Well, Norway's not that small and Brazil is at 75% renewables and it's got 200 million people
but I take your point, the point I was making was about batteries and the claim made in the vid, and there's plenty of examples of countries that have shifted to wind and solar have found they've been able to scale battery capacity to manage these fluctuations. Spain now gets 50% more from wind than coal. In Australia, an example I'm quite familiar with was south australia, which now gets 60% from wind and solar. There was identical fear mongering along the lines of this video when SA proposed at the time was the worlds biggest battery farm, "it's not going to be reliable when there's no wind etc.". But the warnings turned out to be hot air. The battery farm has been doing what it's supposed to do and has been making a good profit as they've sold their excess peak power from windy days to other states when they've had issues with their coal-based grids at times. The idea that battery capacity is holding it back is false, those that have shifted have been able to scale battery storage with increased generation capacity. SA saved millions by eliminating the need for a fuel-powered ancillary service with their battery farm. Other places are following suit, with larger battery farms built or in development around the world.
(
cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Wed 21 Jul 2021, 23:24,
Reply)
Norway has a population less than that of London. It’s that small.
(
Prufrock Lucifer, son of the morning!, Thu 22 Jul 2021, 11:43,
Reply)
and yet it produces a lot more electricity than indonesia, which has 270 million people which I think is a little more than london
it's almost as if we're comparing electricity production, not population. Norway ranks 28th in the world for electricity production, out of 209.
(
cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Thu 22 Jul 2021, 15:01,
Reply)
Talk me through Norwegian oil exports.
(
Prufrock Lucifer, son of the morning!, Thu 22 Jul 2021, 17:28,
Reply)
they export a lot of oil. and cod, i'd imagine. Their capital is Oslo, which is also the name of a kind of lunch they used to serve to Australian school kids
you can find out more here: 25 fascinating facts about Norway
(
cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Fri 23 Jul 2021, 0:15,
Reply)
Again though,
Brazil's renewables are mostly hydroelectric. So many thousands of km^2 of rainforest is now underwater, and tens of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes.
Building their Itaipu dam actually involved destroying some lovely natural waterfalls which were a popular tourist attraction, but much worse than that those falls acted as a natural barrier separating species before and afterwards... now invasive species from below the falls are threatening those from above.
(, Thu 22 Jul 2021, 13:12, Reply)
this is all fascinating. do tell me more about Brasil, you'll have to give me your recipe for moqueca
But the video made some specific claims that a car battery factory in the US would not be able to supply capacity for the entire US's electricity production, therefore wind and solar could no be substituted for fossil fuels. I countered that this was an irrelevancy as this much battery capacity would never be needed, and that countries had been able to scale renewables to meet their needs such that battery capacity had not been a limiting factor. If you have anything to say about this, go ahead.
If you'd prefer to discuss the migratory pathways of capybaras and perhaps compare the relative harm of this hydro to that of a study published this month that because of the great drying out of the amazon and fires, the entire basin has depressingly gone from a net carbon sink to a net carbon emitter of 1 billion tonnes of CO2 per year, which will consequentially contribute to it drying out even faster as large parts of the southern and eastern forest the size of fucking france have already significantly changed their vegetation profile away from that of a rainforest, I'm happy to have this comparative discussion too
(
cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Thu 22 Jul 2021, 15:22,
Reply)
I pointed out the renewables are not the panacea
that you and others are making them out to be, and that the specific countries that have high levels of renewables also have pretty specific situations that are not generally applicable to other countries. Most countries don't have anywhere to build the 200GW dams required.
But you appear to have taken it pretty personally for some reason.
(, Thu 22 Jul 2021, 16:40, Reply)
I never said they were a panacea, I'm well aware of the issues around hydro. My comment was in response to claims made about the reliability and capacity of renewables in the video
However, and this is a side point, I do think the relative harms of the Itapui dam are dwarfed by the increasing apparent consequences of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Massive sections of amazonas transitioning to a dry sclerophyll forest or no forest at all is killing a lot more critters than the dam ever did, and is already affecting rainfall patterns and water reliability in adjoining rich agricultural areas. So renewable have that big advantage over fossil fuel generated power.
I don't take it personally, I like to argue, and B3ta is a good place to do it, as it's not as if the place matters. And the OP is quite possibly a Poe anyway. Though perhaps my general disgust levels are a little raised when during once in a thousand year heatwaves and fires in western north america, massive floods in europe and china, billionaires thought it a great idea to start space tourism, yet another source of emissions, just so ultra rich people can get a 10 minute astronaut scout badge.
(
cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Fri 23 Jul 2021, 1:00,
Reply)
Heh fair enough...
I personally sit on the middle in this.
I think you're right that the greenhouse gas emissions issue is the greater problem right now. But I do also get irked by the way that alternative options are often presented as an easy fix (except for fission which everyone hates even though it's clearly the best one).
I'm not gonna get fully drawn into the whole Bezos thing again, except to say that I believe his ultimate goal for pushing this space program is to get humans living in space so that we stop fucking up the planet. I read a interesting interview a number of years ago where he explained this, but I cannot for the life of me now find it (I think it was in some Airline's onboard magazine). So, no doubt he is bit of a ruthless cunt, same as Musk, but if their space programs can be made viable long term then I think that's a good thing.
(, Fri 23 Jul 2021, 11:20, Reply)