Here is our 2023 score card for world electricity production. Coal is still growing and solar and wind have a small foothold. Thoughts?
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World Electricity Production by Source
- Thread starter Snagglefoot
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Coooooaaaalllllll!
All the nations who say they're "going renewable" like Germany, china are putting up some solar and wind, then do the heavy lifing with coal power plants.
The only first world nations who actually matter who are building more wind and solar and aren't backing it up with more coal capacity is the US and maybe Australia.
Any other national doing it (using more renewables and not building more coal plants) is so tiny they don't matter in the grand scheme of things.
For example China is number for wind and solar but they're also number 1 for coal as far as using and build new power plants by a lot.
All the nations who say they're "going renewable" like Germany, china are putting up some solar and wind, then do the heavy lifing with coal power plants.
The only first world nations who actually matter who are building more wind and solar and aren't backing it up with more coal capacity is the US and maybe Australia.
Any other national doing it (using more renewables and not building more coal plants) is so tiny they don't matter in the grand scheme of things.
For example China is number for wind and solar but they're also number 1 for coal as far as using and build new power plants by a lot.
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At least the growth rate of renewables is much greater than fossil fuels. It looks like there is almost enough renewables now to power the world of 1985 which is interesting.
The only sources that can be increased without burning fossil fuels (if that is a primary concern) at the generator appear to be wind and nuclear.
Think you're forgetting quite a major first world country...
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-mix-uk
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Unfortunately , most people don't realize all the pollution being created by "renewables". Windmills in this country and solar are still highly inefficient. The props alone on windmills have to be replaced every 3 to 7 years depending on climate and are NOT recyclable. Home solar systems lose capacity yearly and the panels need to be replaced right around the time you reach "payback" in most cases up north. The batteries are highly toxic with the Cobalt, and lithium which have to be mined and which we don't have enough of anyway. Then there's our infrastructure which is outdated and overloaded and congress is too busy spending money on the mating habits of rats on cocaine to come up with a budget to fix it!
Tripple the energy in 40 years. Unsustainable.
Not surprising. Coal has more energy per unit than anything else. Instead of dismissing it, we should find ways to burn it cleaner.
There is an energy crisis simmering on the back burner in the Ric-DC-Baltimore corridor. They are building huge data(cloud) warehouses as fast as they can. Most of their energy comes from WV coal power plants. Power produced is pretty much at capacity. These data farms are being completed with no new capacity to be had. The electrical contractors can't hook them up because there is no capacity to be had. And WV is supposed to shut down all coal plants by 2030. Who want so take bets that will happen? Will the US be as dumb as Germany in closing down coal plants? A lot of these data farms are AWS.
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Still working on Cold Fusion (or is that a band?)
Because the power of NIMBY can't be beaten.
Not trying to be an jerk, but you could probably widen your range of news/information sources.
I read most blades have around a 20 year life span, and they are made with fiber glass and balsa wood. Also I see that approx 3000 turbines are installed each year in the US.
There are also approx 300,000 boats sold in the US each year, which many/most? are made of fibre glass-wood and not easily recyclable either, and maybe they average a 20 year lifespan as well? I don't read in the news that problems with disposal of old boats is a reason to not have boats?
I do think that lots of renewable/green energy systems could use some regulations to consider their whole lifespan to make recycling easily done for things like batteries and solar panels, and that adds expense as well, which hampers the industry.
But if you look at the global effects of fossil fuels, they aren't "better", they are very cheap energy today that is sabotaging the future. By allowing things like single use plastics and cheap disposable junk to be built anywhere labour is cheap and poor environmental regulations exist and shipped globally. And also increasing CO2 and methane concentrations in the atmosphere leading to ever worsening wildfire seasons in Canada, melting ice caps, etc...
Coal is cheap and many countries don't have the same degree of private property rights so air quality is second fiddle. However coal has remained relatively level from 2010-2023 whereas NatGas and renewables have expanded.
Cost. Failures due to shortcuts can have catastrophic consequences. Imagine for moment if Boeing with all their recent press was as nuclear operator upwind of you. How confident would you feel?
People want cheap. Unfortunately the cheaper you get the pollution penalty goes up. Since many people don't experience the effects of said pollution they don't believe it exists or understate the severity because cheap is a priority.
Yes because WV needs more polluted streams.
https://wvpublic.org/more-than-300-...ental Protection Agency,two years to the EPA.
https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_report.cfm?Lab=NERL&dirEntryId=238504
Design one which could power a house and fits in a 5'x5' cube.Don’t blame me. I literally design nuclear power plants for a living!
Yeah, how dare all those 3rd world people start using appliances and HVAC!
