so? I don't see the problem. There's a lot of maintenance in the current infrastructure based on fossil fuels that contributes to a lot of waste, and even worse pollution. You think less than 1 percent of US land is a lot? It's not, when you spread that 1 percent across different areas of the country. Half the country is both uninhabited and has no development of any kind so there's plenty of "free" space for renewables. In addition, you could still add solar or wind to already existing inhabited or developed areas like on top of buildings/skyscrapers, farms.
This is not a problem, although you seem to make it sound like it should be.
Is Renewable Energy a Boondoggle?
Grayson Rivera
Cameron Collins
It really comes down to efficiency.
"Eco-friendly" and "renewable" are just memes.
It's only technically renewable in how the solar or wind etc. operates, which is only looking at the smaller picture.
Eco-friendlier energy is related to efficiency, as in not causing more damage with extra steps that are not even worth it.
Petro is highly efficient in the fact that it is a raw resource or i.e. a real energy source like coal. Maybe Thorium can be great if it's efficient enough.
Solar might be good for small appliances.
Dominic Hill
Green energy is even more economical than people realize. One of the factors that helps keep some poor communities crime-ridden, unhealthy, and unproductive is that they’re in the air and water shadow of productivity-slaughtering fossil fuel plants.
Advances in battery technology are making temporal accessibility a less significant issue as well.
Some processes mainly take electricity as an input. For instance, imagine how profitable it would be to remove carbon from the atmosphere and turn it into materials such as nanotubes and fuels. Does that sound profitable? Now imagine how profitable it would be if electricity were provides free. Right now, no government wants to subsidize dirty power, but if we turn the whole grid over to clean sources this constant butt coal heel dragging will be alleviated.
Ryder Cooper
Every new tech has issues but we're not slow the mass extinction and global deforestation without a massive change so, we need some people in the Chambers of power who at least are trying to do so
Noah Lewis
If you want the entire 12 cents then you need to find someone who will pay you, personally, 12c per kW then invent a way to transport that power from your panel to their devices.
Not as simple as you require.
Ian Collins
So if we discount the nation's necessity to function for more than a hundred hours then the problem seems solved!
Landon Miller
They didn't then, and they still aren't today.
Blake Anderson
I guess you don't understand that they were proving you can do it. They ran the entire country on renewables for 107 hours straight.
Jayden Rogers
They did, multiple years. They get 99% of their energy from renewables. Look, this has been already mentioned a million times in this thread alone, but you idiots still have this outdated idea of what renewable energy is. It works, it's cheaper and more efficient than it ever was and you can run whole countries on it. Period.
Germany is scrapping all 85 coal plants and going to renewables. Would Trump do that? No, because he cares more about how he looks to coal-state voters than about the country, environment or even his own grandchildren, that's what kind of narcissistic asshole he is. Time to get educated on the latest that renewables offer, because it's clear from the repeated replies, there are a LOT of people who think the tech is still as it was in the 90s.
Cameron Morales
Yes and no… I have a remote property. We are talking 100k to get grid power to it. Instead I set up a solar system for a bit under 10k. Now this system will do everything I ever need with the exception of heat water on a cloudy day. Sometimes I get overzealous and draw it down and have to run a backup genny for an hour. If I want to heat water in winter with no sun it's genny or nothing. This takes about 20 gal of gas a year.
In 10 years I will need to dump another 5k in batteries. I also can't run a well pump and have to have rainwater collection. Other than the above solar alone is kinda sufficient for a small up front cost… But to really transition a TOWN to that? Never happen without going back to the dark ages. Hot water will be a LUXUARY. In winter. It will be worth the gasoli e it takes to generate the power to make it. Got a family of 6? Thi k $20 a day just for hot water or expect to stink… BAD. also kiss that electric range good bye. Get ready to chop some firewood to stay warm. Oh you don't have a private forest? I hope you live in a southern latitude because you will freeze to death.
Solar is good in some situations. Win dis good in some situations. Hydro is good in some situations. It's all about batteries. If batteries were $40 instead of 400 each it would be a different story entirely.
I think you would need a shipping container sized capacitor bank to power a small home over night. It's all about storage.