Jenny ChaseMay 5

I have been at the #solarpowersummit today, being on the jury for the European Solar Startup award (winner by audience vote: ReLi Energy, which optimises large-scale battery use for longevity).

I am also quite drunk and hungry because the drinks opened at 19:30, food at 20:00, and my overnight bus left at 20:30.

But, we are not talking about climate any more, just energy security, and that's probably fine? I don't care much *why* we don't buy fossil fuel to burn.

Richard WilliamsMay 5
Show threadJenny Chase

It really is remarkable that in my working lifetime we have gone from "sure, we have the moral imperative to stop burning the super convenient millions of years' worth of stored energy" to "yeah it sucks to burn stuff that arrives in a tanker, it is cheaper to use the sun and a big battery".

Honestly think that's why a lot of renewable energy news has moved from the climate page to the business / industry pages. And that has to be good.

May 5 at 6:23pmWeb
Show threadJenny ChaseMay 5
Idk people I am pretty drunk but we might just make it as a species.
Show threadJenny ChaseMay 5
Also Brussels is either magnificent and bare like this, or narrow streets covered with piles of garbage bags. I haven't seen so many rats in one place for ages. Basically the apocalypse could happen and Brussels would look the same for several weeks.
Show threadJenny ChaseMay 5
Anyway I have to get home tonight because the fat baby (pictured) has a doctor appointment at 7:30am. Hence, overnight Flixbus. Weirdly satisfying, to ride through the night, even if they do now have a "no taking shoes off" rule. (I brought extra clean socks...?)
Show threadJenny ChaseMay 6
Update: took an overnight bus home when drunk and aged 43, feel like I nearly died. I will learn nothing from this and will probably do it again next year if invited to the event.
Show threadBruno GirinMay 6
@solar_chase oops!
Show threadCarlton GibsonMay 6
@solar_chase I’ve enjoyed reading your night out live blog. Thanks!
Show threadOtte Homan - remember GeordieMay 6
@solar_chase let's just say we collectively hope that the hangover isn't too bad.
Show threadTomMay 6

@solar_chase

Truth!

Show threadsoaprootMay 6
@solar_chase I'm not wishing on you the unpleasant or unhealthy aspects of this. But I did enjoy the live posting.
Show threadDan ShumanMay 5
@solar_chase Those drumsticks!
Show threadHenri HornMay 5
@solar_chase Isn't it frustrating that public toilets at bus stations cost about one euro, but toilets at airports are always free of charge...
Show threadcodoMay 5
@henrihorn @solar_chase The loss of toilet income is recouped in fuel savings.
Show threadRaglan Niall  May 5
@solar_chase
more tipsy commentary please :-)
Show threadJust MeMay 5
@solar_chase I thought bags were optional in Brussels 🤔
Show threadPeet TetterooMay 6
@solar_chase
The HantaVirus looming...
Show threadnotsoloudMay 5
@solar_chase
So that's the beer scenario then. Let's turn it into a coffee scenario!
Show threadJustin ScholzMay 5
@solar_chase these are the takes I‘m here for from a Bloomberg author.
Show threadsee shy joMay 5

@solar_chase oh this so echos the end of KSR's "Ministry for the Future" where a character kinda like you goes to Fasnacht and concludes:

"We will keep going, she said to him in her head— to everyone she knew or had ever known, all those people so tangled inside her, living or dead, we will keep going, she reassured them all, but mostly herself, if she could; we will keep going, we will keep going, because there is no such thing as fate. Because we never really come to the end."

Show threadJenny ChaseMay 6

@joeyh thank you, this is delightful!

My main memory of that Ministry character is that she is extremely boring, lives in Zurich and drinks "kaffee fertig" all the time, so pretty much exactly like me except for her choice of booze :)

Show threadcpmMay 5

@solar_chase
'has to be good.'

Ehhh, yeah?
I suppose?
Maybe?

thing:
biz:industry has a funny way of just ruining everything

Show threadJenny ChaseMay 5
@cpm but it does get stuff done.
Show threadcpmMay 5

@solar_chase
indeed it does!

&

the model itself is quite solid

Show threadcpmMay 5

@solar_chase
me
(having actually suffered the prose of Adam Smith)

imagines
'Energy'

in Adam Smith's 'capitalism' (coin termed by Marx)

We'd likely have nukes.
(though governments can not be trusted with them, so some other thing)
Hydro, Wind, Big Solar

Coal?
Super-handy in a pinch.

Natural Gas?
errr, , stop popping holes you can't plug

oil?
Lol!

Show threadsoaprootMay 6
@solar_chase The shift from climate to energy security has several effects and one is that we start to see the OTHER benefits of electrification more clearly (less non-CO2 pollution, quieter, these days usually cheaper, etc).
Show threadTomMay 6
@solar_chase I think Jiga Shah was saying that the renewables portfolio has moved from the (relatively feeble) energy portfolio to the (seriously powerful) defence portfolio in many countries. So things _might_ start moving a lot faster in some places.