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What do we do if another asteroid strikes, raises dust plumes and causes volcanic activity for years? The solution is to diversify renewable energy sources. N

• JumpCrisscross 7mo ago
  > solution is to diversify renewable energy sources There are two economically-viable renewable sources: solar and wind. Everything else is, to put it succinctly, bullshit. We're not producing and deploying as much solar and wind as we can. But global production has limits. Going all in on just those two (together with batteries) requires massively overpaying. That, in turn, makes the economy uncompetitive. > Nuclear takes to long to plan and build. If that is fixed, then great Permitting takes forever, too. Nuclear can be done quicker and cheaper, we've seen China do that. It's a good part of the mix because we just need to add power, and ideally, with economies of scale.
  • pfdietz 7mo ago
    Geothermal is also looking promising, probably more so than nuclear.
    • stop50 7mo ago
      Especially in the eiffel region.
    • JumpCrisscross 7mo ago
      > Geothermal is also looking promising Europe should absolutely develop it. But it's no panacea. Optimistically, "around 43 GW of enhanced geothermal capacity in the European Union could be developed at costs below 100 €/MWh" [1]. That's 3% of European energy demand [2]. [1] https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/hot-stuff-geothermal-energy-in-europe/ https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/hot-stuff-geotherma... [2] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Energy_statistics_-_an_overview#:~:text=Final%20energy%20consumption,1994%20until%20it https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php... 36.6k PJ/year ~ 1,160 GW
• marcosdumay 7mo ago
  > What do we do if another asteroid strikes, raises dust plumes and causes volcanic activity for years? A few nuclear plants will do absolutely nothing against a nuclear winter.
  • Gud 7mo ago
    What "nuclear winter"?
    • defrost 7mo ago
      In context it seems clear they intended to short hand the possible effects of possible global dust clouds that are possibly aloft for some time with the term "nuclear winter", itself a name for a possible effect of some number of large ground level nuclear blasts.
      • Gud 7mo ago
        Yes, a nuclear winter is theorized to happen when a lot(thousands) of cities are struck by nuclear weapons. It's unclear how this is related.
        • defrost 7mo ago
          Cities? Surely it'd be a nuclear winter if the same number hit not-cities. eg: Castle Bravo .. not a city, but a ground level strike. > It's unclear how this is related. From a geophysics PoV meteorite strikes are not unlike ground level nuclear explosions in so far as dust plumes go. > another asteroid strikes, raises dust plumes and causes volcanic activity for years? At least that's my recollection from those old old first approximation nuclear winter papers that were largely circles and arrows on the back of envelope guesstimations. If we're to quibble, I'd be asking about the meteorite strikes causing volcanic activity (or is it the dust plumes that cause that activity?) .. cause that seems tenuous unless it's a direct strike on an unstable part of the Ring of Fire / Yellowstone Caldera. Whether it's nuclear or meteorites the theory rests not so much on number of ground events as it does on volume (and type) or particles raised up high ... the Iridium K-Pg anomaly layer is global yet postulated to have come from a single (large) strike.
• adrianN 7mo ago
  In the case we have dust for years that significantly reduces solar output, most people die. What powers our electric grid doesn’t matter if agriculture is crippled.