Renewable Power Helped the United States Survive the Hottest Summer Ever::This summer, the United States endured the two warmest months ever recorded, yet the system held because of renewable energy.

  • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    Nuclear might have helped a bit more but yeah, glad renewable did something I suppose. The hotter solar panels get the less effective they are so not super excited for that one.

    • frezik@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      Nuclear would help it be really expensive. It doesn’t ramp up and down with demand.

      Solar does plenty when the sun is out, even if the temperature means efficiency isn’t at its peak. In other words, you gain several fold for a sunny day, while losing a few percent due to heat. That pattern tends to correspond with AC usage, so it’s actually ideal.

      • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’ll keep it a buck with you, solar panels are more expensive relative to their energy output. I get solar and renewable energy is the dream for most but as someone unafraid of nuclear fission, the only dream for me is fusion. Widespread adoption and better batteries would make renewables better but from the information I’ve seen, nothing compares to nuclear power per kw/h. Not even all renewables combined on their best day.

        • frezik@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          And yet no one with money to invest in the energy sector is caring to put a dime into new nuclear. They looked at their options and picked the one that doesn’t have a long history of cost and schedule overruns.

          • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            And the overuse of materials for solar is going to drive up their price and repair costs but hey we’ll see

            • frezik@midwest.social
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Which material do you think will be the limiting factor on photovoltaic production?

                • frezik@midwest.social
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  Lol, no. Besides the fact that we’ve barely started scaled production of perovskite cells, and that we’re still working out their longevity issues, their main advantage is that the materials used are cheap and abundant.

                  • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    arrow-down
                    2
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Lol it’s a mineral that requires Titanium to form and last I checked that wasn’t cheap. Not only that, but every first person country all at once making Perovskite cells, it’ll end up like Lithium in time. But again, even now as they exist, they pale in comparison to what nuclear can produce.