Comment by kelnos
1 year ago
Technology-wise, isn't it a lot easier to build a coal plant than it is to build PV panels? Obviously this is not a problem right now, but imagine a disaster scenario where a good amount of high-tech industry is non-operational. Or even a geopolitical crisis where we lose access to enough of the raw materials or manufacturing capacity to make the panels.
(Does the US even manufacture PV panels? Or are they mostly -- or even all -- built overseas?)
Coal and oil are not renewable - they are finite. What do you do when they run out?
If you disregard the environmental aspects of energy security, surely: banking on a non renewable, finite and diminishing resource is silly.
We will probably not run out in my life time but I for one give a shit about my grand daughters's future quality of life. They will need 'leccy so they can sulk at the dinner table whilst doom scrolling on their phones (one is close). By the time they are old enough to get really pissy about the climate and granddad is a deposit for a mortgage, oil will probably have run out and coal will be distinctly brown coloured.
Even the UK is dragging manufacture of stuff back in-house from abroad. Many of my customers make things here. I'm sure the US is doing the same.