Heatwave energy shortages would have been ‘much worse’ without solar power, experts say
Heatwave energy shortages would have been ‘much worse’ without solar power, experts say
www.euronews.com
Solar is helping prevent heatwave power cuts in Europe
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/1175189
Archived version: https://archive.ph/BHN1n
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230807191826/https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/08/07/heatwave-energy-shortages-would-have-been-much-worse-without-solar-power-experts-say
Bit of a tangent, but I strongly suspect a lot of the anti-nuclear and anti-solar/wind energy propaganda has been financed by the likes of Russia and Saudi Arabia. Not just in Europe, where at this point it's frankly blatant, but in the US too.
The US may be autarkic when it comes to energy, but given oil and gas is traded on international markets, lowered demand (and energy prices) benefits everyone.
I know everyone likes to shit on German for their over reliance on Russian gas, rightly so, but last time I checked over 60% of US electricity is generated from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, Germany something like 50% of their electricity comes from renewables.
Any western politician who argues against investing heavily in renewables and/or nuclear, is essentially betraying their countries and voters' interests. If they're not corrupt, they're dumber than a microwaved turd. And spare me the pro-business/pro-jobs argument, if in practice you're forcing domestic companies to subsidise Saudi Arabia and Russia through increased oil prices.
It's hard to say "the US" when it's made of three distinct grids and each grid has differing suppliers. This is a slightly worse generalization than calling Europe a single country. The grid makeup is very regional and varies widely from operator to operator.
https://app.electricitymaps.com/map
If you click around you'll see that most of the renewables that show up on the map are hydro. Solar and wind are making a bigger percentage as time goes on but the entrenched investments in fossil fuels do not exactly get replaced overnight.
Germany reunified in 1991. Until then a large proportion of the country was an impoverished communist dictatorship and soviet client state. Currently they're at 50% renewables. Was half of Texas annexed by Cuba until the 90s? Is that why they didn't have money to pivot to renewables?
Moldova is still partially occupied by Russia and has a per capita GDP of $6000 dollars. Indiana has a per capita GDP of $61000. Guess whether Indiana or Moldova generate more electricity from renewables...
The US is the richest country on earth. Not having made the pivot to renewables is a political choice. You can blame corruption. You can blame undue influence of the fossil fuel lobby.
But let's be real, a large proportion of Americans would rather buy a new and unnecessarily large truck than install solar panels on their roof or invest in a heat pump. I mean, IRC some or other government agency suggesting you should get rid of your gas stove became politically controversial in the US not so long ago. Michelle Bachmann ran a campaign against energy saving lightbulbs, for gods' sake!
You don't need a new powergrid to install solar panels on your roof or replace your gas stove with induction. All that is required is a realisation that saving energy isn't gay, anti-christian or communism.
TBF Biden's actually doing something about it, and California's been ahead of the curve since forever, but half of congress and 'real America' is throwing a tantrum.