#SodiumIon #batteries hit the Midwestern grid in first-of-its-kind pilot in Wisconsin
Simpler design could make a meaningful dent in the cost of storing #electricity
According to #PeakEnergy cuts lifetime cost of stored energy by an average of $70 per KWh. Half cost of #battery today. Achieves savings by removing energy-hungry cooling, eliminating routine maintenance requirements, and reducing need to overbuild storage capacity to account for battery degradation over time
https://electrek.co/2026/03/11/sodium-ion-batteries-hit-the-midwestern-grid-in-first-of-its-kind-pilot/

"Nuclear Is Not The Answer" by #ArtBerman

https://www.artberman.com/blog/nuclear-is-not-the-answer/

"Among the most frustrating parts of discussions about the human predicament is the widespread belief that nuclear energy is the answer. It’s not. If money were not a consideration—but it is—nuclear plants just can’t be built fast enough to make much of a difference."

Art includes a wider view than just greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emissions. Examples:

"Carbon emissions and the overshooting of planetary boundaries are unlikely to decrease as long as energy consumption, world GDP and population continue to increase (Figure 7). The interrelationship of these factors with the degradation of Earth’s ecosystem means that there are no solutions without a structural change in all of these factors as a starting point. This implies that a civilizational paradigm shift is required."

"When I talk to people about energy, the environment and the human predicament, they want me to help them understand what society can do to solve the problems that I describe. They are often frustrated when I tell them that it’s not that simple. Focusing on one part of the predicament like emissions or nuclear power may feel satisfying but simply shifts most of the problem somewhere else."

This is a very important statement. I think our world is full of people trying to optimize a narrow problem, thus externalizing impacts elsewhere. This does not produce any global optimization, and instead avoids or prevents the necessary global changes, since everyone (or most people) deceive themselves thinking that they are actually contributing to such optimization. This idea is not mine, actually, it comes from Daniel Schmachtenberger, also taken by Nate Hagens. We need systems-wide ways to approach the solutions. Our problemes go way beyond just substituting an energy source for another (although this problem itself is already a massive one).

#PeakEnergy #Collapse #GreatSimplification #LongDescent #SenecaCliff #CarbonEmissions #NateHagens #DanielSchmachtenberger

Energy and the Financial System: What Everyone Needs to Know and Work Darn Hard to Avoid http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-04-07/energy-and-the-financial-system-what-everyone-needs-to-know-and-work-darn-hard-to-avoid #degrowth #downshifting #eroi #growth #peakEnergy #peakOil

Found this in 2013: #nuclearPower Prevents More Deaths Than It Causes" comments ten years later is welcome http://cen.acs.org/articles/91/web/2013/04/Nuclear-Power-Prevents-Deaths-Causes.html #climateChange #coal #health #nuclearWaste #peakComplexity #peakEnergy

What if Nuclear Energy had not been Abandoned in the 1970s? https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-great-turning-point-for-humankind.html #nuclearPower #peakEnergy #downshifting #geopolitics #peakOil

The deeper meaning buried in the data on carbon emissions http://www.fraw.org.uk/blog/posts/020/index.shtml #peakEnergy #decarbonisation #downshifting #rationing #greatReset #growth #gdp #degrowth