this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
15 points (85.7% liked)
Green Energy
4150 readers
33 users here now
Everything about energy production and storage.
Related communities:
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This article ignores a lot of reality when it comes to firming renewables, and my paranoia was triggered when they wrote mainstream media.
Shilling out for the fossil fuel lobby.
Sure, it is not going to be easy, or quick (enough), but cost is going to drive out the more expensive forms of generation, which will be coal and gas.
Do you know of a way to efficiently produce the infrastructure needed for solar, wind, etc using energy from solar, wind, etc such that the energy return on energy (ERoE) is high enough? That seemed like the crux of the argument made in the article, and I'd be interested to read a rebuttal.
I think that is a bit of a mis-direct. We don't need that now, but we do need to develop it. There are plenty of electricity sources that provide enough for industry (plenty of hydro as a simple example).
The chemical processes require research and subsequent change, but removing thermal coal and just using coking coal is a massive reduction in coal usage. Maybe that is ok to get us over the hump. There is a lot of research into direct reduced iron, which is an example of removing coal from that particular process. It is not impossible, but currently maybe not too easy.