Re:Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?
by ben_w on Friday December 04, 2020 @10:57AM
(#25303733)
> Ah yes, because the other countries will magically have the spare capacity (both in terms of generation and transmission)?
I believe simongr3dal’s argument is the invisible hand of the free market, not magic.
Optimistically, solar resources are more evenly distributed than oil and gas, so no country can act like Russia; pessimistically, Russia isn’t the first country to exert influence by threatening to cease supply of its resources, and it won’t be the last; the optimistic response to which is that there are many ways to solve seasonal issues, for example the UK (personal familiarity, no other reason for this example) could plan 18-hours local storage and enough local production for winter rather than summer.
Ah yes, because the other countries will magically have the spare capacity (both in terms of generation and transmission)?
We already see this play out in Europe: nobody there wants to do anything about russia because they control the natural gas supply.
>The point is NOT to outsource your country's entire electricity production.
Maybe, but the effects are the same. If you can't produce enough electricity to make it through the night, that puts you in very vulurable position. Even if it doesn't completely shut down the country, it might cause enough unrest to topple the current administration (eg. if they're only leading in the polls by a few percentage points and there's an election in a few months).