otherwise, electricity generation via natural gas/coal would mean you may as well just stick with ICE.

JohnFen 3y ago

> electricity generation via natural gas/coal would mean you may as well just stick with ICE. I'm not sure about this. As I understand it, burning fossil fuels to generate electricity at a central facility is far more efficient than running millions of small engines.

pjc50 3y ago
Correct - there's an efficiency benefit, although it's very marginal in the case of coal generation. That's mostly gone in Western Europe with the sore exception of Germany.
- pests 3y ago
  Benefit of centralized waste and pollution management tho.

WorldMaker 3y ago

Solar panels on every outdoor surface would look great. You don't want people walking or driving on them so it would mean a lot more pavilions and shades over the otherwise terrible heat deserts of the world's parking lots. Asphalt is a net heat radiator making the world around every parking lot hotter. Solar panels would be a net heat reducer, and with them overhead on pavilions it would make the ground below much cooler and nicer. People might actually want to start walking to places again on the ground levels. That sounds pretty far from a nightmare to me.

dymk 3y ago

haha imagine thinking that solar panels are an aesthetic nightmare compared to a gas/coal power plant spewing out waste

zer8k 3y ago
I live in a place with exactly 1 natural gas energy plant and something like 300 square miles of solar panels. The solar panels are placed in the wilderness and an eye sore. At least with a coal plant I can expect it. I wish I was as delusional as most pro-EV people. Not only is EV an environmental nightmare (batteries? Where does energy come from?) the options right now for renewables are wholly inefficient and an eyesore. We'd do more to stop people from flying aircraft and driving large cruise liners. But that would get in the way of profits. Champagne socialists are hilarious.
- dymk 3y ago
  So you'd rather energy generation needed for our society just be swept under a rug somewhere you can't see, rather than confronting the realities of modern consumption? Homes need to be heated, people need to be transported. You can only play a shell game for so long.

Ekaros 3y ago

Could work. And then only allow charging when they are producing power. Then the EV drivers could wait at these stations until it is sunny for their carbon-free future.