9 ms·
Tripling nuclear until 2050 is too little and too late to stop CO2-emissions in the energy sector. And looking at the issues western countries have even just re
by legulere 3y ago
Tripling nuclear until 2050 is too little and too late to stop CO2-emissions in the energy sector. And looking at the issues western countries have even just replacing old reactors with new ones, it is also a highly unrealistic goal.
- ben_w 3y agoBased on current exponential growth curves, we get 100% of current electricity demand (even after allowing for capacity factor) just from just PV some time around 2032, and 100% of all current primary energy demand 3.5 years after that. And that's without counting any contribution from wind, geothermal, tidal, etc. Practically this means some combination of the exponential turning sigmoid or energy use going up; but even so, CO2 from energy is no longer something I'm worried about. All the other CO2 sources (steel, aluminium, concrete), all the other non-renewable resources (phosphate), all the other environmental problems (biodiversity loss)? Those are still things to be solved (solutions are known for many and possibly all, but now they must be proven economically). CO2 though, especially from energy, that problem I think we're going to resolve.