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Anon questions our energy sector (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 day ago by MataVatnik@lemmy.world to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] barsoap@lemm.ee 1 points 5 hours ago

Wouldn’t it be better to go fossil free. Given, you know, climate change.

Gas can be synthesised and we're going to have to do that anyway for chemical feedstock. Maintaining backup gas plant capacity is cheaper than you think, they don't need much maintenance if they're not actually running.

That’s physically impossible for a place the size of Germany, much less Europe.

Unless we use a different technology, that is not renewables + storage?

It's not technology it's physics. It is impossible for there to be no wind anywhere, at least as long as the sun doesn't explode and the earth continues to rotate and an atmosphere exists. If any of those ever fail electricity production will be the least of our worries.

Technology comes into play when it comes to shovelling electricity from one end of the continent to the other and yes we need more interconnects and beefier interconnects but it's not like we don't know how to do that, or don't already have a Europe-wide electricity grid. The issues are somewhere in between NIMBYism regarding pylons and "but we don't want to pay for burying the cable earthworks are expensive".

[-] iii@mander.xyz 0 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Gas can be synthesised

When's that going to happen? Right after the green hydrogen revolution?

They've been saying that for decades. It isn't happening. It's just natural gas.

It's not technology it's physics

Sorry, I didn't think someone would deny the existance of dunkelflautes. It's currently happening in Germany. (1).

[-] barsoap@lemm.ee 1 points 4 hours ago

When’s that going to happen? Right after the green hydrogen revolution?

Already happening, on a small (but industrial) scale. You can buy that stuff off the shelf, but it's still on the lower end of the sigmoid. Most new installations right now will be going to Canada and Namibia, we'll be buying massive amounts of ammonia from both.

Sorry, I didn’t think someone would deny the existance of dunkelflautes. It’s currently happening in Germany.

Yes and elsewhere in Europe the wind is blowing. Differences in solar yields are seasonal (that's what those three months storage are for, according to Fraunhofer's initial plans), but reversed on the other side of the globe, and Germany would be better situated to tank differences in local wind production all by itself if e.g. Bavaria didn't hinder wind projects in their state. The total energy the sun infuses into the earth does change a bit over time, but that's negligible. In principle pretty much zero storage is needed as long as there's good enough interconnectivity.

...meanwhile, we'll probably have the first commercial fusion plant in just about the mean construction time of a fission plant.