this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2024
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189
Q: “Are we doomed?” A: “We would be, if not for the amazing developments in renewable energy.” (powering-the-planet.ghost.io)
submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
49 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I wasn't aware just how good the news is on the green energy front until reading this. We still have a tough road in the short/medium term, but we are more or less irreversibly headed in the right direction.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm saying it doesn't 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.

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

?

The article I shared is about how solar is now the cheapest form of power. So that is what's happening.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

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.