Anyone moved out of US?

ryujin · Post by **ryujin** » Mon May 28, 2018 11:21 pm

metzo preggo?

Mastametz · Post by **Mastametz** » Mon May 28, 2018 11:50 pm

No, I just look like it.

Post by **zombywoof** » Tue May 29, 2018 2:55 am

Fine, grimmwolf. What if everyone just switched to the Germany way, which is to turn 30% of its peak capacity into renewables, pretend that actually accounts for more than 10% of the grid, and just run the rest off of coal? According to you that's the safe and environmentally friendly way to do it.

Bunnywabbit · Post by **Bunnywabbit** » Tue May 29, 2018 11:22 am

So here's some info on power generation for dummies, among whom i count myself. These sources helped me understand some of the issues better and which have made me a proponent of nuclear power.

First of all: burning coal produces a @#(!ton of radioactive waste as well, in addition to an enormous amount of regular waste, toxic dust particles, greenhouse gases and bigass holes in the ground - https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... ear-waste/ . So continuing burning coal is a bad idea by a lot of metrics.

But the main reason I bring it up: we need those RA-waste storage facilities anyway.

Meanwhile - people are a lot more scared of radioactivity than they need to be. Veritasium put the subject in perspective in this video, using bananas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRL7o2kPqw0&t=0s
Also here is thunderf00t on the subject, going around an actual reactor facility with a geiger counter : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDarcdMiIGs.

This doesn't mean storing RA waste is not a huge and difficult problem - just that the problems presented to us by other means of power generation are equally intractable at the least. Climate change is a much bigger and more serious problem than Radioactive waste storage. Especially since - as P1 mentioned - there are indications that we can generate power from it.

Solar power does not solve all your problems, because energy still needs to be stored efficiently because of something called the 'duck curve' - explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYLzss58CLs
Basically the deployment of solar panels causes huge fluctuations in power demand throughout the day, with demand peaking just as supply peters off. Other means of generating power have a hard time compensating for this variance.

The big problem is efficient energy storage. I had trouble finding a good source for the best production-ready battery efficiency currently, but I believe it's about 30% which is ... not great.
In the lab, effiencies of 75%-80% have been attained, so there's hope, but don't hold your breath. Best efficiency afaict is using electricity to lift something (e.g. water) and generating electricity by letting it down again as needed. Apparently they can do it with water with 87% efficiency - which is actually pretty amazingly good. So maybe in the future we won't have tesla style power walls, but grandfather-clock style systems of suspended weights in our walls, using peak power to lift the weights and harvesting the potential power on the way down again.

How awesome would it be if a centuries-old clockwork mechanic would be the solution?

Wasp · Post by **Wasp** » Tue May 29, 2018 12:56 pm

The path is quite clear...

Allow development to continue as the technology is extremely valuable for future survival. When you have what you need to re-emerge as a global dictator who can rule with power...

...you nuke them all. It's our only hope.

The current path is not only unsustainable, it's damage will become irreversible beyond that of a nuclear holocaust.

Post by **pkk** » Tue May 29, 2018 1:36 pm

There are technics to store solar energy efficient, but there is no will to invest into them (molten salt storage), because you earn more money much easier with current technics (see DESERTEC).

The same applies to nuclear power plants, there are designs which are more secure, but also require higher investments (again molten salt). People already invested to much into current technology and don't want to change.

SumVeritas · Post by **SumVeritas** » Tue May 29, 2018 3:00 pm

too many ppl agreeing with P1. The end is near!!

quick, release pcore17, so we can get things back to normal!!!!

Post by **zombywoof** » Tue May 29, 2018 4:04 pm

Bunnywabbit wrote:QUOTE (Bunnywabbit @ May 29 2018, 04:22 AM) How awesome would it be if a centuries-old clockwork mechanic would be the solution?

Absolutely ridiculous?

Archangelus · Post by **Archangelus** » Thu Jul 05, 2018 5:02 am

Come to brazil, we have girls in bikinis, and carnaval. Insta win.

Post by **zombywoof** » Thu Jul 05, 2018 6:42 pm

I've heard that yours is basically the only country on earth that is both a) not in an active civil war and b) has more shooting deaths per capita than the US.