3 ms·

Wasn't this the plan all along? Even after making an Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore personally advocated for natural gas as a transitional source of energy. Place

Wasn't this the plan all along? Even after making an Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore personally advocated for natural gas as a transitional source of energy. Places like Germany built their entire grid off of it. Even though Solar and Wind are exploding at unprecedented levels and they were never, ever going to be able handle all of the global energy needs within the half-century. But we're shutting down coal and no one wants nuclear so gas it is.

teaearlgraycold 3y ago
Correction, I want nuclear. Put it in my back yard, even.
llsf 3y ago
"no one wants nuclear" is not exactly the conclusion of the last COP. Several countries agreed to triple the electricity produced by nuclear. But you are correct, that some EU countries lost their source or natural gas (Nord stream 1 & 2 blowed up in 2022) and cannot transition on a whim and so needs gas (liquefied since all previous pipes are not working).
atombender 3y ago
The appetite for nuclear seems to be underestimated. The UK is spending £30B on two new nuclear power stations currently under construction, and just announced they're hoping to add one more. France is currently building six next-gen reactors. China and India are building an enormous number of new ones.
- cbsmith 3y ago
  Yeah, it's not clear that the appetite has been underestimated. It seems like a lot of the current nuclear projects are developing a source taste.
cptaj 3y ago
Germany is irrationally closing down their completely green nuclear plants and installing gas and coal. I don't think that was the plan. Blackballing nuclear has been the worst environmental decision our society has ever made. We would've solved this problem by now if we had just gone all in on nuclear energy
- goethes_kind 3y ago
  Something they don't tell you about Germany: there's loads of corruption that is so normalized that nobody even recognizes it as such. Siemens is one of the big pushers of gas technology in Germany. One of the excuses they use is that eventually they will switch to a hydrogen mix and eventually to pure hydrogen. It's all just an excuse to build more gas turbines and grow/maintain/protect their business. I think it is interesting that people accuse Germany of being "irrational" while if it was Italy for example, people would immediately call out the corruption.
  - legitster 3y ago
    This is kind of a lame explanation. Siemens is one of the biggest international players in renewables and used to be one of the biggest in nuclear until the German government basically forced them out of it. They would be just as happy to sell Germany whatever technology the government wanted - it's just Germany's very strong green movement was vehemently anti-nuclear. If anything, it was their political entrapment with Russia that created their reliance on cheap natural gas.
juujian 3y ago
The problem at the moment is that, globally speaking, we are just adding fossil gas on top of our preexisting consumption instead of replacing and reducing oil and coal consumption.
- legitster 3y ago
  Well, it does seem like at least coal is heading out the door. But yeah, 20 years ago everyone asked "who's going to be the one to stop the third world from touching these resources" and no one had an answer so here we are.

teaearlgraycold 3y ago

Correction, I want nuclear. Put it in my back yard, even.

llsf 3y ago

"no one wants nuclear" is not exactly the conclusion of the last COP. Several countries agreed to triple the electricity produced by nuclear. But you are correct, that some EU countries lost their source or natural gas (Nord stream 1 & 2 blowed up in 2022) and cannot transition on a whim and so needs gas (liquefied since all previous pipes are not working).

atombender 3y ago

The appetite for nuclear seems to be underestimated. The UK is spending £30B on two new nuclear power stations currently under construction, and just announced they're hoping to add one more. France is currently building six next-gen reactors. China and India are building an enormous number of new ones.

cbsmith 3y ago
Yeah, it's not clear that the appetite has been underestimated. It seems like a lot of the current nuclear projects are developing a source taste.

cptaj 3y ago

Germany is irrationally closing down their completely green nuclear plants and installing gas and coal. I don't think that was the plan. Blackballing nuclear has been the worst environmental decision our society has ever made. We would've solved this problem by now if we had just gone all in on nuclear energy

goethes_kind 3y ago
Something they don't tell you about Germany: there's loads of corruption that is so normalized that nobody even recognizes it as such. Siemens is one of the big pushers of gas technology in Germany. One of the excuses they use is that eventually they will switch to a hydrogen mix and eventually to pure hydrogen. It's all just an excuse to build more gas turbines and grow/maintain/protect their business. I think it is interesting that people accuse Germany of being "irrational" while if it was Italy for example, people would immediately call out the corruption.
- legitster 3y ago
  This is kind of a lame explanation. Siemens is one of the biggest international players in renewables and used to be one of the biggest in nuclear until the German government basically forced them out of it. They would be just as happy to sell Germany whatever technology the government wanted - it's just Germany's very strong green movement was vehemently anti-nuclear. If anything, it was their political entrapment with Russia that created their reliance on cheap natural gas.

juujian 3y ago

The problem at the moment is that, globally speaking, we are just adding fossil gas on top of our preexisting consumption instead of replacing and reducing oil and coal consumption.

legitster 3y ago
Well, it does seem like at least coal is heading out the door. But yeah, 20 years ago everyone asked "who's going to be the one to stop the third world from touching these resources" and no one had an answer so here we are.