The Environment Thread

[Bi_3]

Germany spent nearly $500 BILLION on wind & solar over the last 20 years. Its dependence on fossil fuels declined from 85% to 75% in 2021:

https://www.reddit.com/r/environment/comments/w3idbd/germany_spent_nearly_500_billion_on_wind_solar/

It's gonna be a hard pill to see that number for the US.

[elliseamos]

Where's my fusion reactor at?

[simple schoolboy]

In what way does this journo think cooling takes more energy than heating? Do they merely mean electricity? If so it's because electric heaters in lieu of hydrocarbons would take down the grid far more reliably than air conditioners so almost no one relies on building wide electric heating the way they do with air conditioning.

What would a grid look like that used electric heating exclusively for homes and businesses and relied entirely on renewables and batteries? 5X? 10X? More expensive baseline for minimal habitability?

[contamination]

Germany spent nearly $500 BILLION on wind & solar over the last 20 years. Its dependence on fossil fuels declined from 85% to 75% in 2021:

https://www.reddit.com/r/environment/comments/w3idbd/germany_spent_nearly_500_billion_on_wind_solar/

It's gonna be a hard pill to see that number for the US.

Germany is also completely screwed right now because it decided to ditch nuclear power and made itself dependable on cheap Russian gas.

[simple schoolboy]

Germany spent nearly $500 BILLION on wind & solar over the last 20 years. Its dependence on fossil fuels declined from 85% to 75% in 2021:

https://www.reddit.com/r/environment/comments/w3idbd/germany_spent_nearly_500_billion_on_wind_solar/

It's gonna be a hard pill to see that number for the US.

Germany is also completely screwed right now because it decided to ditch nuclear power and made itself dependable on cheap Russian gas.

The US is not building any new nuclear, so we are following their path (except that we could be self sufficient on hydrocarbons, if we had sufficient refinery capacity).

It's funny how Russian sponsored green parties in Europe killed fracking* and nuclear.

*Regarding fracking, I don't know if they have shale appropriate for it, but they wouldn't have done the surveying for it regardless

[contamination]

Germany spent nearly $500 BILLION on wind & solar over the last 20 years. Its dependence on fossil fuels declined from 85% to 75% in 2021:

https://www.reddit.com/r/environment/comments/w3idbd/germany_spent_nearly_500_billion_on_wind_solar/

It's gonna be a hard pill to see that number for the US.

Germany is also completely screwed right now because it decided to ditch nuclear power and made itself dependable on cheap Russian gas.

The US is not building any new nuclear, so we are following their path (except that we could be self sufficient on hydrocarbons, if we had sufficient refinery capacity).

It's funny how Russian sponsored green parties in Europe killed fracking* and nuclear.

*Regarding fracking, I don't know if they have shale appropriate for it, but they wouldn't have done the surveying for it regardless

I have no idea what is the plan with the existing nuclear power plants in the US, but in Germany they already shut down 3 of the existing 6 power plants, and are shutting down the 3 that are left by the end of this year, at the same time having an energy crisis at their hands.

Here's a good article about the relationship between Germany and Russia and what went wrong: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ord-stream

It also explains why Germany has been one of the strongest opponents of the Russian sanctions within EU.

Edit: So I guess what I'm trying to say is that even though they've invested in wind and solar power over the past 20 years, in a wider perspective Germany's energy politics have pretty much been a catastrophe waiting to happen since the 1970's.

[elliseamos]

, in a wider perspective Germanyeveryone's energy politics have pretty much been a catastrophe waiting to happen since the 1970's.

slight edit.

[Bi_3]

Germany spent nearly $500 BILLION on wind & solar over the last 20 years. Its dependence on fossil fuels declined from 85% to 75% in 2021:

https://www.reddit.com/r/environment/comments/w3idbd/germany_spent_nearly_500_billion_on_wind_solar/

It's gonna be a hard pill to see that number for the US.

Brought to you by the folks behind the ever-so-achievable Green New Deal, here's the number: $8.94T in projected conversion costs

Main results. Transitioning the 50 states and D.C. to 100% WWS for all energy purposes...
• Keeps the grid stable 100% of the time. This is helped by the fact that, during cold
storms, winds are stronger (Figure 1) and wind/solar are complementary in nature;
• Creates 4.7 million more long-term, full-time jobs than lost;
• Saves 53,200 lives from air pollution per year in 2050 in the U.S.;
• Eliminates 6,400 million tonnes-CO2e per year in 2050 in the U.S.;
• Reduces 2050 all-purpose, end-use energy requirements by 56.7%;
• Reduces the U.S.’ 2050 annual energy costs by 62.9% (from $2,513 to $933 b/y);
• Reduces annual energy, health, plus climate costs by 86.3% (from $6,800 to $933 b/y);
• Costs ~$8.94 t upfront. Upfront costs are paid back through energy sales. Costs are for
WWS electricity, heat, and H2 generation; electricity, heat, cold, and H2 storage; heat
pumps for district heating; all-distance transmission; and distribution;
• Requires 0.29% of U.S. land for footprint, 0.55% for spacing.

I don't get how it reduces by 86.3% domestic energy and health costs (saves $6T/y), where we will mine to get the rare earth metals we need for this, or why this result is so utterly different and contradictory than the MIT two years ago that covered the same topic, but here's the link anyway:

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-envi ... -doing-it/

[BurtReynolds]

They said this thing was dead a couple years ago...

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/04/11155394 ... -australia

[Bi_3]

They said this thing was dead a couple years ago...

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/04/11155394 ... -australia

The Great Barrier Reset

[Bi_3]

The U.S. made a breakthrough battery discovery — then gave the technology to China: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/03/1114964240/new-battery-technology-china-vanadium


Makes you wonder how many of these type events there are floating around out there.

[BurtReynolds]

It was funny seeing various right wing and far left wing accounts freaking out over Pelosi last week, as though WWIII was narrowly averted. China already owns us, they have no reason to nuke their property.

[McParadigm]

Setting: the year 2022. We are now 70+ days into what may end up as the worst drought/heatwave in recorded history. It has all but dried up a substantial stretch of the third largest river in the world, and slowed Chinese manufacturing to a degree that may ultimately affect economies all over the world. It goes unmentioned in the news and debate forum, where a meme thread rides high.

[96583UP]

i want to say we should blame white men for this one

but open to other thoughts

[Bi_3]

Setting: the year 2022. We are now 70+ days into what may end up as the worst drought/heatwave in recorded history. It has all but dried up a substantial stretch of the third largest river in the world, and slowed Chinese manufacturing to a degree that may ultimately affect economies all over the world. It goes unmentioned in the news and debate forum, where a meme thread rides high.

Take it to the WW4 thread:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11243

[elliseamos]

But then you mentioned it and, like, ruined the mood... I'm heading to the meme thread.

[Bi_3]

Thoughts on CA banning the sale of gas cars by 2035? 13 years is not a huge amount of time to pull off that kind infrastructure change.

[elliseamos]

Where we're heading we won't need enough cars!

[Bi_3]

Looks like Washington and Massachusetts are jumping on the no-new-gas-cars after 2035 thing too.


You'd think after watching CA spend $5B over 14 years to build exactly zero miles of functional high speed rail service that other states might not be so quick to follow their lead on massive infrastructure spends.

[simple schoolboy]

Looks like Washington and Massachusetts are jumping on the no-new-gas-cars after 2035 thing too.


You'd think after watching CA spend $5B over 14 years to build exactly zero miles of functional high speed rail service that other states might not be so quick to follow their lead on massive infrastructure spends.

If there were a state level initiative to gut CEQA or subsidize battery production it would make some sense, but after the shitshow we've seen in Europe with Energy prices, we're locking ourselves into a dependency on China for basic transportation/ infrastructure. Keeping Diablo Canyon open is not sufficient either, need to build new nuke plants if household electricity demand is going to significantly increase.