Comment by SideburnsOfDoom
6 hours ago
> The problem with green energy is that it is very democratic and hard to control.
It's not that I totally disagree with this - there is some truth to it. But it has no bearing at all on the question "can I put the panels on the car instead?" Which has been debunked in this thread and elsewhere many, many times.
The counterargument to what you say is that Solar is in fact booming. It is coming - oil money can slow it, but not stop it. They have more success in some countries than others. It's not a coincidence that China, which course desires energy independence but doesn't have access to a lot of oil, is leading the way. Sorry USA, you're laggards now.
But solar + battery is on an exponential ramp-up and getting big now. Each shock like the current Hormoz idiocy makes the case for it even more to the rest of the world. It's coming, fast.
Just, it's not useful on car roofs. That's a poor choice of panel location.
> China doesn't have access to a lot of oil
Just an aside, but China is the 5th largest oil producer. They have a lot of oil. The problem is that they're the 2nd largest oil consumer, so are still importing. Their current course is sufficient to achieve energy independence.
It's kind of unfortunate they don't need to further decarbonize to achieve that independence. There are some other fields that aren't yet economically valid to decarbonize. If China had a non-economic reason to decarbonize jet fuel, steel, plastic etc they might drive enough volume to make them economic.