Let me clarify I understand that solar and wind and other “renewables” are called renewables as the mechanism to generate energy isn’t depleted after generating i.e. you are not burning up a resource and then need to burn more.
My issues with the word renewable is it’s not renewable in the sense of how much resources we have to dig up to build the infrastructure to generate power. My understanding is that you require 100x the volume of resources required to build solar and wind farms compared to nuclear e.g. concrete, iron, silicon, plastic etc
Then when you build the infrastructure it will take up more land than nuclear as well.
My view is that this isn’t sustainable and as our consumption of energy is dramatically accelerating we may end up at a point in the near future where we come across other environmental issues due to land being used for mining or energy generation as we didn’t factor these reasons as we shift to a carbon neutral future.
To clarify I am not suggesting we should continue to burn fossil fuels.
Perhaps our need to consume more and more energy is outpacing our ideas on energy generation and efficiency.
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New to university?
Not even unpopular, every serious discussion about ending fossil fuels considers nuclear essential
When new nuclear capacity becomes cheaper than new solar capacity, let me know.
our need to consume has been outpacing our ideas for a long time. If we really cared we’d allow people to work from home when possible. The US uses more oil per day per person than most other countries. We need to look at why and try and address that. One possible reason is our infrastructure. We keep building these developments and then market centers (used to be malls) that people have to drive to to get what they need.
Lithium mining is the modern coal in a way. It’s done in a horrific way. Unfortunately there is a lot of child labor involved. I wish we could find a way to fill the void if we stopped using oil, but unfortunately it’s in damn near everything. From toys and medical equipment, to textiles and furniture.
Renewables use a lot of resources. We need better efficiency and lower consumption.
Yeah when people say “ I love my Tesla it’s so good for the environment”
It wasn’t when they were making it
There’s an idea that if renewables cannot consistently provide as much power as fossils and nuclear, then we must maintain non-renewables.
It’s a choice. Renewables only, and make do with whatever amount of energy they provide. Or continue with fossils, and lose 50-90% of the world population in the next 100 years.
Someone just watched Landman episode 2