Comment by nomel
9 hours ago
Where I am at least, people using less power because power because power need to profit more, is wild.
They literally had record profits the last few years, rather than being forced to lay down solar. I think power should be a global endeavor, not some local for profit business with complete regulatory capture that makes competition illegal.
Yes I'm angry, because I pay more in electric than most anywhere in the world. If I charge my care with LEVEL 2 using city provided charges, during the day, it's more expensive than gas.
Energy security is national security.
Cheap electricity means you can do things that made "no sense" with expensive electricity. (e.g. smelt aluminum)
Cheap electricity means you can underbid regions that have expensive electricity...
As Technology Connections said, "Panels that cover your electrical needs for the next 25+ years? In the Midwest, we call that a good deal!"
In 1800, humanity generated 0.3 terrawatts (TW).
Humankind generates 20 TW today. That’s a massive jump.
And everyone wants more power. It determines what society can do.
But 20 TW is a pittance in the grand scheme of the vast universe. Imagine if we were generating 100 TW or 1,000 TW.
That’s why we talk about stuff like the Kardashev Scale — type 1, 2, 3 civilization type stuff.
Electricity is not currently cheap. 20 TW is a pittance. One day humanity will reach a point where we’re generating 500 TW of power and questions of being able to smelt aluminum or make drinking water from brine seem almost like a joke. We will have flying construction drones 24/7 at that scale of energy production. At that point, we’ll be asking questions like “when will we have enough energy to terraform a planet?”
Of course, there are side effects of greater power generation such as global warming… but once again, it’s a scale thing. The universe is vast.
Slowly, we are getting there.
Where does that 0.3 TW figure come from? That seems awfully high.
is that a sustained 20TW? Absolutely crazy that we're generating 60kwh per person daily. Where does it all go?
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To note, we are almost at installing 1TW of solar PV every year globally.
I love Technology Connections, but he has no idea what discounting is in economics. Or at least he writes his videos as if he doesn't.
Most of those technologies also need uninterrupted power supplies. Something wind, solar and batteries for the next 50 years aren't.
Pumped hydro is one solution. You bank the excess wind/solar using gravitational potential energy and then draw on that whenever you need to.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station
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Ember Energy: Solar electricity every hour of every day is here and it changes everything - https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-e... - June 21st, 2025
> Batteries are now cheap enough to unleash solar’s full potential, getting as close as 97% of the way to delivering constant electricity supply 24 hours across 365 days cost-effectively in the sunniest places.
What does this mean? It means we are most of the way there with solar and batteries alone, even if we need a bit of carbon based generation to bridge the gap while solar and battery deployments scale globally. Solar and batteries will only continue to get less expensive and better.
Our World In Data: Installed solar energy capacity - https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/installed-solar-pv-capaci...
Solar PV go brrr.
Have you heard of batteries?
> They literally had record profits the last few years, rather than being forced to lay down solar. I think power should be a global endeavor, not some local for profit business with complete regulatory capture that makes competition illegal.
Sounds more like you guys should be lowering barriers to entry, not setting up a global non-profit cartel.
True. I suggested global because it allows for scale with copy/paste designs, where things like nuclear could actually become viable.
Where I am, we have a solidly aligned state government. There's no concept of consequences for anyone in power. They're paid by the local companies to pass laws to make competition legal. Some are investors. All corrupt. That's what you get with a solid political alignment.
Australia I assume?