Energy: now what?

@wajoma said
It's not left versus right, if anything it's the left/greenies who have been pushing the unreliable renewables.

Solar panels are useless without batteries and the technology isn't there. Solar energy makes other energy sources (coal, natural gas, other fossil fuels, nuclear) less efficient because it's constantly fluctuating, the other energy sources run most efficiently a ...[text shortened]... rthest ahead with the move also have the most expensive, most unreliable power which hurts everyone.

Not in the Netherlands. We’ve had right-wing governments in charge for what feels like a thousand years.

@divegeester said
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/mar/27/nuclear-power-is-back-in-the-game-but-remains-a-distant-prospect-for-uk

The UK govt is ramping up the use of electric cars with deadlines about banning new diesel (like diesel was ever cleaner than petrol, but we will leave that for now) cars by 2030 or whatever it is.

Problem is the national grid isn’t geared up for ...[text shortened]... power en mass now, or none of this battery powered BS is gonna happen.

Thoughts on any of this?

Hydrogen is the answer.
Like I stated in another thread.

They’ll use solar, wind and tidal energy to power hydrogen plants. And they’ll convert hydrogen in the cars to create the electricity needed to power them. Will start with busses, lorries and trucks, then the infrastructure will expand over the motorways and bob’s yer uncle.

This also frees up the national grid (so they’re not constantly charging car batteries).
Another problem most governments didn’t consider was the time of day most people would charge their batteries. The thinking was: during the night. The truth is: in the morning at work.

I agree that most windparks are bloody ugly, although some have a menacing industrial beauty to them. The reason they’re popular is that a wind turbine on land takes 6 months to recover the cost of building it. And they last for 20 years. Easy money in the bag. A windmill at sea takes about 3 months to recover its initial costs.

Nuclear power... I have to admit… is something I can’t get my head around yet. The experts I know seem to think its a safe and rational thing to do. But when I ask them about nuclear waste, they mumble something about transmutation and storage for a long, long time… and then switch back to the benefits… not very reassuring.

@shavixmir said
Hydrogen is the answer.
Like I stated in another thread.

They’ll use solar, wind and tidal energy to power hydrogen plants. And they’ll convert hydrogen in the cars to create the electricity needed to power them. Will start with busses, lorries and trucks, then the infrastructure will expand over the motorways and bob’s yer uncle.

This also frees up the national grid ...[text shortened]... tation and storage for a long, long time… and then switch back to the benefits… not very reassuring.

Hydrogen power is indeed a possible solution, but the technology for mass scale energy production from it is a long way off; whereas nuclear power technology has been with us for generations, we have been powering submarines and military ships with it for decades and yet there are how many thousands of tankers still pumping fossil gasses into the environment.

As for the waste, fire it into space. I’m sure Musk will want to help!

@great-king-rat said
@divegeester

Solar panels are only part of the solution. An important part, and they can become way more powerful than they currently are if their power is truly utilised, but still only a part.

There are all kinds of technological advancements as well as a change in the way we live our lives that can be done to battle both the energy crisis and the climate crisi ...[text shortened]... o much better than what we’re doing now without resorting to building a ton of nuclear power plants.

"Sun shade" or "sunshade" are valid English descriptors, but if attached to the side of a building I think "awning" is more typical.

How dependent was the Netherlands on Russian natural gas? I know many countries in Europe are in the process of drastically reducing natural gas consumption and/or dependency on Russian natural gas.