Mastodawn

Since releasing my oil video I've had so many people claiming that renewables will never work and we need nuclear power instead.

What's odd is that almost all of the messages mention that nuclear power is the only solution for the "base load".

I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and I took several nuclear science electives. I like nuclear energy. But I received so much "base load" gaslighting that I started to doubt my own understanding of the situation.

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Soso 1d ago

@notjustbikes I used to be very pro-nuclear. While.I still think removing power plants today for ecological reasons is highly counter productive, I have significantly changed my position overall. So many countries don't have the ability to deploy nuclear. They don't have any already, building the expertise takes decades, and can be the cause of geopolitical tensions (see Iran...).

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kravietz 🦇1d ago

@sgued

Have you considered geopolitical tensions in an industry where 85% of the whole supply chain (!) is controlled by a single authoritarian country?

That’s the PV market today and includes not only the panels but also backdoored inverters…

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Future Sprog 1d ago

Plenty of other countries and companies can produce panels. LG, who are Korean, make a lot of PV.

Also, once purchased, they keep running without requiring approval and new shipments from an authoritarian country, so your fears are somewhat overblown.

@kravietz @sgued

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kravietz 🦇22h ago

@futuresprog

1) “Can produce” != “do produce”
2) 85% supply chain control means even if you intend start your own production, you still depend on China for resources… which they can cut at any time, as they occasionally do with rare earth metals etc
3) moving production back to EU means cost increase because you no longer leverage Chinese forced labour, poor environmental standards, subsidies and low CO2 tax

Which are the reasons why China built that supply chain dependency in the first place 🤷

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Future Sprog 15h ago

Oh you muppet.

You’re telling me because I have Korean-made solar panels installed on my house and gathering renewable energy that I currently rely on China and forced labour? Get out of here.

What are you proposing? That I get rid of my solar installation and import some diesel from Saudi Arabia and support Mohammed Bone Saw?

Goddamn stupidest thing I’ve read today. You should be ashamed.

@kravietz

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Future Sprog 14h ago

I see you’re a supporter of nuclear energy. You might have missed the first post in this thread about how building new nuclear plants is not something that happens anymore realistically.

Also, I’m in nuclear-free Aotearoa, so that will never happen.

New power capacity for the home owner either comes from solar panels, which can be imported from Korea, or it comes from diesel generation on the other side of the globe, supporting the worst repressive regime you can imagine.

I’m supporter of decarbonisation.

Nuclear power is the only low-carbon electricity generation that is dispatchable and does not depend on geography.

Unlike the PV & wind fans, I’m not going to tell you what you should be using in Aotearoa. You should use whatever works in your geographic landscape and lattitude and delivers decarbonisation.

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Future Sprog

I’m also a supporter of decarbonisation, and despite your assurances you most definitely are telling other people what to do.

Nuclear power doesn’t work regardless of geography. Nuclear power isn’t viable here due to culture, geology, and … geography.

IF you want decarbonisation, THEN you look at IPCC & UNECE data and choose technology that works in your geography.

The part where I step in is when people deny IPCC & UNECE data, be it in causes of the climate change or the role of nuclear in decarbonisation. Funny thing the former are rare here, but frequent on Twitter, but vice versa for the latter 😄 But one can’t say “I follow science” but then cherry-pick from IPCC “because I feel so”.