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You need Sun to benefit from solar. Preferably all year round. Coal or oil have no such requirements.
by surfingdino 2y ago
You need Sun to benefit from solar. Preferably all year round. Coal or oil have no such requirements.
- jvanderbot 2y agoJust in case it wasn't clear - this is not the question being asked, nor is it likely the reason electrified cars won't reduce needs below 2010 levels. (most likely it's because personal transportation is < 30% of total energy use and energy use is probably going to keep going up)
- bdcravens 2y agoYou can store it, but batteries carry their own set of ecological concerns.
- surfingdino 2y agoI can store it, but they loose charge over time. This whole business of replacing oil with electricity feels like pyrotherapy applied to energy production. We need something better, because achieving zero emissions at the cost of additional environmental damage an pollution doesn't seem like progress to me (lithium mining is not something you will see showcased at the Chelsea Flower Show).
- bryanlarsen 2y agoA typical EV uses 10-50kg of recyclable lithium; a typical gasoline car uses 50 tons of single-use-only gasoline.
- surfingdino 2y agohttps://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-lithium-mined https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-lithium-mined https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/is-lithium-mining-bad-for-the-environment https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/is-lithium-mining-bad-for-...
- bryanlarsen 2y agoSeems less harmful than the oilsands.
- jaggs 2y agoLithium mining is on its way out thankfully
- consteval 2y agoBatteries used for the grid are reliable and with very little environmental concerns. You can use water batteries or other various gravity batteries. Very efficient, these lose practically no energy over a long period of time. The problem is small (ish) batteries. Like those in cars. Which is why it's very, very important to start phasing out large scale automobile transportation. We've had electric trains for decades and not only are they orders of magnitude more efficient per passenger, they also don't require batteries.
- titzer 2y ago342 Watts per square meter on average over the entire Earth, averaged over the entire year. https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/135642main_balance_trifold21.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/135642main_b... Put some panels on your roof and it's not hopeless.
- jaggs 2y agoActually, with the right battery and some regular trickle charging, that becomes less of an issue long term.
- surfingdino 2y agoRegular trickle charging requires electricity.
- jaggs 2y agoSorry, should have explained better. Bigger batteries can be trickle topped up with solar power, even when not a lot of sun. Because the battery has more capacity, it easily keeps up with traditional energy needs day to day.