Has anyone else realized how far we are away from running civilization fully on wind and solar?

houseofancients said:

recycling is done on a very small scale to my knowledge, and certainly not ready for additional waste to be added.

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It can be scaled quickly, but there is no political will to do so.

houseofancients said:

you know about 600 russian soldiers died this year digging small holes for their shit ?

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Not exactly small holes; they dug trenches. And took some radioactive stuff with them as souvenirs. And they were warned by the people at the facility... I have access to a lab with a source that will kill you in 20 minutes.

upnorthandpersonal said:

It can be scaled quickly, but there is no political will to do so.



Not exactly small holes; they dug trenches. And took some radioactive stuff with them as souvenirs. And they were warned by the people at the facility... I have access to a lab with a source that will kill you in 20 minutes.

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remind me to never piss you off

"Has anyone else realized how far we are away from running society on wind and solar?"

Probably not in my lifetime.

Metaphorically speaking, the portability, energy density, storage, and sound of Fossil Fuel is like Ice Cream in my freezer.

I don't care if its an insulin missile pancreatic assault,

I'll quit eating it when its gone

I was part of the startup at one of the sister plants of Fukushima back in 79', they were all the same design. It was there I lost faith in engineering. It was the bean counters that would destroy the world for pennies. If you watched the NHK videos you could see in real time the first thing destroyed was the fuel tank for the backup generator and the next was the backup generator. The plant itself survived. With no power the cooling pumps couldn't run. Who puts a backup generator right in the path of destruction. The sea wall was a joke. Every week there was a small earthquake and they acted like a tsunami would never happen. We wanted to delay a test 15 minutes to replace a bad sensor. Told don't worry, the results have already been negotiated. And just like nuclear weapons and US plants, the things you never heard about.

Bean counters ruin everything.

Don't get me wrong, there is a point to counting beans so you know how many beans you have left, but the beans cannot take the top focus.

upnorthandpersonal said:

PSA - we will leave this thread up as long as the discussion stays civilized and follows the rules of the forum. That usually means keeping politics and other 'loaded' topics out of it. Should the rules not be followed, the thread will be removed, or moved to the chit-chat forum.

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How about move the thread to chit-chat. That way people can say what they want here without removing/deleting this thread!

Shawn Hayes said:

How about move the thread to chit-chat. That way people can say what they want here without removing/deleting this thread!

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Because this means an interesting discussion topic will be pretty much removed from sight. Chit chat topics don't show up in the 'latest posts' section, which reduces visibility and doesn't encourage new participants. You can say what you want - just stick to the rules, try to stay on topic, and be civil.

Pardon me for asking but the section known as Chit chat says Non solar discussions. Although this particular discussion is more general power related than specific to solar it would seem that it does not fit any of the Topic categories.
BTW a General discussion Topic around solar might be considered in the General discussion "Let's talk about solar" As it is I am left guessing sometimes if a Thread I start is in the appropriate location.

Mattb4 said:

but the section known as Chit chat says Non solar discussions

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Yes, but it's also where we tend to move certain threads that might start out on solar, but quickly degrade into something else. Instead of deleting them.

Mattb4 said:

BTW a General discussion Topic around solar might be considered in the General discussion "Let's talk about solar" As it is I am left guessing sometimes if a Thread I start is in the appropriate location.

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If it doesn't really fit anywhere else, and it's solar related, "DIY Solar General Discussion" is the place to put it.

MattiFin said:

Yeah, container ships are bigger problem than land transport.
Hydrogen, methane or methanol might be possible option for those.

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Or ammonia, from what I've read. Although a bit more of a problem should you happen to be downwind.
The suggestion was to start by powering anhydrous ammonia ships with their cargo.

A renewable fuel:


Not without its downsides:

efficientPV said:

I was part of the startup at one of the sister plants of Fukushima back in 79', they were all the same design. It was there I lost faith in engineering. It was the bean counters that would destroy the world for pennies. If you watched the NHK videos you could see in real time the first thing destroyed was the fuel tank for the backup generator and the next was the backup generator. The plant itself survived. With no power the cooling pumps couldn't run. Who puts a backup generator right in the path of destruction. The sea wall was a joke. Every week there was a small earthquake and they acted like a tsunami would never happen. We wanted to delay a test 15 minutes to replace a bad sensor. Told don't worry, the results have already been negotiated. And just like nuclear weapons and US plants, the things you never heard about.

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and this proves my point..

there is just too much that human nature can let go wrong with nuclear, that at some point someone will do something truely stupid, and this is a not a forgiving tech

Complicated problem with no easy answers. ROI during a time of shifting technologies amplifies the problem.
Start building tons of Fission plants now and they are ready in 5 years with a payback period of maybe 15 more years.
Does clean Fusion energy start coming on stream just at the point when your starting to make money on that Investment?

MattiFin said:

Yeah, container ships are bigger problem than land transport.
Hydrogen, methane or methanol might be possible option for those.

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Start small:

The problem is people see one answer to the problems and all others are wrong nothing is perfect all methods have negatives we have many opportunities to expand our energy production but one group will be against it so nothing get solved I live in the pnw our governor and a senator want to pull out 4 large hydroelectric dams why not use them with solar and wind as a energy storage system so when the sun goes down or the wind doesn’t blow we have that energy storage to use water can be pumped back up above the dams when we have extra power for later use the largest safest battery available using existing systems the nuclear option is very doable I started my career in the us navy as a nuclear mm the navy does it right proving it’s a viable option used with other options we could cut hydrocarbons drastically but we need some for the many byproducts hydrocarbons give us and in some areas they are the only viable option

The energy transition can go faster by giving the right price to fuel’s. Ie. include environmental costs.

Now in Europe where fuel prices went through the roof, EV sales followed the same way up.
Same for house improvements in energy usage. Better insulation, change of heating system etc..

When people feel it in their wallet, they start making other choices! (Also political)

efficientPV said:

It was the bean counters that would destroy the world for pennies.

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Only if the legislators (politicians) don't do if first. As I've gotten older it is becoming ever more clear to me is that it is not the best things for society that wins but rather the things with the best lobbyists that wins. Legislators are making thier decisions based on what lobbyists tell them and not scientists.

OzSolar said:

Only if the legislators (politicians) don't do if first. As I've gotten older it is becoming ever more clear to me is that it is not the best things for society that wins but rather the things with the best lobbyists that wins. Legislators are making thier decisions based on what lobbyists tell them and not scientists.

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Problem is a lot of scientists are paid by politicians too, so.... Can't automatically trust them either.

A major reason I don't believe this global warming the sky is falling nonsense is because I can't help but notice the ones who are screaming it are also the ones who have big mansions, giant yachts, and private jets they shoot around in all the time to lecture the world about how the end is nigh if they don't stop fertilizing their fields and don't stop driving their cars. Oh, and somehow magically paying all these extra taxes will help "fix" it. Yeah, those millionaires telling us to pay more enviro-taxes (which then interestingly comes back to line their pockets...).

That, and nothing they've screamed about has come true. By now we were supposed to have lost part of the coastal towns to the ocean but interestingly enough looking at a photo of the Statue of Liberty from 100 years ago vs now the waterline hasn't changed. Bah....

Oh, another sign it is a farce - good science debates a theory from all directions, and doesn't try to prove or disprove a particular position, just tries to prove the correct position, whatever it is. This whole global warming is kinda like the plandemic narrative, if you stray too much from the official narrative you're labeled all kinds of nasty things, can't get grants to test your theories as easily, kinda treated as an outcast... Hmm, not suspicious at all.!

Pim57 said:

The energy transition can go faster by giving the right price to fuel’s. Ie. include environmental costs.

Now in Europe where fuel prices went through the roof, EV sales followed the same way up.
Same for house improvements in energy usage. Better insulation, change of heating system etc..

When people feel it in their wallet, they start making other choices! (Also political)

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Now that is magic. Who determines the right price of fuels? If it is not the market that sets the price somebody is going to get mighty wealthy if they get to dictate the price. When a industry has a monopoly to the point they can set whatever price they want it tends to upset the people that have to pay that price.

Big problem with pie in the sky and utopians is they think magic can happen. That "Bell the cat" solutions are the right answer. Any solution that relies on giving control over to another is always subject to that "other" not misusing it. Sadly humans do not have a great record at doing this.