Mastodawn

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸1d ago

I hate this timeline.

As a long time #climate campaigner... I almost feel like I should be hoping that the Iran/US war continues as long as possible so the price of oil and gasoline can go as high as possible and force economies to electrify and shift at emergency-speed to renewables.

We could have started on this the easy way 30 years ago... but a few of the same people objected and obstructed.

#IranUSIsraelWar #ClimateCatastrophe #ClimateWar #Oil #EndFossilFuels #ClimateCollapse #USA #CanPoli #CdnPoli

MilitaryG 1d ago

@chris 30 years ago we weren't ready for electrify we would go back to horses. Now we ain't ready to go back to the horses.

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸1d ago

@MilitaryG we could have *started* 30 years ago in many many ways that would have our position today very very different

Space Burger Steve 🌌🍔🤪1d ago

@chris @MilitaryG

Electricity generating wind turbines were invented in 1883. Vancouver has had electric trolley busses since 1948. The first concentrated solar power plant was built in 1968. Germany set up funding for installing photovoltaic roofs in 1989, Japan followed in 1994. Ballard went public in 1993, I remember reading about their fuel cells and electric cars in high school.

All the tech existed in 1996, financial necessity would have pushed innovation a lot harder than environmental foresight did.

Frick, George W Bush advocated for turning to hydrogen as an energy source in his 2003 State Of The Union address, not for the environment, but to make America less dependent on foreign energy. I'm still bitter that environmentalists didn't use that opportunity to latch on to protectionism to sell renewables to conservatives. That could have been 23 years of preparation. Not much choice now.

MilitaryG 1d ago

@Space_Burger_Steve @chris agree but problem was battery wasn't so efficient as it's today the most effective was lead battery which would make car weight maybe 10 tons to drive maybe 50km

With li-ions it's much better.

@MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve @chris Connecticut has had pumped hydro storage since 1929. Still operational. Obviously not a battery solution possible everywhere, but certainly could have been more widely adopted to address the battery “problem.”

@IcooIey @MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve @chris

I'm guessing it's been a real uphill battle all along. (brfffpt!)

@danneau @MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve @chris I don’t think pumped hydro gets enough credit or press. It’s over 88% of energy storage capacity in the US, 43 plants with 22 GW generating capacity.

Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE 1d ago

@IcooIey @danneau @MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve @chris I visited a pumped hydro plant. The one statistic they didn't tell us, until I asked, was the round trip efficiency. Compared to modern grid scale batteries, which didn't of course exist when the plant was built, it wasn't very good.

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸1d ago

@TimWardCam @IcooIey @danneau @MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve interesting! Is there a place to see some examples of those numbers?

Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE

@chris @IcooIey @danneau @MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve Probably. For the pumped hydro the tour guide said something like 60%, but other plants will presumably be different; a quick web search suggests around 86% for grid scale batteries.

Human 3500 1d ago

@TimWardCam
I believe some islands in the ocean use excess power from solar and wind generation to pump the water up. Batteries might be more efficient - i wonder when it makes sense to shut down the pumping infrastructure? Payoff is likely measured in years.
@chris @IcooIey @danneau @MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve

Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE 1d ago

@human3500 @chris @IcooIey @danneau @MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve As long as excess wind power is available in the middle of the night pumped hydro is getting on for free at any efficiency.

Ross of Ottawa 1d ago

@human3500 @TimWardCam
I remember some work showing compressed air was the most efficient storage option followed by pumped hydro and hydrogen.

Compressed air has higher capital cost though, so pumped hydro moves up in the ranking on a cost analysis.

@chris @IcooIey @danneau @MilitaryG @Space_Burger_Steve

MilitaryG 1d ago

@ottaross @human3500 @TimWardCam @chris @IcooIey @danneau @Space_Burger_Steve yeah all this researchers and struggle to make it work with less expense for travel than a politician sees omg we can get some money in to income by giving tax on oil lets make it a standard. Period. Nothing can be developed cuz of stupidity.

I still think we were way not prepared for electrify.
Why cuz politicians would let us die it's oil crisis we can't do anything.

But people are doing it going to electricity.

MilitaryG 1d ago

@ottaross @human3500 @TimWardCam @chris @IcooIey @danneau @Space_Burger_Steve politicians are just watching and in the end they will say oh it was our work.

Literally taking all people's hard work for their own credit.

That's why we would go back to horses.