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It isn't a fair comparison as Germany has terrible geography in comparison to the US for energy generation, and certain energy sources like hydropower are very
by thiago_fm 3y ago
It isn't a fair comparison as Germany has terrible geography in comparison to the US for energy generation, and certain energy sources like hydropower are very efficient, but not possible to replicate given the environmental impact.
Hell, even solar generation in Germany isn't anywhere as good as the US, where it can build solar parks in the south, meanwhile most of Germany has what, 6 hours of daylight during winter?
To me, it's absurd that the US has literally the best geography of any country in the world and yet isn't coal-free.
It has even a river that divides the country. It's almost as if it was hand-drawn by god. With mountainy regions, hot and cold areas, deserts and tropical areas, America you have no excuse and can do better.
- whatshisface 3y agoThe US also has got enormous and inexhaustible (all together) coal mines, and oil fields of course. The price of natural gas is negative in some parts of Texas.
- thiago_fm 3y agoNatural gas isn't so terrible for the environment, despite not being renewable. But coal? Yikes. As you've said it, as gas is so cheap, perhaps use lots of gas and invest in renewables. But go coal-free.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoTexas has 100GW of solar and 50GW of batteries in ERCOT’s interconnect queue. Eleven times smaller than Australia, far more rapid and ambitious decarbonization based on the economics alone. I would not expect the remaining coal (14GW) and gas (66GW) in Texas to be around long. (we deployed about 1GW/day of solar on average globally in 2023, and this is expected to rise to ~2.7GW in 2024, reaching 1TW deployed annually; the US is also now one of the largest LNG exporters in the world)