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Renewables Will Be World's Main Power Source By 2040, Says BP (cnbc.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: In a not-too-distant future, renewable energy becomes the world's biggest source of power generation. A quarter of the distances that humans travel by vehicle will be in electric cars. U.S. dominance in the oil market begins to wane, and OPEC's influence is resurgent, as crude demand finally peaks. That is the vision laid out by British oil and gas giant BP on Thursday in its latest Annual Energy Outlook. The closely followed report lays out a vision through 2040 for Earth's energy future, provided government policy, technology and consumer preferences evolve in line with recent trends. BP forecasts that the world's energy demand will grow by a third through 2040, driven by rising consumption in China, India and other parts of Asia. About 75 percent of that increase will come from the need to power industry and buildings. At the same time, energy demand will continue to grow in the transportation sector, but that growth will slow sharply as vehicles become more efficient and more consumers opt for electric cars. But despite the increase in supply, BP thinks two-thirds of the world's population will still live in places with relatively low energy consumption per head. The takeaway: The world will need to generate more energy. The report says natural gas consumption will grow by 50 percent over the next 20 years, increasing in virtually every corner of the globe. "Throughout most of that time, the world will continue to consume more oil year after year, until demand ultimately peaks around 108 million barrels per day in the 2030s," reports CNBC. "This year, OPEC expects global oil demand to reach 100 million bpd."

Meanwhile, coal consumption is forecasted to flatline, as China and developed countries quit the fossil fuel in favor of cleaner-burning and renewable energy sources. "However, BP sees India and other Asian nations burning more coal to meet surging power demand as the nations become more prosperous," reports CNBC.

334 comments

  1. use less energy by js290 · · Score: 1

    Nicole Foss on renewables @AutomaticEarth http://bit.ly/2rzS5Pq

    --
    "Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
  2. A quarter will be electric cars? by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    In 20 years ICE vehicles will be obsolete... Its a given.

    --
    [($)]
    1. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ICE is obsolete right now.

      In 20 years, it will be ILLEGAL for a human meat-bag to drive on any public road.

    2. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by blindseer · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No, they won't.

      There is nothing as energy dense, convenient, safe, and inexpensive as hydrocarbons. Maybe we can replace those hydrocarbons with something not from petroleum. Maybe we will use fuels other than hydrocarbons, but that doesn't mean the end for the internal combustion engine. The ICE is just too well entrenched in the culture, economy, and infrastructure to be replaced so quickly.

      Part of this infrastructure is the existing stock of vehicles themselves. A common diesel powered truck, tractor, locomotive, ship, or whatever, have a lifespan of decades. Anything sold in the last decade up to today will have a better than 50/50 chance of still being in use in 20 years. Even if no one made spare parts the existing stock of vehicles becomes a supply of spare parts. Then there's things like 3D printing and good old fashioned cottage industry of small time machine shops. People will be burning ethanol, vegetable oil, lubricating grease, solvents, or whatever else they can mix up to keep the wheels turning if something interrupts the supply of petroleum.

      No, the ICE will not be obsolete in20 years. Not unless there's some great leap in technology. That leap is unlikely to come from batteries. Sure, maybe the commuter car can be replaced with electrics. That won't mean much for the other vehicles that move, on the road and off.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    3. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Those pushing for an expedited reduction of hydrocarbons tend to ignore the amount of infrastructure required to support another energy delivery system.

      Electric cars are a novelty at the moment. Range, availability of charging stations, and the amount of time it takes to recharge the car are just some of the problems that will need to be addressed before wide scale adoption. .

    4. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There is nothing as energy dense, convenient, safe, and inexpensive as hydrocarbons

      Hopefully batteries will be in 20 years. (btw gasoline is not safe.)

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too bad you're wrong, density isn't the most important consideration anymore, dense-ass idiot.

    6. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by blindseer · · Score: 1, Informative

      Hopefully batteries will be in 20 years.

      The basics of chemical storage of energy means that no battery can ever be as energy dense as gasoline.

      (btw gasoline is not safe.)

      Nothing is truly safe, it's all relative. We might find something more energy dense but then it's less safe. We can certainly find materials that are safer but far less energy dense. Given that balance of energy density, convenience, safety, and cost there is not much that can compete with gasoline.

      Batteries are not safe either. They can electrocute, burn, even explode, if not handled with due care. Kind of like how gasoline can injure, maim, or kill, if not handled with care.

      If you want to tell me that gasoline is not safe then tell me what your alternatives would be. Again, batteries are not safe. You want to tell me that batteries are not dangerous? They might be safer than gasoline but then there's the other problems of convenience, energy density, and cost. Lots of people tried to make a more energy dense battery and what we inevitably get are less safe batteries. We will fill an airplane with many tons of fuel but when it comes to high energy density batteries those are kept to only a few pounds before the crew gets real nervous.

      Gasoline is not safe? Compared to what?

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    7. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Cyberax · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The basics of chemical storage of energy means that no battery can ever be as energy dense as gasoline.

      Li-Air batteries actually have better usable energy storage density than gasoline.

    8. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      The basics of chemical storage of energy means that no battery can ever be as energy dense as gasoline.

      What basics are you talking about here?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    9. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by blindseer · · Score: 0

      Define "usable energy storage". A quick look at Wikipedia tells me that Li-air batteries have 1/5 the specific energy of gasoline.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      In other words, citation needed.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    10. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by blindseer · · Score: 1

      The basics of having to carry both fuel and oxidizer in a battery while with gasoline the oxidizer is pulled from the air. If you have an "air breathing battery" then that's pushing the definition of a battery, that's more a fuel cell than a battery.

      I could go on but I'll just stop at the definition of a battery. At least for now.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    11. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Informative

      I could go on but I'll just stop at the definition of a battery

      Yeah you should, because you're sounding kind of ignorant! haha

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    12. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by blindseer · · Score: 1

      density isn't the most important consideration anymore

      Where did I say it was?

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    13. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by haruchai · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "The basics of chemical storage of energy means that no battery can ever be as energy dense as gasoline"

      Molten-air batteries of iron, carbon and vanadium boride have impressive numbers

      https://phys.org/news/2013-09-...

      watt-hrs per kg are 1400, 8900 and 5300 while the per liter numbers are 10k, 19k and 27k
      Gasoline is 12,200 watt-hrs per kg and 9700 per liter. Gasoline's significant per-kg advantage is diminished by it being consumed during use. Of course there are many hurdles to overcome for molten-air batteries so they won't be commercially available any time soon.

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    14. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by shilly · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Thank goodness you pointed out the importance of solving range, charging station availability and time-to-charge as issues. It's definitely the first time those issues have been flagged in relation to EVs, which is why range, charging station availability and time-to-charge have all remained static for the past decade.

    15. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Chas · · Score: 0
      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    16. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Smidge204 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And when you burn gasoline in a real-world engine only about 1/5th of the energy makes it to the wheels. Bulk energy storage is only part of the story; what matters in the end is how much useful work you can do with the energy you're able to store. If you can use the energy more efficiently, you can do the same work with less.

      The "hydrocarbon advantage" isn't as large as you might think, because the relative efficiencies of gasoline vs chemical battery goes a LONG way to close the gap.
      =Smidge=

    17. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by vakuona · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, most of the "heavy" infrastructure for delivery of charging stations pretty much exists already. Tends to be that you can access electricity anywhere you can access petroleum. Might need to beef it up a bit, but we don't have to do this overnight.

      The fact that there are now literally millions electric cars out there in the US shows that the infrastructure is there. People don't buy cars they can't move around in.

      There are now more electric vehicles in the US that there were iPhones in the world in 2007!

    18. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by rednip · · Score: 1

      I'd guess that it's more like 10 or so years from the start of a tipping point. By then about 20% of the cars will be electric, at that point gas will start to get cheap (with the removal of 20% of the demand), but banks and investors will stop financing oil projects (which require lots of money just to keep going). In about 20 years gasoline would be very expensive and pull the rest of the car market into full electric.

      Today charge times for a 'super charger' will likely surprise you, 80% charge in 40 minutes, fully charged in 75. While much longer than the max of maybe 5 minutes pumping, a 300 mile range is about 5 hours of driving, charging while taking lunch/dinner or sleeping at a hotel will likely become the norm. Even if stopping for 2.5 hours in a 15 hour drive may seem unreasonable for some, I don't think that it will be a real blocker for purchase for most. Especially because most will simply charge overnight at home, so it will actually save time, especially when gas stations become scarce. Also there is 'new tech', Porsche has an upcoming production car which is much quicker to charge and 'air lithium batteries' are being developed.

      Gasoline is effectively storage of that energy which creates more pollution to release at the point of use. How much electric varies with some estimates claiming about even on a per gallon, but it surely varies with the quality of the inputs, which includes more than just crude oil, much of it manufactured itself. Add in the industrial pollution, the gas station tanks which usually start to leak after 10 years (even discounting environment, leaking product is a bad), the gas/oil tankers eating diesel and the idea of not depending on a depleting resource, it is hard to imagine a world not better off with electric cars.

      However, what is likely the biggest advantage is that electric doesn't care how it's made, as we transition from fossil fuels to renewables to perhaps fusion (it's been 50 years), our cars will be able to use any of them. Disruption of oil from the Middle East, South America or Russia wouldn't send our economy into a tailspin.

      --
      The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
    19. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The waste heat of ICE is good in colder climates. It is not all waste. Also you can do better than 20% to the wheels.

    20. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Yes because all those French farmers are just running out to get EVs.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    21. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Thank you. I was feeling crazy. No one else is talking about this. We need much better from the EV industry that's for sure. I'll mention French farmers a second time.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    22. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by thegarbz · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In 20 years ICE vehicles will be obsolete... Its a given.

      Never underestimate the staying power of obsolete tech.

    23. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      There is nothing as energy dense, convenient, safe, and inexpensive as hydrocarbons.

      Convenient, safe and inexpensive for you maybe, because you get to pass all that stuff off on to other people.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    24. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So refute what he said.

    25. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      "No, they won't. There is nothing as energy dense..."

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    26. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is nothing as energy dense, convenient, safe, and inexpensive as hydrocarbons

      Hopefully batteries will be in 20 years. (btw gasoline is not safe.)

      Then don't drink it. Batteries are not safe either.

    27. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      safe, and inexpensive

      Well, even if you take a radically wide definition of the word "safe" and just say it's safe if the immediate effects of using it aren't harmful (that is, it's not going to explode in your face), there are plenty of safer energy storage systems.

      But something that's polluting to the degree hydrocarbons are, with the potential to destroy the entire planet over time, is hardly "safe". And if you try to fix it, it stops being "cheap" too. Which is why, in practice, a modern battery powered vehicle charged by a Nuclear energy/renewables based power grid has a much lower TCO than an equivalent gasoline powered vehicle.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    28. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Buy a used EV at E$400 that you can drive around for a few years and then tell me how ICE is obsolete.

      Get out of your affluent bubble.

    29. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so you could go on about how there are indeed more efficient battery systems than ICE BUT you have to redefine "battery" to make that claim, got it!

    30. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by PPH · · Score: 3, Insightful

      but banks and investors will stop financing oil projects

      Well, there goes all the feedstock for the fertilizer you need to grow your soy products.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    31. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by PPH · · Score: 1

      The basics of chemical storage of energy means that no battery can ever be as energy dense as gasoline.

      Well, there's diesel. And we can just move indigenous people aside and grow the palm oil or other crops we need to produce 'green diesel'. As long as we can keep poor people from eating our motor fuel.

      So yeah. Renewable power sources in 20 years. We can do it!

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    32. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by mspohr · · Score: 1

      The electric distribution network is already in place (and has been shown to be able to handle 100% electric cars).
      Range is not a problem. Charging time is not a problem.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    33. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by mspohr · · Score: 1

      Energy dense, yes but you have an engine that's only 20% efficient so hydrocarbons don't do so well.
      Safe? Other than the hundreds of cars combusting daily?
      Convenient? Have to find a gas station. Electricity is available in lots more places than gas stations. I even have electricity at my house so I just plug in anytime I need a charge (1 -2 times a week).
      Inexpensive? Electric cars are cheaper to run than gas cars. (Electric cars about 4 cents a mile, gas cars about 15 cents a mile)

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    34. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by mspohr · · Score: 2

      And gasoline engines are only 20% efficient so they waste most of that specific energy and it makes them equal to Li-air batteries.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    35. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Archtech · · Score: 1

      btw gasoline is not safe.

      More accurately: energy is not safe. The more of it there is, and the denser it is, the more unsafe.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    36. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      There is nothing as energy dense, convenient, safe, and inexpensive as hydrocarbons.

      Energy dense: Made irrelevant by quick charging.

      Convenient: EVs are actually more convenient because you can slow charge them at night, and never have to go to a public charging station during normal use. And quick charging makes them convenient for other uses.

      Safe: Gasoline is unsafe at every level. Refineries regularly have incidents involving release of massive toxic clouds which require evacuations, and they catch fire now and again, and occasionally explode. It can be stored for a maximum of about a year before it produces varnishes which destroy fuel systems. In storage, it commonly leaks and contaminates ground water. It is highly combustible, and its vapors are combustible or even explosive, even at atmospheric pressure. Producing it requires large amounts of energy consumption, which in a fossil fuel environment itself means significant carbon release. Burning it releases sequestered carbon, driving global warming. If you get it on your hands, it can cause skin cancer. If you get it in your eyes, it can cause blindness. If you drink it, it can cause death. Burning it produces soot, mostly the most hazardous kind (PM2.5 and below.) Hell, if you spill it, you can slip on it. Petrodiesel has most of the same problems, except for the high combustibility (etc.) at atmospheric pressures, and it only produces fine soot the way we actually use it now (with DPFs and the like — diesels with none of that stuff produce more NOx and HCs, but very little PM2.5.)

      Inexpensive: Fossil fuels are only cheap if you ignore externalities. Ignorance is your forte, isn't it?

      Sure, maybe the commuter car can be replaced with electrics. That won't mean much for the other vehicles that move, on the road and off.

      Since EVs are more efficient, the only thing that makes them impractical for all the other uses is charge time, and that's being addressed. This is especially true for fleets, because they lower TCO, and they can get loans to cover the higher up-front costs.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    37. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Well, there's diesel. And we can just move indigenous people aside and grow the palm oil or other crops we need to produce 'green diesel'.

      FUD is the laziest form of argument. They proved at Sandia NREL in the 1980s that you can make diesel fuel from algae using open raceway ponds. Nature naturally colonizes them with an algae adapted to the local conditions if all you do is stand around and stare.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    38. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And when you burn gasoline in a real-world engine only about 1/5th of the energy makes it to the wheels. Bulk energy storage is only part of the story; what matters in the end is how much useful work you can do with the energy you're able to store. If you can use the energy more efficiently, you can do the same work with less.

      The "hydrocarbon advantage" isn't as large as you might think, because the relative efficiencies of gasoline vs chemical battery goes a LONG way to close the gap.
      =Smidge=

      I would like to respectfully point out that one has to look at the whole picture and not just the efficiency numbers. Namely, it is much easier to add energy quickly to a gasoline powered vehicle (fill the gas tank, takes about 5 min to refuel the entire capacity) vs. an electric vehicle (recharge the battery from low to full on the Tesla takes less than 9.5 hours (per Google)). For the average user, the quickness of re-fueling their gas power vehicle is HUGE. And please don't come back with the tired argument of "people only do this type of driving occasionally, so it's fine if they don't have it". They have it right now with their gas powered vehicle and the vast majority of people are not going to give that up, which is why most electric car purchases appear to be second vehicles for families (at least in the US).

      Thank You, Gordon

    39. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by barius · · Score: 1

      You're overlooking the fact that China and India are not yet saturated with ICE vehicles. Your statements are true only for the Western nations. The study is considering the fact that China is focused heavily on promoting electric vehicles today and they will grow into that market more quickly than ICE will. India is also pushing electric vehicles, though not as hard as China. The markets of China+India > North America, this is where the growth is happening to make 25% electric vehicles by 2040.

    40. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by blindseer · · Score: 1

      Why didn't you give the whole quote? To lie by omission, I assume.

      There is nothing as energy dense, convenient, safe, and inexpensive as hydrocarbons.

      It's this entire list of attributes that makes hydrocarbons difficult to displace in the energy market. Find something with a significantly similar balance of those benefits, and something more, then we can replace hydrocarbons.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    41. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      To illustrate the ordering of the attributes, what else?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    42. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by markjhood2003 · · Score: 2

      There is nothing as energy dense, convenient, safe, and inexpensive as hydrocarbons.

      Hydrocarbons are only inexpensive if you discount the externalities. The actual damage to the environment inherent in burning hydrocarbons is quite expensive.

    43. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The basics of chemical storage of energy means that no battery can ever be as energy dense as gasoline.

      Doesn't matter. IC engines in cars are what, 20-25% efficient? Electric engines can be over 90% efficient. That's at least a 3:1 advantage. So batteries that are 1/3 as energy dense as gasoline impart more kinetic energy.

    44. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Cealestis · · Score: 1

      Gasoline's significant per-kg advantage is diminished by it being consumed during use.

      This is an advantage in terms of how useful that energy is. The weight of the vehicle goes down as fuel is consumed, which means that energy gets you further. Since the battery watt-hrs per kg are lower, and their weight never changes significantly, you will have to move more mass with less energy. All other things being equal of course.

    45. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Define "usable energy storage". A quick look at Wikipedia tells me that Li-air batteries have 1/5 the specific energy of gasoline.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      In other words, citation needed.

      Usable energy and specific energy are different things, only 40% of the gas you burn goes into turning the wheels, the rest is lost. While electric motors are 90%+ efficient at converting energy being put into them into turning the wheels.

      Gas cars are DEAD technology. You may as well be calling for coal powered steam engine cars.

    46. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      But then, those poor people can have an income which will undermine the grandparents ability to signal virtue by fecklessly worrying about the living conditions of poor people.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
    47. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      Stand at a freeway gas station for 40 minutes. Count how many cars come through. That's how many charging stations you need. Now take that, and the one across the street. That's how much energy the power line has to deliver.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
    48. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by PPH · · Score: 1

      But we will have to build those ponds somewhere. Lots of subsistence farmers aren't doing much with their land besides eating everything they grow. We could move them to favelas and build the ponds on that land.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    49. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      To ride around on "business trips" or for shopping, yes they are. Or they have hybrids.

      Obviously mowing machines or tractors won't be EVs soon.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    50. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      But we will have to build those ponds somewhere. Lots of subsistence farmers aren't doing much with their land besides eating everything they grow. We could move them to favelas and build the ponds on that land.

      You put them in the desert, because that's where the insolation is, and the cheap land. And you pump seawater in from the coast using solar thermal (heat pipes) because there are algaes which grow just fine in salt water.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    51. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You put them in the desert

      Saudis BTFO!

    52. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Speaking of leaps in technology, see LiquidPiston. Fuel efficiency can be substantially increased, while simplifying and shrinking the engine to the point that it is even attractive for aviation applications.

    53. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The original iPhone sold 6 million units. There are less than 1.2 million EVs in the US.

    54. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by vakuona · · Score: 1

      Apple didn't sell 6 million iPhones in 2007!

    55. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by shilly · · Score: 1

      Electricity is much more ubiquitous than petroleum. Electricity is just about everywhere. Gas stations, not so much.

    56. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by shilly · · Score: 1

      That's obviously wrong. An ICE vehicle is only fuelled at a gas station. An EV can be charged in many, many more places: at home; at work; in the parking lot while you're at the movies; etc etc. This reduces the overall demand for charging stations with usage patterns similar to gas stations.

      For the avoidance of doubt, the point I'm making is not that home charging, work charging etc reduce the demand at on-the-road charging stations to zero. That's obviously not going to be the case. It's that they do reduce the demand very significantly. We won't know exactly what this looks like with large scale populations for many years, but it's clearly going to be 90+% home charging for everyone who has off-street parking, over the course of a year, based on convenience, price and typical range divided by typical distance driven per day. And a large fraction (30%? more?) of US citizens have off-street parking.

    57. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by blindseer · · Score: 1

      If you wanted to show the ordering then you would, or should, have shown the entire quote. I also made no claim that any attribute was any more important than the other, I can't type them out on top of each other and so I had to put them in a list in some order. Maybe the order is random. Maybe I saved the best for last.

      The cost is probably more important than the rest since it's pretty easy to ignore some minor inconvenience to save money, people do that all the time. Same for safety, people do less safe things because it saves money. Energy density is also easy to ignore so long as it's not too far out of the norm. People might not care if they need a 30 gallon tank to hold the same energy they used to get in a 10 gallon tank of gasoline.

      I'm pretty sure that the cost is more important than the energy density. When it comes to electric cars the cost is mostly in the vehicle, there's just a lot of cheap gas cars out there. Used cars are real cheap and there aren't that many used BEVs just yet to bring that cost down. If you want to argue total cost of ownership being lower then, while quite likely true, it requires someone willing and able to do that math. If this is proven true and it gets out to many buyers then that drives up prices on used BEVs, quite likely negating any savings.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    58. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Ok so there will still be gas then that I can use in my ICE.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    59. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      What EV on the market today can haul a boxload of plywood or 4x4s over a muddy road? Almost every trip into town will likely be carrying heavy supplies. Just where I am, doing home renos, we need heavy loads from town. I can't imagine running a farm.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    60. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      I mentioned "business trip", or "trip into town", obviously they have more than one car.
      One for farm work and one for other things.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    61. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      But if you're going into town, you use the vehicle you can do it all with while you are there. You don't go into town with the EV for a meeting, drive home, then come back with the truck and pick things up. Total waste of time.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    62. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      No, but you drive with your vehicle from your farm to your field. Drive home to the farm and pick up the EV after you have showered.

      Or if you for some reason make a weekend trip to your parents or your kids, you take the EV.

      Or for some reason if the next town is zoned into "pollution areas" and your ICE does not fit the limitations: you take the EV.

      No idea why you want to nitpick around. Most farmers have several cars. And the trend is towards EVs ...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    63. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Yeah ok.. EVs work for everyone, got it.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    64. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Part of this infrastructure is the existing stock of vehicles themselves.

      we're already seeing laws preventing the older diesels from entering citys
      I suspect that once the tipping point of 50% electric is reached all the ICE's will be outlawed in most cities.

    65. Re:A quarter will be electric cars? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Obviously not, but I know that n Germany and France farmers have a business car, and those are more and more are EVs.

      No idea why you want to argue that.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  3. Hmmmm.... by Ferretman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, I think that timeline is unlikely but sure, it's possible. Particularly if we (ever) get fusion practical.

    Ferret

    --
    Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
  4. Can anyone believe them? by Arzaboa · · Score: 4, Funny

    Clearly these folks and their ideas are funded by the oil industry.

    --
    What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly - Richard Bach

    1. Re:Can anyone believe them? by blindseer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Clearly these folks and their ideas are funded by the oil industry.

      Of course. There will be no wind and solar dominating without the oil industry. From those oil wells comes a lot of natural gas, and that natural gas will be needed as backup power for the unreliable wind and solar.

      The oil companies have nothing to fear from wind and solar. They get to "greenwash" their industry by providing the natural gas to keep those windmills spinning. Oh, people do know that those windmills need power to get up to speed to catch the wind, right? They can't get going on their own, they take electricity to get started before they produce any on their own.

      Then there is the transportation sector. There's not any airplanes without hydrocarbons. No cargo ship is going to cross an ocean without hydrocarbon fuels either. Maybe we can electrify the trains, and a few cars, but long haul trucks will still be burning diesel in 2040. If they switch to any other energy source then it's the natural gas they are talking about. Even if they are electric then it's natural gas that will produce a large portion of that electricity.

      The oil industry has nothing to fear. Except nuclear. Did they even mention nuclear? The mentioned hydrogen but hydrogen isn't an energy source, no more than electricity is an energy source. Where would this hydrogen or electricity come from? It's going to be natural gas or nuclear power.

      Maybe this was in fact funded by "big oil". By focusing on natural gas, wind, and solar, they can try to hide the benefits of nuclear power. This might work until everyone involved retires and they don't have to worry about what happens after that.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    2. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Anyone that is opposed to nuclear power isn't an environmentalist. Power storage via batteries, or physical energy storage like flywheels, water / weight, all can make wind and solar more viable, as well as improving usage of traditional power as well.

    3. Re:Can anyone believe them? by blindseer · · Score: 2

      Power storage via batteries, or physical energy storage like flywheels, water / weight, all can make wind and solar more viable, as well as improving usage of traditional power as well.

      I'll emphasize the benefits to traditional power. Those power storage technologies would work well in allowing cheap and efficient coal power to match changing demand, just as they do now for the changing supply of wind and solar.

      There is a lack of foresight in thinking that cheap storage will clear a path for wind and solar. That is required, I have no doubt, but insufficient. These technologies could just as easily be what is needed to clear a path for nuclear, "clean coal", or something else.

      Fukushima melted down because the backup batteries ran dead before the generators could be started or a replacement power line could be run. If they had a "giga-battery" in Japan like Tesla built for Australia then no one would have heard of Fukushima.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    4. Re:Can anyone believe them? by chuckugly · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Anything that allows people to justify backing away from nuclear is a friend and gift to the oil industry.

    5. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Nuclear is a goner. Its only reason of existence is offsetting the cost of nuclear weaponry.

      The nuclear lifecycle is dirty and destructive. The leftovers are dangerous for millenia. The efficiency is abysmal. The effects on environment are dire. It is a huge proliferation risk. It is a huge terrorist target. It is a lot more dangerous than all nuclear lobbyist estimates. It is FUCKING EXPENSIVE. The minimum order is unaffordably high.

      It is not only an attempt to offset the costs of nuclear weaponry, it is a short-sighted and misguided attempt.

      RIP, nuclear.

    6. Re:Can anyone believe them? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Clearly these folks and their ideas are funded by the oil industry.

      Oil isn't really a competitor to solar. Cars run on gas, power plants run on coal.

      BP might want to get rid of electric cars, but they invest in solar plants.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re:Can anyone believe them? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      They can't get going on their own, they take electricity to get started before they produce any on their own.
      ROFL

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    8. Re: Can anyone believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps youâ(TM)d care to explain how this worked, or it will remain a bullshit speak of yours.

    9. Re: Can anyone believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      When you keep the reactor steel in hot environment bombarded by high energy particles for 36 years, it tends to get very brittle. Then, when one day the M9.5 shakes come and rock the thing, they create mechanical forces in it, which break it up. The fuel rods drop onto one another, and in some places the neutron flux and the density of the fissile material are such that reaction on prompt neutrons become possible - and it happens. In a very short time, enormous amount of heat is released, which raises the temperature by thousands of kelvins. This is enough to melt the shit, cause water to decompose to hydrogen and oxygen with a little bit from the zirconium in the fuel container casings. Then the nukular wessel goes boom, like this:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      And the radioactive waste goes to California.

    10. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what it take for an ICE, too.

    11. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Freischutz · · Score: 2

      Power storage via batteries, or physical energy storage like flywheels, water / weight, all can make wind and solar more viable, as well as improving usage of traditional power as well.

      ...cheap and efficient coal power...

      Coal has been completely outcompeted cost-efficiency and emissionswise by practically everything else on the market.

    12. Re:Can anyone believe them? by someoneOtherThanMe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Oh, people do know that those windmills need power to get up to speed to catch the wind, right? They can't get going on their own, they take electricity to get started before they produce any on their own.

      Just like ICE engines?

    13. Re:Can anyone believe them? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Fukushima melted down because the backup batteries ran dead before the generators could be started or a replacement power line could be run. If they had a "giga-battery" in Japan like Tesla built for Australia then no one would have heard of Fukushima.

      No, that's not right. They did in fact have emergency cooling operating on site. They used fire engines to pump in water, for example. The problem is that due to damage to the plant the monitoring systems were not working, so they were unaware that a valve was in the wrong position and diverting water to a holding tank instead of the reactors, and no-one could get near the reactors to check them.

      So no amount of extra power supply on site would have helped at that point.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    14. Re: Can anyone believe them? by Chas · · Score: 1

      This is why you don't build nuclear reactors in fault zones like California.
      You build lots of renewables where it makes sense (solar, wind, wave) in California.
      Augment it with natural gas.
      You then net-meter.
      During the day, California pushes lots of renewable power out of state. During the evenings, they simply import power from stable power sources back into the state.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    15. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Chas · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Also incorrect. Fukushima was bad industrial engineering due to cheapassery.

      The Fukushima plant survived the initial quake.
      They were in cooldown, running off the on-site generators when the TSUNAMI hit and flooded out the generators.

      1: Had the sea wall been built to specification, there would have been no flood.
      2: Had the generators NOT been built at the lowest point in the plant, they wouldn't have been flooded out.

      But, in the real world, TEPCO cut corners to save money and the meltdown happened as it did.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    16. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Chas · · Score: 1

      Watch the section talking about running cars on CNG.
      The energy density, the amount of fuel that's carried, and the weight of the tank.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    17. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Chas · · Score: 1

      See my post above.

      Here's the link I was too stupid to include.

      DERP!

      https://youtu.be/3K43XC9J82Q

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    18. Re:Can anyone believe them? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Are you saying you don't believe that the fire engines were on-site and working? Or are you just making the point that had the cooling system not been damaged by the tsunami everything would have been fine, which is basically what I said?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    19. Re: Can anyone believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you have a choice, you don't build them. But if your occupants come and tell you "buy this shit from us", you shut up, buy it and build where you're told. For example, in Fukushima.

    20. Re:Can anyone believe them? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 0

      Of course. There will be no wind and solar dominating without the oil industry. From those oil wells comes a lot of natural gas, and that natural gas will be needed as backup power for the unreliable wind and solar.

      If only you could do that with, say, hydro or nuclear, right?

      They get to "greenwash" their industry by providing the natural gas to keep those windmills spinning. Oh, people do know that those windmills need power to get up to speed to catch the wind, right? They can't get going on their own, they take electricity to get started before they produce any on their own.

      Even if that startup issue was true, which it definitely isn't, what the fuck would be the point of using "natural gas to keep those windmills spinning"? They're generators, not fans. Are you suggesting some kind of large-scale scheme is going on that involves passing natural-gas-generated electricity as wind power?

      Then there is the transportation sector. There's not any airplanes without hydrocarbons. No cargo ship is going to cross an ocean without hydrocarbon fuels either.

      If only there was a way to synthesize hydrocarbons...

      The oil industry has nothing to fear. Except nuclear.

      Ah, so they're going to build nuclear airplanes, based on what you wrote above?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    21. Re:Can anyone believe them? by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Fukushima melted down because the backup batteries ran dead before the generators could be started or a replacement power line could be run. If they had a "giga-battery" in Japan like Tesla built for Australia then no one would have heard of Fukushima.

      Obviously you want people to believe you feel passionate about nuclear power and that it can solve a lot of problems. Nuclear power was established when people were more interested in science and technology. Much fewer people are interested in those careers now. An expanded nuclear power industry will require a lot more competent people to do a boring job. You're saying they aren't available now.

      Essentially what you are saying is "Fukushima melted down because there weren't enough competent people to run it". That despite being in one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, running the most technologically advanced power system in the country, with people dedicated to educating themselves and plenty of time to understand the facility, none of the things that could have prevented a nuclear meltdown were done. A demonstrated lack of foresight.

      There is a lack of foresight in thinking that cheap storage will clear a path for wind and solar. That is required, I have no doubt, but insufficient. These technologies could just as easily be what is needed to clear a path for nuclear, "clean coal", or something else.

      Could be, but aren't. Nuclear and coal are completely different technologies from solar and wind.

      I'll emphasize the benefits to traditional power. Those power storage technologies would work well in allowing cheap and efficient coal power to match changing demand, just as they do now for the changing supply of wind and solar.

      It would seem you are unable to explain how clearly.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    22. Re:Can anyone believe them? by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      See my post above.

      Here's the link I was too stupid to include.

      DERP!

      https://youtu.be/3K43XC9J82Q

      Your post explains the mechanism of why Fukushima exploded. The reactor design produces massive amounts of hydrogen that are supposed to be bled off with recombiners and other improvements to the facility, like a bigger sea wall. Technological improvements weren't even considered for Fukushima.

      It doesn't matter that the batteries are heavier in an electric car because a petrol engine doesn't just include a 15kg fuel tank, it contains several hundred kilograms of engine, gearbox and diff. If you want to maintain the existing vehicle fleet, then hydrogen is a way to do that.

      The video also mentions how heavy the battery is. An electric car contains one, two or four electric motors, the heavy batteries and a controller. The best thing being is that the weight of the batteries can be distributed around the bottom of the vehicle and used to tune the center of gravity of the car. As for hydrogen, what about taking the tank out of the vehicle, putting it under the ground and attaching it to fuels cells to produce current to charge an electric vehicle.

      I see what you are saying though, it's a difficult change to upgrade the technological base of an entire civilization however it would appear to be what we have to do to survive as a species. I'm optimistic that we are up to the task.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    23. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ignorance be thy name.

    24. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clearly these folks and their ideas are funded by the oil industry.

      I read this as the richer countries will be using solar and wind to feel good about themselves while the countries with cheap labor will use coal to make all our stuff as we merrily pass a point of no return that guarantees large sea level rise and disruptive climate change that causes mass displacement of people and world wars that will wreck all the solar panels until we are back to burning coal anyway.

    25. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Archtech · · Score: 1

      There is no reason to believe anything that came out of Fukushima.

      And why would we believe anything that comes out of a fact-free source such as you?

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    26. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Archtech · · Score: 1

      But, in the real world, TEPCO cut corners to save money and the meltdown happened as it did.

      That is by far the most important part of a well-informed and useful comment.

      When I was a child, I thought nuclear power was God's gift to humanity. Everything I read about it looked ideal. Reactors could be designed to fail safe. With intelligent design, some reactors could run on the "waste" from other reactors. Finally, remaining waste could be put back where the original fuel was mined.

      When I grew up, I met with the worst, most persistent and hideously ingenious obstacle to engineering excellence: human nature.

      Before WW2, Robert A Heinlein wrote a wonderfully prophetic story about nuclear power: "Blowups Happen". It took the actual technical details of nuclear power stations for granted; the real problem lay in... human nature.

      But that was where Heinlein got it badly wrong: he expected the trouble to be that those who ran and monitored nuclear power stations would rapidly have nervous breakdowns because of the huge load of responsibility and the fear that they would make some mistake. Soon, he thought, the supply of suitably qualified engineers would run out as they were all reduced to quivering jelly by the haunting fear of getting some small procedure wrong and blowing up or irradiating millions of citizens.

      What actually happened in the real world was that nuclear power stations were dangerous because of hardly credible human greed, laziness, and stupidity. One nuclear power station was found to have a bubble in its concrete containing wall big enough to park a car, because the contractor had used inferior materials and rushed the process. In another well-known case, unprotected workers were carrying open buckets full of waste in unprotected areas. And so on.

      Before nuclear power can be rendered as safe as it should be, we need a major upgrade to the Human Being Mark I. Or, more realistically, a far better system of incentives than "First to get $100 billion wins the game".

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    27. Re:Can anyone believe them? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Anything that allows people to justify backing away from nuclear is a friend and gift to the oil industry.

      So solar+wind+battery being cheaper than nuclear is a friend and gift to the oil industry? You're going to have to draw me a flowchart for that one.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    28. Re:Can anyone believe them? by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      The Fukushima plant survived the initial quake.

      Moreover, even if it didn't, that still wouldn't make nuclear inherently dangerous. After all, building a hydroelectric dam in a fault zone with people living downstream is also potentially a colossally bad idea.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    29. Re:Can anyone believe them? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Fukushima melted down because the backup batteries ran dead before the generators could be started or a replacement power line could be run.
      No, it melted down because the earthquake also destroyed the cooling pipelines inside of the plant. Or why do you think the replacement power generators did not work?

      If they had a "giga-battery" in Japan like Tesla built for Australia then no one would have heard of Fukushima.
      False, the connection to the grid was broken, too ... so a giga battery would be of no use. Unless you want to have one on the area of the plant, but see point one again.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    30. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, people do know that those windmills need power to get up to speed to catch the wind, right? They can't get going on their own, they take electricity to get started before they produce any on their own.

      This is by design. This is not a necessity; self-starting wind turbines can be built, but you do not want that, because it reduces controllability.

    31. Re:Can anyone believe them? by shilly · · Score: 1

      RAH always got the fundamentals right. The details were always interestingly wrong, too. Scudder cf Trump...

    32. Re: Can anyone believe them? by Chas · · Score: 1

      It's not like anyone would be holding a gun to their heads.

      All it takes is a bit of intelligent planning and cooperation.

      Granted, assumption of intelligence is probably a stretch too far...

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    33. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Chas · · Score: 1

      There were no "fire engines".

      There were diesel generators (which are also NOT "fire engines") on-site whose sole job was to power the coolant system.

      These were flooded out by the ensuing tsunami, due to a combination of an under-built sea wall and poor positioning of generators (essentially in "basement" areas).

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    34. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Chas · · Score: 1

      Nuclear power is only God's gift to humanity only if the people designing, building and running them don't act like idiots and/or assholes.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    35. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Chas · · Score: 1

      Exactly.

      The devil comes in the details.

      And you'll always have some dumbfuck tripping over a dollar to pick up a dime.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    36. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Chas · · Score: 1

      No. Because simply BURNING hydrogen is still less energy dense than gasoline. Worse, it needs to be kept at high pressures in a very heavy containment vessel.

      And your comparison between an electric engine and an ICE isn't cogent. Because you're comparing the equivalent of the gas tank in one vehicle to the source of motive power in the other.

      You don't run the wheels in a Tesla directly off the batteries. You hook the batteries to an electric motor.
      The batteries are the "gas tank". And the electric motor is the several hundred pounds of "engine", gearbox, etc.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    37. Re:Can anyone believe them? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Fire engines were brought in to pump water into the reactor cooling system after the on-site pumps failed. NHK did a series of documentaries explaining all this, you should watch them.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    38. Re:Can anyone believe them? by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      Coal has been completely outcompeted cost-efficiency and emissionswise by practically everything else on the market.

      Not in the Third World, unfortunately.

    39. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > 1: Had the sea wall been built to specification, there would have been no flood.

      Was built to the specification at the time. How you build for a once in 100 year event?

      > 2: Had the generators NOT been built at the lowest point in the plant, they wouldn't have been flooded ou

      Possibly

      > But, in the real world, TEPCO cut corners to save money and the meltdown happened as it did.

      Pure conjecture.

    40. Re:Can anyone believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's not any airplanes without hydrocarbons.

      Not only is that no longer true,
      Norway has already announced that they want all short-haul flights to be electric by 2040

      short-haul means shorter that 1.5 hours flight time (that's all internal norwegian flights and all flights to neighboring capitals)

  5. Fusion power when by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nuff said.

    1. Re:Fusion power when by Khyber · · Score: 1, Funny

      Solar IS fusion. We're directly harvesting the results of a fusion reaction happening 1AU away.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    2. Re:Fusion power when by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, you're not even touching fusion power. You're transforming a small part of the electromagnetic energy that is coming from the surface of the Sun. In the most inefficient ways possible. That's the limit of what you can do.

    3. Re:Fusion power when by ilguido · · Score: 4, Informative

      Solar IS fusion. We're directly harvesting the results of a fusion reaction happening 1AU away.

      Oil IS fusion. Ancient plants were directly harvesting the results of a fusion reaction happening 1AU away. :P

    4. Re:Fusion power when by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      You're transforming a small part of the electromagnetic energy that is coming from the surface of the Sun. In the most inefficient ways possible.

      20% direct conversion is hardly "the most inefficient way possible". In fact, that's only 33% less electricity output for the same primary energy input as a regular nuclear plant gets.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re:Fusion power when by bigpat · · Score: 1

      Solar IS fusion. We're directly harvesting the results of a fusion reaction happening 1AU away.

      Oil IS fusion. Ancient plants were directly harvesting the results of a fusion reaction happening 1AU away. :P

      It all averages out after a few million years right?

    6. Re:Fusion power when by Khyber · · Score: 1

      One of the most inefficient types of fusion, if we're going to get really technical about it.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  6. Earth by SETY · · Score: 0

    The earth canâ(TM)t afford for BP to be right.

  7. We're sorry. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm Tony Heyward. We're sorry.

    We're sorry.

  8. rampant capitalism by bigtreeman · · Score: 0

    Taking into account neoliberal, rampant capitalism still dominates the wage slaves and the revolution hasn't happened and the bastards haven't been put up against the wall and fecking shot.
    Oh feck, there's a black helicopter, they're coming for me.

    --
    Go well
    1. Re: rampant capitalism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We are fucking coming for you for saying feck, you fucking imbecile.

  9. Tense, tense, tense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Meanwhile, in the present, we will losing the ability to have picking the correct tense.... are losing... have losing... are lost... well I'm lost.

  10. Mars by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    My guess is we will all be living on Mars by then.

    1. Re:Mars by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

      I am going to use HOST FILES to block you

    2. Re:Mars by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Well I'll bet he won't let them come to Mars with him then!

    3. Re:Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny how you JEW racists always run from being exposed as you were here https://hardware.slashdot.org/...

    4. Re:Mars by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Funny as in "ha ha" or funny as in "SNL"?

    5. Re:Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You were asked a fair question in this exchange. Why do you avoid answering? Tell why jews ended up in deserts kicked nation to nation throughout time JEW? Is it because you are racist PIGS (yet you called Musk RACIST you JEW PIECE OF THIEVING SHIT) that say it's ok to rape non-jew 3 year olds and that all non-jews are nothing but cattle and pigs to be robbed and enslaved JEWS? Come on now JEW. I thought you JEWS are "so smart" (self-proclaimed only smart at thievery).

    6. Re:Mars by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Thats wierd. Why do you think I am Jewish?

    7. Re:Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You said you were Jewish https://slashdot.org/comments.... or are you a liar, which all jews are? Either way looks bad you running from your racist beliefs JEW https://hardware.slashdot.org/...

    8. Re:Mars by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Nah, I am an atheist, and I was lying about being Jewish (but I am thinking of joining now). Do you believe everything you read on the Internet? But if I ever see your invisible sky buddy I'll tell him you said hi.

    9. Re:Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I am Jewish" by 110010001000 https://slashdot.org/comments.... proving you a liar which all jews are.5. Schabouth Hag. 6d: "Jews may swear falsely by use of subterfuge wording."

    10. Re:Mars by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Crap. You caught me. You totally found me out. So what now? Are you going to kill me, or what?

    11. Re:Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody has to kill you. Like all lying jews like you, you kill yourself lying JEW https://hardware.slashdot.org/... so might as well get yourself another fake name on slashdot because I don't think this is going away lying jew.

    12. Re:Mars by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      So I need to get a new fake name on slashdot? Thats it? Seems pretty lame. I thought you were going to come over and kill me or something.

    13. Re:Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You probably have several like all lying jews. You killed yourself being caught lying jew https://hardware.slashdot.org/... yet stating you are a jew earlier https://slashdot.org/comments.... so now you try bury this? Everyone's going to see it I have a feeling and it will not go away for you. You did this to yourself lying jew.

    14. Re:Mars by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      This is really bad. What if everyone on Slashdot saw that that I lied multiple times? Maybe there is a way to go back and delete comments or something.

    15. Re:Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're caught lying 110010001000 but at 73 posts? Long way to go for post burial. We see you're a lying jew racist https://hardware.slashdot.org/...

    16. Re:Mars by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      It would probably be best for you to follow all my posts with the comments and links that point out my lies. That way everyone would know that I am a liar.

    17. Re:Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We could probably power half of humanity on your rancid crap you spew. Could you get yourself down to a power plant and ask them to stick a big electricity cable in your mouth and up your ass so we can test the idea out? It might not work to generate energy, but by God it would be funny to watch.

    18. Re:Mars by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      Congressman Omar. Is that you?

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
    19. Re:Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > My guess is we will all be living on Mars by then.

      A pipe dream and example of stupidity by people who cannot do basic math. We need to concentrate on more pressing terrestrial matters, not perceptions about climate change brought on my trace gases.

  11. And What About When 2525 Gets Here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If man is still around that is. I used to hear that question A LOT. Today almost never. 2525 is coming. IF MAN IS STILL AROUND!

  12. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1, Funny

    You misspelled a word in the middle.

  13. Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate. by blindseer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's not what BP said! They did not claim that renewable energy would dominate, they said renewable AND NATURAL GAS would dominate.

    Here's what has been discovered everywhere a switch to wind and solar has been tried, they are nothing more than a proxy for natural gas. When anyone claims that they will switch from coal to wind and solar what they really mean is that they will switch to wind, solar, and natural gas.

    Here's where wind and solar just become proxies for natural gas. When building a backup system for wind and solar this backup must be able to come online quickly, in a matter of minutes as the system detects the wind or sun fading. That means natural gas turbines. Well a natural gas turbine is about 30% efficient. Because of the laws of physics, and cost constraints, this is about the best we can do. If this same natural gas was burned in a combined cycle power plant, where water is boiled for steam, then they can achieve efficiencies of about 60%. These plants, again because of physics and cost, cannot come online in minutes but instead take hours. This makes them unfit as backup for wind and solar.

    So, what we have with wind and solar is burning the same amount of natural gas as if we had no wind and solar at all. This is building a bunch of worthless monuments to Gaia in hope of appeasing those worshiping this false god. In exchange we get higher energy costs and no real reductions in greenhouse gasses.

    Oh, and did they even mention nuclear power? France has relied on nuclear power for much of their electricity supply and did well with that. There's an example of how to run a nation and keep CO2 output low. To those that claim nuclear power cannot be run safely, cheaply, or meet the needs of a modern economy need only look at the radioactive wasteland that is France. Oh, it's not radioactive like Chernobyl? That might be because they knew enough to put a containment dome over their reactors, and not have them run by drunken bureaucrats. What of Fukushima? You mean where thousands were dead and missing from a once in a thousand year tsunami? And only one known death from the actual reactor? That Fukushima? Certainly that's a mess but so is a lot of things from that tsunami. I guess people forgot the damage done by the massive wave and focused on the relative non-event that was the reactor. Oh, and we don't build reactors like those at Fukushima any more, and certainly not like at Chernobyl where they have no containment dome. We build them far safer now.

    Nuclear power is safe, abundant, cheap, and reliable. There is no reduction of CO2 output without nuclear power. That's my prediction. We can deal with that reality now or we can ignore the facts and be dragged into the truth later. I don't much care what anyone says, the debate is over (to recycle a phrase) and nuclear is our future.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  14. convenient by hdyoung · · Score: 0

    Heh. Heh. Heheheh. HAHAHAHAHA. That's MIGHTY progressive of them. They're TOTALLY fine with renewables. In 2040, AFTER peak oil, AFTER they've drilled most of the easy oil out of the ground and sold it to be burned and dumped into the atmosphere. After that, they're ALL FINE with the world getting behind renewables.

    I guess at that point we can load up our electric vehicles as we mass-migrate out of the collapsed ecosystems that we've caused. Niiiice.

    1. Re:convenient by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      Considering they no longer consider themselves an "oil" company, but an "energy" company, your guess would be correct. The plan to make money on everything, not just oil.

      And they didn't cause the collapse of anything. You wasting energy typing your nonsense would be more of the cause. They just sold you the tools to do it.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
  15. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Our lord, Jesus Christ, is a Jew and what he did named him Lord of Hosts. That is an impressive resume, yes?

  16. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

    I'm confused. Are you not going to allow me to use HOST FILES or not?

  17. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jews killed Christ. They hate him because he called them devils and only time Jesus got violent was kicking the pharisee jews out of his father's house which they turned into a bizarre (gold fever is the downfall of jews along with their blatant RACISM https://hardware.slashdot.org/... ) and 110010001000 the JEW had the nerve to call Musk a racist https://slashdot.org/comments.... projecting his own JEW issues in racism.

  18. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Jews killed Christ.

    Oh, well you can't say they are all bad then. Did you ever meet that Christ guy? He was pretty annoying.

  19. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Host files? You were asked why jews are kicked out nation to nation thru time and you ran from https://hardware.slashdot.org/... when asked to explain your JEW RACIST beliefs and yet you had NERVE to call Musk a racist here https://slashdot.org/comments.... ? Come on JEWboy. You cocaine heroin snorting machines with giant snouts you cutoff in rhinoplasty oddly trying to be the goyim cattle you despise when the truth is you despise yourselves and that's the proof in and of itself, you always self-proclaim how SMART you are. I don't see it. I see you run when exposed JEW!

  20. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How is Jesus Christ, or Lord and Savior, and the unquestioned Lord of Hosts being relegated to some Slashdot links? This feels like blasphemy to me, and it is my strong belief that you need a session in the Confessional, along with a healthy dose of penance.

  21. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    You say "cocaine heroin snorting machines" like that is a bad thing. I'm not Jewish, but I think I might convert. They sound like party animals.

  22. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Annoyed you are pinned as a racist jew due to your admittedly being a jew + you run when questioned on it https://hardware.slashdot.org/... and your clearly racist beliefs is classic. Yet you had nerve to call Musk RACIST when you jews are the BIGGEST RACISTS OF ALL? Hahahaha. Droll that. Such "smart jews" (not). Dumb thieves that get kicked out of countries constantly or killed for their thievery (zyklon B or ovens, anyone?).

  23. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    You might have a point. Hmmmm, maybe I should become a Christian? Will that work?

  24. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I am Jewish" by 110010001000 https://slashdot.org/comments.... proving you a liar which all jews are.5. Schabouth Hag. 6d: "Jews may swear falsely by use of subterfuge wording."

  25. Previous forecasts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where can we get the BP year 2000 forecast for 2020? See how they did last time.

  26. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by blindseer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They have a chance from building third and fourth generation nuclear rather than letting their fear of nuclear power compel them to run second generation power plants well beyond their designed lifespan. The Fukushima nuclear power plant was built before Chernobyl. Even though they did upgrades to improve safety they still had to deal with 1960s technology and all the hazards that came with it. Build something new by learning from 60 years of mistakes and you will get something exceedingly safe.

    Japan learned from their mistakes. Or so it seems. They are finally starting to build new nuclear after this, they tried doing without nuclear and that was not sustainable. They were losing big on their economy and their air quality. They also won't be building nuclear power plants based on 60 year old designs.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  27. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    I'm not Jewish. I'm Muslim. You are crazy!

  28. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You were quoted you are a jew then say you lied https://hardware.slashdot.org/... ? You're a lying jew (which you all are) Schabouth Hag. 6d: "Jews may swear falsely by use of subterfuge wording."

  29. Same difference by SuperKendall · · Score: 0

    If your main worry is CO2 reduction, natural gas is pretty good as well - 50% less emissions than coal, so if we really all switched to renewable and natural gas that would be more than 50% reduction in CO2 - way more than any studies say we need to meet.

    As you say, nuclear is better (much, much better for all sorts of reasons). But natural gas is good enough for the purposes of greatly exceeding any desired reductions, and it can serve the needs of countries too fearful and ignorant to enjoy the benefits of nuclear power.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Same difference by blindseer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But natural gas is good enough for the purposes of greatly exceeding any desired reductions, and it can serve the needs of countries too fearful and ignorant to enjoy the benefits of nuclear power.

      Yep, pretty much.

      The only places where wind and solar can really meet any large portion of a nation's energy needs are in places where they have an abundance of hydro power for storage. Turning the peaks and valleys of wind and solar power into a steady and reliable energy supply means storage, and lots of it. There is no battery technology that can compete with hydro. Without storage like hydro that storage needs to come from something else, and that energy storage is tanks filled with natural gas.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    2. Re:Same difference by Khyber · · Score: 1

      " Without storage like hydro that storage needs to come from something else, and that energy storage is tanks filled with natural gas."

      Water towers exist. You use energy to pump water up into the tower, you extract it as you release the water for general town usage. No dams, or rivers, or lakes, or any of that space-hogging shit required.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    3. Re:Same difference by blindseer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Whatever. Go compute the material needs, and the money it would take to buy them, then get back to me on that.

      There's a reason why we dam up rivers and not just build a huge water tank in the middle of pancake flat Nebraska to store energy. That path to energy storage is a roadmap to nowhere.

      http://www.roadmaptonowhere.co...

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    4. Re:Same difference by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      way more than any studies say we need to meet.
      No idea where you got that from.
      We need 100% reduction, not a random percentage.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    5. Re:Same difference by blindseer · · Score: 2

      We need 100% reduction, not a random percentage.

      Assuming that's true then what's your plan to meet that goal? BP presumably has a lot of well paid, very intelligent, and highly educated, people to work on this report and they determined that it won't happen before 2040. I have my doubts you can come up with a better plan, and also make it happen.

      Again, assume we need to reduce our CO2 output to zero before 2040, how will we get there? Given that Europe is building a bunch of big gas pipelines from Russia it seems quite clear that they have no intention of eliminating their CO2 output in 20 years. There's a bunch of gas lines being built in North America as well. Japan is drilling for more natural gas off their shores. Just generally pick a place on this planet and you will find plans for the continued use of natural gas for at least 20 years. I'm pretty sure BP has their predictions at least half right, as well paid and intelligent these people might be they are still flawed human beings.

      It sure would be nice to get to zero CO2 output instead of a "random percentage" by 2040. It won't happen though.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    6. Re:Same difference by Chas · · Score: 2

      Yeah. Sure.

      Now compute the power output of a single large water tower.

      Now scale it up to the ACTUAL demand on the grid.

      Is every wind turbine ALSO going to have a water tower built into the base?

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    7. Re:Same difference by Chas · · Score: 1

      Okay, face it. We're NEVER going to get 100% reduction.

      N
      E
      V
      E
      R

      E
      V
      E
      R

      A combination of lower output sources and demand reduction (requiring tighter building codes for new construction and energy retrofits) can cut demand nearly in half nationwide.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    8. Re:Same difference by Zorpheus · · Score: 2

      Gas power plant construction is drastically shrinking worldwide. GE and Siemens are cutting lots of jobs because of that. The reason why coal and gas are collapsing are cheap solar cells. This summary here is just wrong on this.

  30. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    nazi kook

  31. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    You are 100% correct. So whats the next step? Want to come over?

  32. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're nothing but a liar first quoted saying you are a jew then you lied about it saying you're atheist https://hardware.slashdot.org/... ? You'll never live this down liar.

  33. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Darn, you caught me in multiple lies now. So whats going to happen next?

  34. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't think you get it. Nobody wants jews around. They're parasites kicked nation to nation thru time. Nobody wants to be around you.

  35. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    OK, then whats the next step? Are you going to do something about it?

  36. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Live the shame of being a liar jew https://hardware.slashdot.org/... which is nothing to your kind the vampire parasites of the planet with no shame for being thieves and slime which you ran from when questioned about it only to be shown a liar jew Schabouth Hag. 6d: "Jews may swear falsely by use of subterfuge wording." https://hardware.slashdot.org/...

  37. Kind of BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Coal flatlined for the same reason that natural gas is expected to dramatically increase, not really because over newable, but because they switched to a cheaper fossil fuel which also happens to 40 to 60% cleaner-burning. That's nice, but it's still about 50% is dirty is cold and it still requires a constant and complex supply network instead of just being delivered by more steady un or wind or geothermal with the least amount of supplemental natural gas.

    Instead it's more like the US started destroying the planet by hydrofracking shale and now oil and gas are even cheaper than ever.

    it also seems a little bit flawed to say that the US dominance in the oil Market is waning when they all of a sudden have all the shale oil and production capacity.

    The US might bye relative position be a smaller market for oil, but it's still going to be supplying quite a lot of oil and natural gas and refining quite a lot of oil.

    They have so much natural gas and limited infrastructure to distribute it they're trying to liquefy it and distributed that way!

    This isn't because they plan to have so much natural gas is because of the nature of how shall oil also produces natural gas.

    1. Re: Kind of BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is like Cardi B and Warren Buffet had a love child. You are rich and stupid.

    2. Re:Kind of BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Instead it's more like the US started destroying the planet by hydrofracking shale and now oil and gas are even cheaper than ever.
       
      Wow. You think this is a USian problem? LOL. Fucking retard.

  38. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    OK, I'll be living my life in shame from now on. Thanks for letting me know.

  39. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Better than being caught a lying jew lying again https://hardware.slashdot.org/... like 110010001000 is quoted admitting he is a jew https://hardware.slashdot.org/... yet trying to lie his way out like the typical jew crooked liar he is per their talmud beliefs of Schabouth Hag. 6d: "Jews may swear falsely by use of subterfuge wording."

  40. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Damage is done and you did it to yourself lying JEW https://hardware.slashdot.org/... saying you're no jew but quoted saying you are https://hardware.slashdot.org/...

  41. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Did I mention I was gay too?

  42. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Be ashamed of your racist psychotic jew beliefs https://hardware.slashdot.org/... which you clearly are after you called Musk a racist https://slashdot.org/comments.... but I'd be ashamed of being flushed out as a liar like you were most of all https://hardware.slashdot.org/...

  43. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    I totally am. How could I think that Musk was a racist? And I lied multiple times. If I wasn't Jewish I would ask Jesus to forgive me.

  44. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't think you can live this one down being caught a liar publicly like you have 11001000100 because nobody likes liars like you.

  45. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    That's true. It's going to be really bad if people on Slashdot don't like me. Hopefully they won't find out I lied multiple times. What are the chances they are going to find out though?

  46. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Khyber · · Score: 1

    "Here's what has been discovered everywhere a switch to wind and solar has been tried, they are nothing more than a proxy for natural gas."

    Not a fucking natural gas pipepline around me for blocks. Pure personal solar here, and a large solar plant across from the park down the street powering the whole neighborhood. Learn to properly spec your system instead of listening to idiot salesmen.

    Get with the times. Modern solar is fairly efficient now days.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  47. Re: Wrong title. Renewable energy will not domina by Evtim · · Score: 2

    Spot on.
    The industry is switching to gas.
    All heavy transport, particularly ships and trucks.
    Still, I managed to provoke embarrassed silence on the last conference by noting that the incomplete burning will emit methane ( so-called methane slip which however small when scaled to all heavy transport.... ) and how about all those terrible cows farting.....
    Ooops!

  48. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    What do you guys do when the sun goes down? Battery storage?

  49. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Considering most here browse below default moderation threshold of 0 we see you try to post bury your lie https://hardware.slashdot.org/... you're SOL considering this is only 75 posts now and it takes way over 110 at least to post burial hide your lies you are caught in. You're pitiful and stupid jew.

  50. Re: Wrong title. Renewable energy will not domin by Evtim · · Score: 1

    Conference of energy producers, I forgot to add. Info first hand. That's my job these days...

  51. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Thats not good. You should probably follow me around the site and tell everyone about my lies. That way I can feel shame all the time.

  52. Re: Wrong title. Renewable energy will not domina by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Wow, you must have been the only person at the conference that realized that burning natgas "emits methane". What a genius. I'm sure that is why there was embarrassed silence.

  53. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    France is starting to phase out their nuclear power plants because they are expensive and evaporating their rivers. Big coal, nuclear, etc. plants need a place to dump the heat they generate, which typically means they put it in a river or in the ocean. Regardless of CO2, they are literally warming the globe.

    It is true that natural gas and renewables have so far been a winning combination. But you are lying about renewables being useless. They do not dump heat into rivers and oceans and they require no digging or drilling in the ground or much maintenance once up and running. Larger, smarter, grids mean the electricity, wherever it is generated, can be used where it is needed. This is already happening in places like Germany. But it does require an investment into that grid with new cables and monitoring equipment. As batteries come down in price and increase in capacity, they will slowly replace all of those natural gas plants and the grid can be 100% renewable. This is already happening to a limited degree where it makes sense, such as island nations.

  54. BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If people get their calculators out and work our total load needed versus total production, even projected renewables would fall short of what is needed. We are putting ourselves back in the stone age. Blackouts, unreliable power at high cost.

    1. Re:BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not sure what the percentage is of total energy consumption for personal dwellings, that is a house or apartment.
      but if everybody with a dwelling would just produce 50% of what they use via solar that would be half ...
      i suppose that is a lot?
      -
      problem is that the "spirit" that organizes "a climate conference" is the same spirit required to bring a 500 MW gas turbine online, to organize a (global) distribution for oil, to .. build massive things. they don't much care for ... little things. it's using a hammer when a tiny screw driver is needed.
      for solar (i am excluding wind turbines, because it again is in the "massive scale spirit") to work, the government needs to be willing to be flooded with documentation, because assuming every house would jump on the bandwagon, because it would mean that every house that needed a permit to be erected again would need submit a massive amount of paperwork (for solar).
      if a ton (1'000kg) of paper in form of 80g A4 paper would suffice to document and certify a 500 MW nuclear reactor, the same amount of power in form of solar would require 20 times more (20 tons, 20'000 kg of A4@80g) documentation and certification.
      considering that a "sub department" is created by whatever government sub entity to deal with the new nuclear reactor, the push for solar would realistically require a massive paper handing scaling to actually honestly be able to deal with solar. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
      the government is not equip for this. thus "climate change" conferences are just a "feeling blank" and "meme word" generators that fail for lake of a tiny screw driver ...

  55. Einstein's definition of insanity by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results"

    33 "renewable" companies that had federal funds gifted to them by the Obama administration and everyone is either in receivership(*) or near finacial collapse.

    What you are seeing with this is that the oil companies just decided to ride the gravy train. T

            Evergreen Solar ($25 million)*
            SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
            Solyndra ($535 million)*
            Beacon Power ($43 million)*
            Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)*
            SunPower ($1.2 billion)
            First Solar ($1.46 billion)
            Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
            EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
            Amonix ($5.9 million)
            Fisker Automotive ($529 million)
            Abound Solar ($400 million)*
            A123 Systems ($279 million)*
            Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($700,981)*
            Johnson Controls ($299 million)
            Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
            ECOtality ($126.2 million)
            Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
            Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
            Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
            Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
            Range Fuels ($80 million)*
            Thompson River Power ($6.5 million)*
            Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
            Azure Dynamics ($5.4 million)*
            GreenVolts ($500,000)
            Vestas ($50 million)
            LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($151 million)
            Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
            Navistar ($39 million)
            Satcon ($3 million)*
            Konarka Technologies Inc. ($20 million)*
            Mascoma Corp. ($100 million)

    1. Re:Einstein's definition of insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a good job you don't work for a PE house. You would shit yourself at the failure rate for their investments.

    2. Re:Einstein's definition of insanity by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      What is your list supposed to prove? That there's a healthy competitive environment in the energy market? What's so bad about that?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:Einstein's definition of insanity by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      What is your list supposed to prove? That there's a healthy competitive environment in the energy market? What's so bad about that?

      Well with regard to you that some people can have things spoon fed them and still deny anything they see and for bonus points the same people who one second will decry the oil companies as the root of all evil in the world, will volte face faster than a Prussian drill team and sing their praises.

      And yes there is a healthy competition in the"Energy Market" which is why all the above are dead or nearly dead even with using federal funding.

    4. Re:Einstein's definition of insanity by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Those numbers are rounding errors compared to the BILLIONS the oil and coal industry extract from the taxpayer in subsidies for proposing Nuclear power plants. Examine section 625-635 of the 2005 US Energy Policy Act and you will see that everything you have put there is covered by the subsidies given for simply breaking ground on a single reactor.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    5. Re:Einstein's definition of insanity by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      These are additions on top tax breaks and mandate and still it doesn't go. But it does make a very nice way to put tax money into your relatives and donor pockets.

    6. Re:Einstein's definition of insanity by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      that some people can have things spoon fed them and still deny anything they see

      Anything they see, such as the annual PV installations exceeding 100 GW and STILL increasing exponentially? That alone defeats your cherry-picked list of small inconsequential companies, but as you say, even spoon-feeding you with information won't make you see the light.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  56. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    If you don't have enough HOST FILES I can give you one of mine.
    I actually have a few very hostile spare HOST FILES.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  57. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 0

    Well a natural gas turbine is about 30% efficient.
    ROFL

    Hey, perhaps you want to re-read my old comments to you. I gave you some hints. Often enough. and the main hint is: read a damn book about energy production/distribution.

    if a gas turbine was only 30% efficient, why would anyone buy one?

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  58. Wind stops, its night time by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    Thats when the world will need hydro, nuclear, gas, coal.
    Gas that will have to be extracted, moved around and turned into energy.
    Large production lines will expect a low cost, 24/7 power supply that will not change prices.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re:Wind stops, its night time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      We could do with hydro and nuclear.
      Gas could serve as a stop gap until we've gone hydro and nuclear.
      Coal is already redundant.

  59. Stop burning stuff, get over the Nuclear Boogeyman by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2

    I maintain that 'renewables' won't be enough. We need nuclear.
    I've heard all the arguments and complaints and they don't move me. We need nuclear, and that's that.

  60. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    Re "if a gas turbine was only 30% efficient, why would anyone buy one?"
    So the cost of power is low at night and the lights stay on.
    Advance productive nations that have jobs and that export products need low cost 24/7 power in the real world.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  61. Re: Sorry, We're sorrry, sorrrrrry, Soohhhrrrry? S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One of these days a rollercoaster designer is going to say feck it and design a transportaion system that uses a combo of gravity (sorry to the moron below who thinks petroleum is the most energy dense fuel option. Gezus do they not teach actual physics to these morons anymore) and electricity. If we can have wireless phone charging and hills are the next major obstacle, intelligence will win out where it has failed us in the past. It always has.

  62. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by blindseer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    if a gas turbine was only 30% efficient, why would anyone buy one?

    I don't know, how about you ask the people buying them? Also, tell me how efficient they are if you dispute the 30% efficiency. Oh, and provide a citation, like this one:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    When the gas turbine is used solely for shaft power, its thermal efficiency is about 30%

    Then you can tell me again on how solar power is "reliable" while natural gas is "dispatchable". Your answer lies in those definitions.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  63. Solar, Wind and Geothermal by MrKaos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've got bad news, coal and nuclear are inadequate power sources because of the carbon or radio-isotope externalities they produce. We can't continue to rely on them because they are a threat to our species due to carbon held heat or radio-isotopes ruining our genome. Coal threatens the planet, nuclear threatens our species DNA, all species DNA come to think of it.

    However we can gradually phase them out with a steady increase in Solar PV, Solar Thermal, Wind, Geothermal. The good thing about this is it means a massive jobs growth all around the world as we build a 21st century infrastructure based on all the lessons we learned from those two energy industries.

    In the US alone there is terawatts of wind power available even before looking to solar PV or solar thermal. Even better news is that solar thermal is the ideal technology for baseload power. We've got a great future with these technologies. Whilst the transition won't be painless the knowledge that we are looking after future generations whilst taking responsibility for the mess previous generations have left us will mean our existence at this point in time has had a positive effect on those who come after us.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    1. Re:Solar, Wind and Geothermal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you are not aware of the fact that none of the energy sources you mention are dispatchable ...
      you probably don't know what that is.

    2. Re:Solar, Wind and Geothermal by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Right now, 2% of the world's energy is supplied by renewables; note that in much of the US at least, hydro is NOT considered renewable. So we get 2% of our energy from renewables today - and we're to change that to 50% or more, in just 20 years? yeah - I have a hard time believing that...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    3. Re:Solar, Wind and Geothermal by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      Consider that if a power plant makes a solar panel, that panel will work for 20 years. Now, how many panels will be produced over the next 20 years?

      Also, consider the fact that the panels have just recently reached the break even point where payoff, without government subsidies, can be expected in a reasonable time. This means that it would be reasonable for someone flush with cash to invest in the panels to save on future costs.

      Now consider that the panels are still near the top of the natural market cycle of cost decline. Barring some radical discovery that causes the bottom to drop out, panel costs are predicted to show a steady decline in costs from natural market tendencies. If we're already below the break even point, more and more people will find it makes sense to invest now to stop paying the power company vampire. Then it will make sense to buy an electric car on the next purchase for commuting purposes (to use up that extra "free" energy).

      I'm not a liberal. AOC is a nutcase and here GND is idiocy. But, I'm more of a tightwad than a fool. As the prices continue to drop, people will rush to solar as quick as they switched to smartphones.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
    4. Re:Solar, Wind and Geothermal by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      hydro is NOT considered renewable
      Hydro is renewable.
      However: pumped storage hydro power is not.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    5. Re:Solar, Wind and Geothermal by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      you are not aware of the fact that none of the energy sources you mention are dispatchable ... you probably don't know what that is.

      Solar thermal is. Coal and Nuclear are not.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    6. Re:Solar, Wind and Geothermal by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Apart from shotgun's excellent response to your post I'll point out that current nuclear represent around 3% of global energy. One hundred times more solar and wind is more realistic than ten times more nuclear.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    7. Re:Solar, Wind and Geothermal by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      In many jurisdictions in the US, including California, hydro is not considered renewable.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    8. Re:Solar, Wind and Geothermal by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      A hydro plant in a river or a dam in a valley is renewable.
      Why you or the US see it different is beyond me :D

      Perhaps some dams are at places where rain/snow/water is not as predictable as it "should be" ...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  64. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by idji · · Score: 1

    You didn't mentioned pumped hydro, which places like South Australia are doing in non-mountainous arid regions (not like the Austrian Alps) so that they can completely wean themselves off local gas and imported brown(!) coal electricity from Victoria.
    https://www.theguardian.com/au...
    https://www.tiltrenewables.com...
    https://www.corrs.com.au/think...
    Look how they already got rid of local coal completely 3 years ago, and now have 38% wind, and are increasing exports. https://opennem.org.au/#/regio... (click ALL)

  65. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jews killed Christ. They hate him because he called them devils and only time Jesus got violent was kicking the pharisee jews out of his father's house which they turned into a bizarre (gold fever is the downfall of jews along with their blatant RACISM https://hardware.slashdot.org/... ) and 110010001000 the JEW had the nerve to call Musk a racist https://slashdot.org/comments.... projecting his own JEW issues in racism.

    Christ was a Jew you f**ing troll.

  66. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Freischutz · · Score: 2

    if a gas turbine was only 30% efficient, why would anyone buy one?

    I don't know, how about you ask the people buying them? Also, tell me how efficient they are if you dispute the 30% efficiency. Oh, and provide a citation, like this one:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    When the gas turbine is used solely for shaft power, its thermal efficiency is about 30%

    Then you can tell me again on how solar power is "reliable" while natural gas is "dispatchable". Your answer lies in those definitions.

    Natural gas turbines have a max realistic efficiency of about 60%. The main problem with them from a business point of view is firstly the prospect of one day having to actually pay for the emissions, which most of the industry currently does not have to do, and secondly the fluctuations in fuel prices. With wind and solar you don't have those problems. The business case becomes much more predictable and less risky. Granted, you need grid storage for them but for large segments of the market solar packaged sell with a battery storage package that will give you anywhere from one to three or four days of power and the grid storage problem is solvable. Generally the extraction costs of gas are on a general upward trend and there is an ever looming possibility of gas turbine operators having to pay for their carbon emissions while Wind and Solar don't have any extraction costs and produce hardly any carbon footprint. The argument you are having is basically whether film cameras (gas/coal/oil) are the future or digital camera (wind/solar/grid storage) are the future my money is on the latter. If fusion turns out to be possible that's gravy.

  67. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually once renewables exceed about 20% of the mix the requirement for backup starts to fall. Geographic distribution and high levels of predictability, combined with a distributed nature that means a single failure only takes out tens of megawatts instead of a gigawatt or two all make renewables more reliable, not less.

    Battery tech is going to make peaking plants unprofitable in the next decade or two max. Gas and other types of peak coverage can't react fast enough to compete with batteries. Environmental considerations don't even come into it. Best of all it allows individual energy users to buy their own batteries and avoid those high peak rates completely. Industrial users will level out their consumption, domestic users will charge up when it's cheapest and their solar isn't providing enough during the day.

    Any plan based on the old economics of base load and peak demand is going to fail. The nature of the grid and energy consumption is changing.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  68. Say it with me: by Chas · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Nu-cle-ar
    Pow-er

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
    1. Re:Say it with me: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Id-i-ot
      Left-ists

    2. Re:Say it with me: by Chas · · Score: 1

      Ow!

      Touché!

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
  69. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Chas · · Score: 1

    Okay, now tell us how we're going to do this in the flat, central belt of the US.

    Is every wind turbine ALSO going to house a giant water reservoir?

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  70. Nice Timeline... by tarks · · Score: 1

    given that by The Paris Agreement we need to be carbon neutral world wide at the latest by 2040. As we probably cannot eradicate peat/coal burning everywhere in the world by that date, the industrialized countries need to be carbon neutral ten years earlier and decidedly carbon negative by 2040. Having any private transport based on fossil fuels in 2040 in the west seems to be totally out of question.

  71. Re:Explain this to us all JEW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's c6gunner.

  72. so we are doomed? by sad_ · · Score: 1

    coal use will flatline and not decrease, oil consumption will increase 50%? all by 2030!
    i thought the plan was to make sure the use of all those energy sources would have been decreased dramatically by then, or the earth is lost.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  73. Convienence by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    EVs are not convienent. Yes they are if you don't go far from home. But I don't want to be tethered to my home, ever.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:Convienence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      EVs are not convienent. Yes they are if you don't go far from home. But I don't want to be tethered to my home, ever.

      ICEs are not convenient. Yes they are if you don't go far from a gas station. But I don't want to be tethered to a gas station, ever.

      (You can charge EVs at places other than home. Just for day-to-day use, charging at home or work is more convenient for most people. And people that have neither option are probably not buying EVs.)

    2. Re:Convienence by DaveSewhuk · · Score: 1

      With my 2014 Volt, I filled up 33 times in 4.5 years for around 60000 miles of driving for a lifetime 271 MPG. Only time I use gas was long trips, very cold weather or forgetting to plug in when I get home. My new 2019 Volt has a longer range, doesn't start the gas motor in cold weather so I will fill up less often. I charge at work and home, and usually leave with a whole tank of electrons. GM has studies that show most round trips are under 30 miles. For 100 mile or so EV's you most likely don't need to charge every night. For long trips, use the gas savings to rent a dino-burner if you have pure EV. For Volt type cars with gas range extending, you just drive like a dino-car for those long trips. See: https://greencarjournal.com/pe...

  74. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Japan isn't building new nuclear plants. The only "new" one is a third reactor at Shimane, which was scheduled to go online in 2011 but was delayed. Not only due to Fukushima, but due to a new previously unknown fault line being discovered in the area and additional safety upgrades being required.

    No new designs are being build, and there are no serious plans for any. Japan's nuclear industry is going bust, e.g. Westinghouse, as global demand for their products falls. The industry is trying to pivot away to renewables but they were late to the game and China is on their doorstep.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  75. Does not fix the problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So today we are burning fossil fuels FF/Total > 50%, and by 2040 we can have FF/Total 50% so they are no longer the main source. Congratulations, you can stop worrying now.

    BUT -- while this makes good headlines, this is absolutely meaningless regarding the actual amount of FF being burned (and the corresponding CO2 emissions).

    You can easily have a relative decrease of FF/Total while having a huge and dangerous increase in FF measured in absolute terms.

  76. Canada by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    In Canada, we don't have enough gas stations in a lot of places. Who can afford a second car or rental to take you everywhere you need to go when you have already sunk $30K+ on an EV??

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:Canada by hipp5 · · Score: 1

      In Canada, we don't have enough gas stations in a lot of places. Who can afford a second car or rental to take you everywhere you need to go when you have already sunk $30K+ on an EV??

      But we do have a stable power grid pretty much everywhere. And it's rapidly getting to the point where you don't need a rental or second car as a backup to your EV. The 2020 EV models have enough range that I would probably need a rental only once a year. I'd say my Volvo has about 4 years of life left in it. You can bet I'll be getting a electric when it gives up the ghost.

    2. Re:Canada by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I've already spend my money for the rental ON the EV. That's all I'm saying.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    3. Re:Canada by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      Good news! The TCO of electric vehicles is already lower than ICE vehicles and will continue to fall as cheaper electric models are introduced and battery technology matures. So not having enough gas stations isn't going to matter for very much longer.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    4. Re:Canada by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Ok well when people in remote areas start buying them you may have a point. For Canada in the winter, running out of battey power can mean death. And cold saps battery energy by 40% before you turn on the heaters.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    5. Re:Canada by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      And running out of gas can mean death. I assume you plan well for any moderately length trips in the winter when fucking that up means you might die, right? Not sure how the fuel in the car changes that. You just might need to plan a bit better with the current generation of batteries, but you're going to be planning anyway.

      Back to your previous comment:

      In Canada, we don't have enough gas stations in a lot of places.

      But you do have electricity in a lot more places. That means while you might need to charge the electric car more than fill up the gas car, you'll have more places to do it. In an emergency, you can pull into any place with the lights on and ask them if you can grab some charge. You can't do that with a gas car.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    6. Re:Canada by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Right.. just drive up to anyone's house and ask to plug in for a few hours. That's going to work.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    7. Re:Canada by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      In an emergency, it would likely work around here. I thought Canadians were supposed to be friendly?

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    8. Re:Canada by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      We are, but we're too polite to be an imposition for hours.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  77. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    especially at night

  78. Sure, let's trust BP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "At the same time, energy demand will continue to grow in the transportation sector, but that growth will slow sharply as vehicles become more efficient and more consumers opt for electric cars."

        Hm. OK, so you folks that'll be making that happen must have some sort of idiotic "free energy" herbs or something, yes?

        When energy demand growth slows sharply with more electric cars and more efficiency. Sorry BP, I think yer full of crap, as always, but nevertheless, despite your sterling reputation as a huge corporate bully/pirate/thief/rectum, I think you missed a variable in the equations that brought you to this dubious conclusion.

          How about showing your work, eh?

  79. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1, Insightful

    and secondly the fluctuations in fuel prices

    Not just fluctuations. Americans are blissfully unaware how fucking expensive natural gas is in most parts of the world. Only complete idiots would regularly burn it for electricity.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  80. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Is every wind turbine ALSO going to house a giant water reservoir?

    There actually was a suggestion for something like that.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  81. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 0

    Here's where wind and solar just become proxies for natural gas. When building a backup system for wind and solar this backup must be able to come online quickly, in a matter of minutes as the system detects the wind or sun fading. That means natural gas turbines. Well a natural gas turbine is about 30% efficient. Because of the laws of physics, and cost constraints, this is about the best we can do. If this same natural gas was burned in a combined cycle power plant, where water is boiled for steam, then they can achieve efficiencies of about 60%. These plants, again because of physics and cost, cannot come online in minutes but instead take hours. This makes them unfit as backup for wind and solar.

    This is utter bullshit reasoning because not only don't we have to "detect the wind or sun fading" since we have predictive models, we also have geographically dispersed generation. The changes in the aggregate output literally take hours and an overwhelming fraction of them (90%+) is accounted for by those models, so why would it be handled mostly by fast-acting sources? That's completely irrational! Who upvotes this garbage?

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  82. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are blissfully unaware that "natural gas" is nearly worthless and is often literally just burned for no use at all. What makes natural gas expensive is transportation.

    Dirt is also worthless but costs a lot to have delivered to specific places. Getting a ton of dirt deliver in to a NYC apartment would cost a fortune but the dirt is still worthless. You wouldn't criticize people for "wasting dirt" etc.

    In America we have two options: burn the natural gas as it leaves the ground because it is worthless to us or burn it in a natural gas power plant. If we transported it to "you" so you can use it "better" the cost of transport would be more than it is worth to you (or there is an opportunity for an oil business to make money... call them up).

  83. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >Westinghouse

    Any why did this company go bankrupt. Lawsuits. Lots and lots of lawsuits that prevented them from building!

    >Nuclear is expensive!
    >Look at these companies that were sued into oblivion that proves my point

    What is the cost of nuclear without those lawsuits?

  84. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    prospect of one day having to actually pay for the emissions

    Cheap energy helps poor people. What you and others that parrot this line is that poor people will have to pay for daring to increase their standard of living.

    A shame. Why do you hate poor ppl.

  85. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    You are blissfully unaware that "natural gas" is nearly worthless and is often literally just burned for no use at all. What makes natural gas expensive is transportation.

    Distinction without a difference.

  86. Gas only dominates increase demand by tomhath · · Score: 1

    That's not what BP said! They did not claim that renewable energy would dominate, they said renewable AND NATURAL GAS would dominate.

    The CNBC article is poorly written. If you go directly to the BP Energy Outlook paper it appears to predict that renewables will account for over half of the increased energy demand - but not total power (as least that's how I read it).

  87. No such thing as renewablea by rossdee · · Score: 1

    Energy derived from the sun is not renewable. The sun will run out of hydron in a couple billiom years.

    The correct term is Non-Carbon-Emittting or NCE
    which also includes nuvlear fission and geothermal (which is derived from nuclear fission, at the core)
    We won't be able to totally replace fossil fuels unless we develop more of the latter two sources, or get local fusion (intead of relying on the reactor that is 93 million miles away.

    Or reduce the worlds population to a few hundred million.

    1. Re:No such thing as renewablea by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Or reduce the worlds population to a few hundred million.
      That is pointless. As the rest will still produce CO2 ... sigh how stupid are people in our days.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    2. Re:No such thing as renewablea by blindseer · · Score: 1

      and geothermal (which is derived from nuclear fission, at the core)

      No, it's not from fission. Well, there is some minute fraction that is fission but the bulk of the heat is from radioactive decay.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  88. Make that "Renewables dominate increase..." by tomhath · · Score: 1

    Typo in subject.

  89. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Technically, ROMANS killed Christ. They crucified him and finished the job with a spear to the ribs.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  90. My truck is by PPH · · Score: 1

    And I have the sticker to prove it.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  91. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    ...how fucking expensive natural gas is in most parts of the world.

    What makes natural gas expensive is transportation.

    No shit, Sherlock! :-p What else could it be, gas fairies?

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  92. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Energy that costs money to clean up in the future is not cheap. Just like any other kind of predatory lending.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  93. It's an oil company forecast, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so take it for what it is. The day that renewable overtake fossil fuel will come earlier than 2040. I predict it will be more like 2030 than in 2040.

  94. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    What is the cost of nuclear without those lawsuits?

    Fascism, because you can't have that nuclear without those lawsuits without denying access to the courts.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  95. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by bobs666 · · Score: 1

    Thumbs up! The Old solid high-pressure water-cooled Nuclear Reactors are simply unsafe. They must be replaced with fail-safe low-pressure Thorium reactors. The liquid state of the reactants means the Thorium reactors can use chemistry to allows burning all of the reaction products and separate out the out put products that have a short half life and are completely safe in a yer or two. So there is nothing that needs to be stored forever in the ground.

  96. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Technically, ROMANS killed Christ. They crucified him and finished the job with a spear to the ribs.

    Technically, the existence of Christ is still a fable, since the closest reports of his existence are literally thirdhand hearsay, and all the artifacts which were supposed to prove it which have been subjected to scientific inquiry have turned out to be fakes.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  97. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seems you offer false choices and zero sum thinking.

    Renewables aren't to be easy - that's for sure. A very good physicist collected, collated and crunched some numbers and made them available in book form and for free at:
    Sustainable Energy – without the hot air
    http://withouthotair.com/

    Spectrum suggests that thermal solar plants are ideal backup for wind and PV solar:
    https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/solar/china-stumbles-on-path-to-solar-thermal-supremacy

    You miss the main way to avoid hydrocarbon use is to avoid the energy use in the first place such as by using energy efficiency measures. Bye bye pickup truck and poorly insulated home.

    I believe modern Siemens combined cycle plants can get going in an hour. There may be consequences for the plant lifecycle and it's probably not desirable to keep doing that. Combined with other peaking storage such as battery, pump storage the it may only be necessary to use gas for sustained shortages.

    Current generation nuclear reactors require hundreds of tons of mildly enriched uranium. Even if we had a standard, reliable, easy to build reactor now we'd have difficulty building enough. I'm all for building what we can btw

  98. Re:Stop burning stuff, get over the Nuclear Boogey by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    I maintain that 'renewables' won't be enough. We need nuclear.

    Show your math.

    I've heard all the arguments and complaints and they don't move me.

    And your FUD doesn't move me. Show your math.

    We need nuclear, and that's that.

    Show your math.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  99. Damn Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did you know that in the dark ages, there were these things called manual transmissions, where a person controlled the transmission instead of a computer. In those dark days, you could "push start" a vehicle by, well, pushing it. No battery needed to start the car or keep it running. In fact, Sprint Car class racecars don't have a transmission or an electrical system, and get around the track quite adequately without it.

    1. Re:Damn Millenials by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Did you know that in the dark ages, there were these things called manual transmissions, where a person controlled the transmission instead of a computer.

      Did you know that until the 80s, automatic transmissions didn't have computers? And that Mercedes diesels kept coming with mechanical fuel injection and vacuum/cable-controlled transmissions until 1991? And that you can pull-start such vehicles behind another vehicle, with a tow strap?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  100. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here's what has been discovered everywhere a switch to wind and solar has been tried, they are nothing more than a proxy for natural gas. When anyone claims that they will switch from coal to wind and solar what they really mean is that they will switch to wind, solar, and natural gas.

    Give it time. Battery prices keep going down. I think that flow batteries are particularly well-suited for grid storage, they just need to become price competitive with lithium ion batteries. But even lithium ion plus renewables are becoming competitive with natural gas.

    A Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinoff
    hopes to create battery storage technology capable of replacing fossil fuel-based power as the primary source of baseload electricity delivery across the grid. By doing this 50% of present-level carbon emissions generated by U.S. power generating utilities can disappear.
    Ted Wiley, Harvard Business School, and a founding member of the company, Baseload Renewables, states, “You can currently put batteries next to solar and wind power and create an output for four hours, but we want to develop a battery to shape renewables into a 24-hour block.”

    The initial goal has focused on decreasing the cost of energy storage by a factor of five. To do this the company is looking at sulfur which costs less than any other element when used to store electrons. Abundant and ten times more energy dense than lithium-ion, developing sulfur-based battery technology would be a global game changer.

    What Baseload Renewables is out to invent is a flow battery using a polysulfide solution containing chains of sulfur atoms. In the MIT patent application that inspired the spinoff, the technology is described as an air-breathing aqueous sulfur rechargeable system.

    When Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) built a 20 megawatt/80 megawatt-hour (MWh) energy storage system in Southern California early last year, it was a critical turning point for the industry. Not only was energy storage going to be the supplier power at peak times for the grid, replacing off-line natural gas facilities, but the project was deployed in a matter of months...
    Energy storage is already starting to take some of the value formerly reserved for natural gas peaker plants, and GTM Research senior advisor Shayle Kann said recently that as energy storage systems become even more economical, he "can't see why we should build a gas peaker after 2025."

    Portland General Electric (PGE) is planning to develop a first-of-its-kind renewable energy facility that would combine utility-scale wind, solar and energy storage. Once completed, PGE will be able to supply about 50% of its customers' electricity needs with emissions-free generation, the company said on Tuesday.
    The project, known as Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility, will combine 300 MW of wind generation, 50 MW of solar and 30 MW of battery storage. It will come online in stages beginning with wind generation in 2020.

  101. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by barius · · Score: 1

    No, you don't need gas plants that can come online in minutes but you do need base-load gas plants. Co-Gen plants that get that fabled 60% efficiency but require a longer start up are in fact feasible as base-load today because of Tesla's battery systems, like the one they've installed in Australia. The battery back-up doesn't provide base-load, it simply fills in the gap while the efficient Co-Gen plant spins up.

  102. Re:Stop burning stuff, get over the Nuclear Boogey by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    "show your math"
    Why? Any 'math' either side of the issue presents is based on theories and statistics that may or may not represent the future.
    The real problem is sociological more than it is anything else:
    o Unless there is a mass die-back of our species, there will always be more humans, not fewer
    o People are never going to use less energy, they're only ever going to use more energy
    All the solar panels and wind generators you can build, sooner or later, won't cover it all.
    Meanwhile you're covering up arable land with solar panels, instead of growing food for the ever-burgeoning ranks of humans.
    Then there's the NIMBYs. Bad enough fighting them to build nuclear power plants for the comparatively small acreage they need, let alone the massive amount required for solar installations. They'll also find some complaint about the inevitable energy storage facilities needed to make 'renewables' practical.

    Yell and scream and insult me all you want, this is my position on the subject, and I see no reason to change it.

  103. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    The obvious problem with thermal solar is the same as with concentrating photovoltaics: it's useful in a vastly smaller subset of locations than PV solar.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  104. Re:Stop burning stuff, get over the Nuclear Boogey by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Why? Any 'math' either side of the issue presents is based on theories and statistics that may or may not represent the future.

    True; actual development has show us that nuclear has a negative learning curve, renewables have positive learning curve, and the growth is constantly underestimated. So, yes, the future seems to be rather clear, save for some kind of unpredictable revolution that can't be counted on.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  105. Math disagrees by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not sure what the confusion is. The Math involved states this can't be achieved.

    I'll try to make this simple for the Sheeple:
    It takes non-renewable energy to make renewable energy sources, and the inputs to create the product are more than the product will produce in a 10 year period. It also takes non-renewable energy to maintain renewable energy sources and to end-of-life those resources at some point in the future.

    When The Adults consider ALL of the energy inputs to make wind and solar, it is not possible to switch over without a massive investment in burning oil.

    There is also the issue of 'rare-earth minerals', which at the current time some are running low and all have a very high non-renewable energy input to extract.

  106. Fake news! Coal is king! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone who has even the remotest of clues knows it will be coal. #MAGA

  107. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Shotgun · · Score: 1

    So why wouldn't you keep the water warm for most of the day using a small gas flame, then crank the gas turbine up to eleven to both make up for the renewable loss and heat the water to the point where you have the combined cycle system running before the renewable drops completely off the grid?

    Surely, the command and control of such a system can't be all that difficult.

    --
    Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
    Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
  108. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Technically you are only ROMAN after serving 20 years in the legion.
    So the filthy dirty jewish legionair who killed Jesus with a spear: was not a ROMAN. ;P

    However you could argue that the court who convicted him was ROMAN.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  109. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    The liquid state of the reactants means the Thorium reactors can use chemistry to allows burning all of the reaction products and separate out the out put products that have a short half life and are completely safe in a yer or two.
    While the sentence is technically very long, it is not that long. Anyone can comprehend it.
    However you made 4 scientific (or is it 5) mistakes on chemistry and physics ... a) a thorium reactor is usually not run on molten thorium ... and the rest just nonsense.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  110. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Stop editing wikipedia articles to your liking.

    A gas turbine has 40% efficiency up to 45%. Higher efficiencies are possible in obscure configurations but are not practical.

    There is no grid in the world that uses a gas turbine with 30% efficiency. You basically would need to make it artificially inefficient.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  111. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Natural gas turbines have a max realistic efficiency of about 60%.
    The gas turbine alone, no. You probably mean a "combined cycle gas plant" which is using the exhaust of gas turbines to power steam turbines.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  112. Re: Wrong title. Renewable energy will not domina by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Still, I managed to provoke embarrassed silence on the last conference by noting that the incomplete burning will emit methane

    They were embarrassed for the guy that doesn't know about catalysts.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  113. Re:Stop burning stuff, get over the Nuclear Boogey by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    o Unless there is a mass die-back of our species, there will always be more humans, not fewer

    All we need to reduce population is education. When you educate people, you rapidly head towards zero or even negative pop growth.

    o People are never going to use less energy, they're only ever going to use more energy

    EVs, heat pumps, LEDs, and CFLs all put the lie to that statement.

    Meanwhile you're covering up arable land with solar panels, instead of growing food for the ever-burgeoning ranks of humans.

    Bullshit. We're putting wind generators in arable land, where it coexists with those activities. We're putting panels over homes, over parking lots, over businesses, and over desert.

    Then there's the NIMBYs. Bad enough fighting them to build nuclear power plants for the comparatively small acreage they need, let alone the massive amount required for solar installations.

    NIMBY reaction to nuclear and solar are not at all the same, nor even similar.

    Yell and scream and insult me all you want, this is my position on the subject, and I see no reason to change it.

    I just want you to support it. You have so far only tried to do that with bullshit. Bullshit doesn't stack that high.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  114. Re:Stop burning stuff, get over the Nuclear Boogey by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    "All we need to reduce population is education. When you educate people, you rapidly head towards zero or even negative pop growth."
    Stopped reading right there. Your basic premise is so completely and utterly out of touch with reality and human nature that I almost can't believe someone would say that.

  115. Re:Stop burning stuff, get over the Nuclear Boogey by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    "All we need to reduce population is education. When you educate people, you rapidly head towards zero or even negative pop growth."

    Stopped reading right there. Your basic premise is so completely and utterly out of touch with reality and human nature that I almost can't believe someone would say that.

    Stopped because you have an aversion to facts, you mean. This is actually what happens. It's actually what's happening, in fact. All the best-educated nations are now concerned about population replacement.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  116. Re:Stop burning stuff, get over the Nuclear Boogey by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    Can you make your point any more difficult to understand? Hard to tell whether you're supporting what I'm saying or not.

    What nobody seems to be willing to recognize is that the current designs of nuclear reactors are expensive to build operate and maintain, but that it doesn't have to be that way. There are simpler, safer designs I've heard and read about that would make it less expensive to build operate and maintain. There's also thorium which is safer than uranium. Then there's eventually fusion. Throwing nuclear power on the scrap-heap is just plain dumb.

  117. Oh for fsck sake! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the US alone, if we magically made all cars electric by waving a wand, it would require *AT LEAST* a doubling of current total electrical production to meet the needs of all the new electric vehicles. No amount of solar farms, wind farms, hydroelectric dams, geothermal plants, etc. could possibly replace the existing electrical generation plants let alone more than double current production. This has always been the pie-in-the-sky thinking behind electric vehicles. The incomprehensibly massive amount of electrical power needed to replace carbon fueled vehicles can never be achieved without some hitherto unknown miraculous scientific breakthrough in electrical generation.

    Not to mention where the raw materials necessary to makes these replacement vehicles. At present, it takes 1/2 ton of Li-ion battery to power your typical electric car (like a Tesla Model 3). In 2016, there were roughly 270 million vehicles operating in the US, that's 135 million tons of Li-ion batteries just to replace existing vehicles in the US. At the same time, over 6 million vehicles were sold in 2016. Even including used vehicles, your looking at around 3 million tons of Li-ion batteries *per year*.

    In the long term, we also have to deal with the environmental crisis waiting down the pike -- disposal/recycling of these 1/2 ton Li-ion batteries when they wear out or the vehicles reach the end of their life cycles. And you had better believe that recycling is a must as there aren't enough raw materials to make these Li-ion batteries from existing resources.

    And speaking of long-term problems; I've heard from most electric car enthusiasts that the 30 minute+ recharge time (at a supercharger station) just means you can have a meal while you wait for your car to charge up. Fine and dandy since currently there just aren't that many EVs on the roads, but what happens when most of the public is driving around in EVs? It will make the gas lines from the 70s oil embargo seem like the good old days.

    And again - this is just the US; God forbid you start factoring in all the current ICEs around the world. You certainly aren't going to see an EV revolution in countries that don't have a reliable electric grid to being with. For the foreseeable future, carbon fueled vehicles are going to be a part of the picture. They certainly won't be 'obsolete' in 20 years - sheesh ;(.

  118. aww, I huwt your feewings by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    The truth made you foe me? Run away, run away... and cry.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:aww, I huwt your feewings by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      *confused look*
      Are you really such a sad individual that you have to talk to complete strangers on the internet that way in order to, what, feel relevant?
      Whatever. You're a troublemaker, that's why I did that. If you've actually deluded yourself into believing that you or anyone else on the public internet has any emotional impact on me or anyone else, then I feel bad for you, please get some professional help or something, I dunno.

      None of this changes anything. Expecting you're going to 'educate' the primary drive to reproduce out of people is just.. wrong. Your 'facts' are questionable.

      Also changes nothing. I will continue to advocate for better, safer, less expensive to build and operate, nuclear power plants, as the way forward for the human race, if we expect to stave off human-caused global warming, and manage to keep our species alive for the long term. You and whoever else can believe whatever you want, I really don't care.

    2. Re:aww, I huwt your feewings by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Whatever. You're a troublemaker, that's why I did that.

      You're a troll, that's why you did that. And I interrupted your trolling with a fact, and it made you upset. So you ran away. But you didn't run far enough, because you're still plaguing us with your willful ignorance.

      Also changes nothing. I will continue to advocate for better, safer, less expensive to build and operate, nuclear power plants,

      Because you're willfully ignorant. They're non-starters in every way. They're economically infeasible, they produce waste which we cannot safely or economically manage, and when they go wrong, they go very very wrong. Advocate for fusion if you must, but fission plants are as dumb as coal. Advocate for fission if you must, but if you run away from an argument when you encounter a fact, such advocacy will have you run forever.

      If you find my arguments troubling, perhaps you should reconsider yours. But running away is a coward's game.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  119. Re:Stop burning stuff, get over the Nuclear Boogey by shilly · · Score: 1

    Dude. Have some respect for Hans Rosling. He only died a couple of years ago, and you're acting like you've never even seen his remarkable videos that explain that yes, education and specifically women's education is a driver for lower family unit size and increased longevity.

    Here's a great introduction to the topic.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    I'm always blown away by the story of Bangladesh he tells: from an average 7 babies per woman and lifespan of 50 years in 1972 to 2.2 babies per woman and lifespan of 70 years in 2017. That is one heckuva drop, powered by education. But Bangladesh is not alone -- this is a pattern across dozens of countries.

  120. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    "They have a chance from building third and fourth generation nuclear"
    This. It's the way forward. But the Nuclear Boogeyman seems so deeply embedded in peoples' subconscious that most can't seem to get around it. The newer designs are less complicated, less expensive, and safer. But getting people over that threshold where they're even willing to listen to you about it seems almost impossible.

  121. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Chas · · Score: 1

    Yeah, that's still not gonna work in the US. Notice how the generator station STILL relies on a large elevation change, even with everything subterranean to operate.

    I think you're forgetting just how FLAT the Central US can be. And there's 750,000 or so square miles of flat.

    Yes, like with nuclear, geothermal, etc, it can be a locational/situational thing.

    I merely think that a hybrid nuclear+renewables solution is a more intelligent fit.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  122. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pump up from underground water aquifers and then extract energy as it's allowed to drop back down into the aquifer?

  123. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    Easy solution: You dig two holes, of differing depths. Also safer that way (no chance of a dam burst).

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  124. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    What nonsense. Hopefully it should be obvious to anyone how switching to a form of electricity which is commonly smoothed and supplemented by X is very different from switching to X. Wind and solar are not natural gas any more than a modern F1 car is electric.

    Also 30% is a hilarious underestimate of NG turbine efficiency. Modern passenger car ICEs are more efficient than that. Whose ass did you get these figures out of?

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  125. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Chas · · Score: 1

    If only it were that simple.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  126. Re: Stop burning stuff, get over the Nuclear Booge by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    What nobody seems to be willing to recognize is that the current designs of nuclear reactors are expensive to build operate and maintain, but that it doesn't have to be that way. There are simpler, safer designs I've heard and read about that would make it less expensive to build operate and maintain

    What you don't seem to be willing to recognize that this is EXACTLY the thing that led to the negative learning curve. ALL of the "let's make it cheaper!" efforts in the past have resulted in making it MORE expensive, including the most recent AP1000 or EPR efforts. I wish as much as anyone for it to be different this time, but the chances are rather slim.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  127. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    Yeah it's about that simple. Big holes, with construction equipment. Lined with concrete I guess. Plus a few pipes, turbine and pump in between.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  128. Yellow Vests by fluffernutter · · Score: 0

    What EV on the market today can haul a boxload of plywood or 4x4s over a muddy road? Almost every trip into town will likely be carrying heavy supplies. Just where I am, doing home renos, we need heavy loads from town. I can't imagine running a farm.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:Yellow Vests by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      And no, delivery is not an option. That costs $50 per on a short run.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  129. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by blindseer · · Score: 1

    Then we will just have to wait for these people to "age out" as Bill Nye put it euphemistically.

    It wasn't that long ago when the "atomic age" was supposed to bring the end of poverty and open the door to exploring the solar system and beyond. Then we got a generation that grew up in the age of "The China Syndrome" and "The Day After". These people grew up fearing nuclear power, and they've been teaching the next generation to fear it. This is starting to fade. I saw it happen before my very eyes.

    In a modern history class in college, I was taking summer classes as a "non-traditional student" (meaning I was older than the rest of the class, but younger than the professor) I had a professor instruct the class on how China is investing heavily in solar power. I raised my hand and pointed out that China is also leading in nuclear power investment. He pointed out that nuclear power is hazardous, it can blow up in our faces. I pointed out that new nuclear is not built like old nuclear. He mentioned Fukushima. I countered that Fukushima was built before Chernobyl. He was a bit at a loss for words and now the students started to raise their hands and ask about nuclear power. The professor felt a sudden need to move on to the next topic.

    It's very easy to flip people on nuclear power if they hadn't spent decades steeped in a culture that feared nuclear power for decades. This one small history class in a Midwestern university now has a seed in their minds that maybe nuclear is not as dangerous as it used to be. This professor will soon find it difficult to continue the same lecture he's done for the last decade in modern history and have students take it in as gospel. There will be more "non-traditional students" to dispute his "facts". Some of them might in fact be on the GI Bill like me, and perhaps (unlike myself) a "bubble head" that worked on modern nuclear power in a Navy submarine.

    Nuclear power is exceedingly safe, and the more people exposed to this will prove it to the rest. One such example is the veterans of the US Navy that served aboard nuclear powered vessels. Nothing is as convincing as first hand knowledge. We can't have a modern Navy without nuclear power. We won't keep our modern economy without nuclear power either. As the existing nuclear power plants reach their end of life we will be forced to build more. Once we start building more it will be difficult to stop it again.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  130. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by blindseer · · Score: 1

    Geographic distribution and high levels of predictability, combined with a distributed nature that means a single failure only takes out tens of megawatts instead of a gigawatt or two all make renewables more reliable, not less.

    Geographic distribution works great for nations that span multiple time zones like Canada, USA, Russia, China, and India. What are island nations supposed to do? Shiver in the dark? Places like Japan and Hawaii cannot rely on wind and solar for their power. Nations with unfriendly neighbors will not be willing to hand over their economy to an adversary by sharing their electric grid with them. We see this in Europe with concern on the increasing reliance on foreign produced electricity and natural gas. South Korea would never consider a shared electric grid with North Korea and/or China. Do you think that Cuba would want to run an underwater power line to Florida? That would be political suicide for any socialist dictator. If their own people didn't string him up for selling out to the "capitalist pigs" then surely some American politician will use it as leverage against them.

    I can agree that in a large nation, or group of friendly nations, could potentially build a "super grid" capable of supporting their economy on a mix of wind, hydro, and solar. Few such nations or federations exist in the real world. The rest of the world will have to find another solution. That solution must include nuclear power, and then also some wind, hydro, and natural gas. It's that or they shiver in the dark.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  131. Re:Wrong title. Renewable energy will not dominate by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    Thank You for the refreshingly rational input on the subject.

    I'd like to point out that I'm a Reformed Anti-Nuke; back in the 80's I voted to shut down Rancho Seco. Obviously I've done an about-face on that.
    I'm not a Republican/Conservative, and I'm not anti-renewables; but I honestly don't see it as a long-term all-in-one solution either.
    Nuclear can be safe and can be clean, even the 'waste products'. Science and innovative engineering will lead the way.
    Meanwhile we continue to work on practical fusion power, and who knows what else theoretical physicists will come up with? A hundred years from now, when we're all long dead, our descendents might be using something even more exotic than fusion for all we know.

  132. You might try telling that to the French by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    that some people can have things spoon fed them and still deny anything they see

    Anything they see, such as the annual PV installations exceeding 100 GW and STILL increasing exponentially? That alone defeats your cherry-picked list of small inconsequential companies, but as you say, even spoon-feeding you with information won't make you see the light.

    They are after all rioting over the increased taxes to pay for all that green power

    While we are here lets look at the cost of electricity in Europe

    https://medium.com/solardao/el...

    The fact that you can force people to use these at gun point doesn't make them a good idea. As my list demonstrated without subidies on top of supsidies they still wind up being little more than nothing but a good way to divert money to political allies. France is showing the world that you can only go so far with this.

    1. Re: You might try telling that to the French by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      They are after all rioting over the increased taxes to pay for all that green power

      What does even mean? :-p

      While we are here lets look at the cost of electricity in Europe

      It has always been higher than in the US, thanks to US' massive and cheaply exploitable natural resources and low population. If that is news to you, then let me be the first person to welcome you to this planet. I hope you come in peace!

      The fact that you can force people to use these at gun point doesn't make them a good idea.

      No, but the unprecedented price drops do.

      As my list demonstrated without subidies on top of supsidies they still wind up being little more than nothing but a good way to divert money to political allies.

      As your list demonstrared, you can cherrypick inconsequential failing companies really well! Not sure what other purposes would that serve, though.

      France is showing the world that you can only go so far with this.

      Exactly. The only thing that France is showing the world these days is that you can only go so far with this when even a nuclear superpower can barely afford nuclear electricity. Without monstrously huge subsidies to their military-industrial complex in the past, they would be even worse off today than some other countries in Europe that at least still have coal. They've just realized that, too, and they're looking for a way out.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re: You might try telling that to the French by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      They are after all rioting over the increased taxes to pay for all that green power

      What does even mean? :-p

      Do you require the services of an English teacher. ?

      It has always been higher than in the US, thanks to US' massive and cheaply exploitable natural resources and low population. If that is news to you, then let me be the first person to welcome you to this planet. I hope you come in peace!

      It has always been ?

      https://www.eurotrib.com/story...

      Kind of funny how the U.S. was able to reduce the cost of electricity while in Germany it tripled

      Nice attempt at lying, does it work with the stupid you usually talk to or do they just nod along ?

    3. Re: You might try telling that to the French by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      It has always been ?

      You really have no idea how outrageously low the energy costs in the US have historically been, do you? Otherwise you wouldn't be asking such stupid questions.

      https://www.eurotrib.com/story/2013/7/2/174936/9080

      And your point with that is...what, that Germany developed identically to the rest of Europe in the time period in question (first chart), thus doing nothing significantly worse than other European countries? Or that German prices are only slightly higher than in other EU countries, even before accounting for Germans' much higher purchasing power (second chart)? Or what exactly are you trying to prove?

      Kind of funny how the U.S. was able to reduce the cost of electricity

      Thus proving my claim about the cheap natural resources available in the US (fracking, currently).

      while in Germany it tripled

      I'm pretty sure the average price of electricity in Germany hasn't tripled - unless you somehow ignored inflation and used nominal values only (according to this breakdown, for example, in the 12-year 2006-2018 period, the residential prices have increased roughly from 24 to 29 real cents per kWh (2018 value)). But you haven't really pointed out any such data, so it's difficult to divine what you're going off of.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  133. Re:roadmaptonowhere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just read their paper, which is a response to another paper which clearly lays out how to move the USA to 100% renewables by 2050, notably 10 years later than Shell's date. The response paper mostly says, "Building it all will take lots of stuff, thus is impossible! Let's build Thorium!" which is, well, pretty stupid. We ALREADY move lots of stuff, called coal, oil, and gas, out of the ground and pay trillions for it. We ALREADY spent trillions building coal and nuclear power plants and putting them all over the place with the required infrastructure. Our previous efforts over the last 100 years easily dwarf what is necessary to move to renewable energy. Yeah, sure you have to replace solar panels every 20-40 years, but we already dig out, transport and burn tons of coal EVERY SINGLE DAY. Yes, sure, moving to renewables is a massive project. But creating our current infrastructure was a larger project, and keeping our current system going is also a large project.

    One takeaway from their paper that is actually against their arguments is a concept they call an ESB, or one Empire State Building of water, which is how much water one needs to move to create 250MWhrs of power. If they are correct, than this is pretty awesome. You make a water column and pump or drop that much water to make 250MWhrs. So easy, so much power. It takes 5-10 years to make a building like that, but a water column is just a simple hole. We could easily make many of those per year. 250MWhrs is a lot of power. That's 50 of those absolutely massive 5MW turbines. Plus, unlike batteries, a water column like that lasts a LONG time. Think Hoover Damn long time. Plus, it uses whatever water you put in. It doesn't have to deal with fish or debris from trees or whatever. We can put them deep underground, so even if there is a war, these things keep working. Pretty awesome

  134. Illiterate is a sad way to go through life by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    And your point with that is...what, that Germany developed identically to the rest of Europe in the time period in question

    No my point is that you are a liar who is more than capable of blathering on no matter what is put before you

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/20...

    Gee amazing how the more " RENEWABLES " a country has the more expensive its power has become.

    And yes when I think of France a country that had the lowest energy prices in Europe abundant natural resources and renewables come to mind /sarcasm.

    BTW your religious bias is showing.

    1. Re: Illiterate is a sad way to go through life by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1
      Gee amazing how the more " RENEWABLES " a country has the more expensive its power has become.

      Gee, amazing how the more expensive power is in a country, the more motivated the country is to install renewable generators. See how it works both ways? And yes when I think of France a country that had the lowest energy prices in Europe

      Only an ignorant who doesn't live here could say bullshit like that. "Lowest energy prices in Europe", my ass!

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  135. Gee amazing how you keep making my point by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    And yes when I think of France a country that had the lowest energy prices in Europe

    Only an ignorant who doesn't live here could say bullshit like that. "Lowest energy prices in Europe", my ass!

    And yes when I think of France a country that had the lowest energy prices in Europe

    Gee Amazing how you keep proving my points for me, I call you illiterate you demonstrate you can't differentiate between present and past tense

    I say renewables are a cult that can't accept anything that contradicts their position, you try to brush off that price of power in europe is directly correlated to use of renewables (Particularly solar and wind).

    Well I am done. It's pretty clear my points have been proven especially since you could present a chart that clearly shows just which nations have high costs and think it proves your point about the inevitability of solar. (Hint Norway is really poor for solar it's especially bad when your night's can last for days.)

  136. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by robsku · · Score: 1

    Why don't you check out of your basement for a while, and maybe not get all your views from your social media bubble, with like minded idiots to cheer you and feed your BS thoughts.

    I know you are a troll, and a worst kind of. You know, I was on internet when you weren't even born, *maybe* just a twinkle in your dads... scrotum. And your trolling isn't something you kids came up with it. When kids do stuff that was hot like 20 years ago, don't others still call them names for it? They sure did back in my days in school, but internet and trolling weren't old back then. We were the technological generation, you millenials even lack the basic understanding on how programs and your computer devices work. You are late followers with nothing new, congraz :D

    Oh, and real christianity was a sect of judaism, they were all jews and I don't recall Jesus ever mentioning that his followers should drop the term "Jewish" and use "Christian" instead. It's a Jewish religion, which by politicians of ancient Rome decided to *twist* it into method of controlling people (and making money off them, and especially infidel ships, countries, etc.) - that started "modern christianity", which had right from the beginning stuff that didn't belong to Jesus teachings, nor his disciples. Much not even in bible, like what all these all levels of priests, popes, cardinals, clergyman... Did bible tell about them? Didn't it kinda said that something like this would not be very nice thing to do? And how much is left christianity in modern day church? But if you wan't to be pure, pretend that you can leave what Rome and Vatican have done behind, believe in traditional original christianity (sometimes also called pre-christian, because it hadn't been utilized for profit yet, I guess :D), but what is real christianity a huge number of times closer than modern BS christianity? Well, Judaism... Your christian God is also God of Jews, and apparently a father of a Jewish religious figure.

    LOL

    --
    In capitalist USA corporations control the government.
  137. Re: Explain this to us all JEW by robsku · · Score: 1

    Did I mention I was gay too?

    That's brilliant, not even a reply after that one :D But you know his just a trollboi, maybe (likely) highly against Jews, but how much do you think you can argue with someone with those views (and intelligence in expressing them) and not get frustrated when you have, but he doesn't have even what could be called arguments, yet he struts away after every post like he had just won the turnament?

    My suggestion (unless you want to provide more entertainment ;P ) is that you stop feeding this troll (and flag all his racist posts you get from him), because trolls don't thrive on arguments, they thrive on being noticed and they are hooked on it like a toddler to crack.

    --
    In capitalist USA corporations control the government.
  138. WindBourne says only 2 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As WindBourne foolishly claims here new ICE cars will probably stop selling in about 2 more years.
    He probably thinks in 20 years we will all have battery powered jet-packs...