Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power

Re:Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power by ghouse on Monday July 27, 2020 @10:25AM (#23965346)

Renewables today are displacing energy 1:1. So, directly offsetting the fuel that would have otherwise been burned.

You're correct, that there is not a 1:1 reduction in fossil capacity through the construction of renewable capacity. But the fossil capacity is used less, as the marginal cost of the renewable energy is near zero.

Most pumped hydro today (at least in the US) was built during the nuclear build-out because nuclear can't easily be "load following." So, we had to build out additional infrastructure with low capacity factor.

IMO, tax emissions, let the free market figure it out.

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Re:Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power by Akronymus on Monday July 27, 2020 @10:36AM (#23965466)

For context: I live in austria, where we have the alps that provide a large amount of storage capacity.

Sadly we never got that nuclear power plant.

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Re:Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power by qserasera on Monday July 27, 2020 @02:23PM (#23967898)

I wonder if Germany actually will start to decommision all nuclear plants in 2022. From what I've heard they had some insane corruption in storing waste and not the best reactor designs.

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Re:Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power by cbmuser on Monday July 27, 2020 @06:50PM (#23970346)

Your rumors are untrue. Germany has one of the best reactor designs (the Konvoi) which was the basis for the new European Pressurized Reactor (EPR).

Also, there is no corruption around storing waste because we aren't storing waste yet anywhere outside nuclear facilities which are supervised by the government and the IAEA.

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Re:Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power by qserasera on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @01:50AM (#23972694)

Wow it looks like there has been some deep cleansing of articles about poor radioactive storage in Morsleben from a few reputable outlets. I'm not going to waste my life busting that censorship. Censoring those articles rather proves my point about corruption.

IAEA failed in Iran due to political posturing from europe. Europe has broken more than a few core international organizations. I'd rather not trust them to not cover up anything else for europe.

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Re:Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power by Akronymus on Monday July 27, 2020 @07:18PM (#23970519)

AFAIK they are already decomissioning nuclear plants. And replacing it with coal or gas. [1]

[1] https://cna.ca/news/germany-replaces-nuclear-coal-ghgs-skyro...

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Re:Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power by qserasera on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @01:51AM (#23972697)

Germany could try to rely on the EU nuclear program but it's likely to be co-opted by France and their nuclear program.

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Re:Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power by cbmuser on Monday July 27, 2020 @06:48PM (#23970333)

> Renewables today are displacing energy 1:1. So, directly offsetting the fuel that would have otherwise been burned.

Except they are not. Otherwise Germany wouldn't be one of the dirtiest electricity producers in Europe.

I don't know why EE supporters keep ignoring the fact that any electricity not produced by wind and solar despite being needed will be produced by gas or coal which is why Germany is massively investing into new gas plants and a second gas pipeline to Russia (Nordstream 2).

You cannot solely rely on wind or solar which are intermittent and have a low energy density.

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