Germany's Solar Panel Industry, Once a Leader, Is Getting Squeezed

Re:Germany's Solar Panel Industry, Once a Leader, Is Getting... by nradov on Monday March 25, 2024 @10:11AM (#39816557)

Throughout human history, increases in per capita energy consumption have been directly coupled with increases in living standards. Perhaps we will see some decoupling between those metrics, but I doubt it.

And while there are good environmental reasons to reduce fossil fuel use we are in no danger of running out of affordable stocks. Alarmists have been predicting "peak oil" for decades but the extraction industry keeps improving their technology.

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Re:Germany's Solar Panel Industry, Once a Leader, Is Getting... by faeriechangling on Monday March 25, 2024 @04:59PM (#39821210)

I think if the future of affordable oil relies on us continuously inventing ourselves out of the problem, that implies a great deal of danger.

Just because the shale revolution embarrassed the peak oil crowd doesn’t guarantee shale revolutions happening over and over. If you ignore shale and look at conventional oil reserves several of the peak oil alarmists were essentially correct in their timing. Now shale production is seemingly plateauing.

Maybe we’ll end up with a bitumen or natural gas revolution next but I’m sceptical. I think we’re kind of fucked honestly and only attacking this on the demand side will save us, I don’t see green energy as saving us or nuclear either.

[ Parent | on HN ]