Comment by bluerooibos
15 hours ago
One positive is that solar (and probably other renewables too) prices are plummeting and are now the cheapest way to generate power - so in economic terms, I hope this trend continues and accelerates even more to the point where even fossil fuel addicts can't resist putting a solar panel on their roof.
In the UK and other European countries, I see every month we're breaking records on the percentage of power generated from renewables.
Check out https://www.energydashboard.co.uk/live - it shows the UK is currently generating 30%+ of it's power from solar, which is incredible.
Meanwhile, the US is paying the German energy firm RWE $1.2 billion to stop a off shore wind farm that was already under construction. Total payouts are over $4 billion to _stop_ adding electricity supply.
I hope it continues but I hope we make it too.
> the UK is currently generating 30%+ of it's power from solar
But at midnight last night it was generating 0%.
It is a well known issue that renewables can never provide 100% of the grids requirements because of peaks and troughs, and inefficiencies of storage.
Everyone who states this idea that solar is the saviour never seems to mention the manufacturing chain which requires a TON of energy and chemical processing, and the waste when the panels are no longer efficient enough or past their useful life. Every house in the world suddenly having having solar panels and every ICE vehicle being replaced by electric will cost us untold amounts of physical resources, energy, and create massive amounts of regular waste which cannot be recycled, forever.
There needs to be a managed decline and long term transition which manages both manufacturing and waste pipeline effectively or the shift will just increase the climate change rate.
Im not saying we shouldnt be moving to renewables ASAP, but people need to realise its not as simple as chucking a solar panel on every roof.