189
Q: “Are we doomed?” A: “We would be, if not for the amazing developments in renewable energy.”
(powering-the-planet.ghost.io)
this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2024
189 points (91.3% liked)
Technology
59148 readers
1946 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'm gonna disagree. We have centuries of rapid development in renewable energy. That's not the problem. The problem is vested interests constantly lying and successfully misleading the more gullible portion of humanity, and also people unwilling to make any sort of sacrifice to achieve this.
You're right that people have been thinking about and working on renewable energy for a long time. However what's only become true very recently is that it's cheaper to generate energy using renewable sources than to use fossil fuels. That's a massive milestone because when a new power source is built it will more likely than not be renewable.
People making sacrifices is important, but what if you weren't only giving people the opportunity to help the environment, but also to improve their bottom line? Makes the pitch a lot easier and helps us to build momentum in the right direction.
Again, it doesn't matter. Coal companies are not putting up solar panels. They're investing their money instead on lobbying politicians for the right to continue mining "clean" coal.
Coal companies are literally going bankrupt as coal plants get decommissioned. When it comes to actual political power, the fossil fuel industry you want to watch out for is oil and gas, not coal.
Mine all the coal you want. If you don't have anyone willing to buy from you, at a price that covers the cost of extraction, you will fail.
So even though the coal companies' bankruptcies are getting them out of their cleanup and decommissioning obligations, the root cause of that is that coal just isn't competitive as an energy source.
I'm saying it does matter. When you go to a business and say you can buy a widget for $1000, or for $500, and they both do the same thing, the business will choose the cheaper one. Sure, lobbying will get businesses some favors, loosen some regulation, get some subsidies, but at a certain point it's not enough, the economics take over.
I'm saying it doesn't matter.
Okay, but that's not what's happening. What's happening is one business/industry controls to the supply for that widget, and that business only sells the $1,000 one, because they invested $1B to ensure that was the only option. Because that business does not offer the $500 option, and does not care to.
?
The article I shared is about how solar is now the cheapest form of power. So that is what's happening.
I don't know how many different ways I can explain this. It doesn't matter how cheap it is when no one is buying it.