

Energy talk: Nuclear vs Coal. But what about wind, water, sun? - thesethings

Due to recent events, I've witnessed a few Twitter fights debating nuclear safety, viability, and coal energy.<p>But I'm wondering why people discuss water, wind, and sun energy less seriously. Where I live, we have an option to get a major chunk of our home's energy from these sources. (And yes, I use this option.)<p>I've always assumed that these three sources (nicknamed "renewable" in Oregon power companies) just suffered from the "organic catch-22." There's not much of it, because people don't buy it, because there's not much of it, because people don't buy it.<p>But in the back of my mind, I assumed that if infrastructure slowly moved over, we could actually live in a world run by this stuff.<p>I've also seen and read about very big businesses powered by these energy sources.<p>But now I'm feeling like an ignorant dork. People who I respect don't even bring up the renewable trio when discussing nuclear vs coal energy. I can only assume there's something really inefficient about them that everybody knows about except for me.<p>Anybody truly informed about it wanna chime in? Though I may ask further questions, I am not trying to start anything contentious.
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jeffreymcmanus
Water, wind and sun won't displace nuclear and carbon-based energy for a
number of reasons, cost being foremost. The best that "renewable" energy can
do is temper demand for carbon-based energy.

The only reasonable replacement for the power infrastructure we have today is
fusion power, but that's between 10 and 50 years away from commercial
viability depending on who you listen to.

~~~
thesethings
Is this cost like "organic" cost? (In that organic things get cheaper the more
that gets produced).

Is there hope of renewable energy sources getting cheaper if they get more
ubiquitous? In Portland we have a major wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas
(<http://www.vestas.com>. They are from Europe, but have a big location here).

I guess my question is, the blades + farms get cheaper in large quantities,
like anything else. So it seems the cost part could get better. But if they
simply can't make enough power, that seems harder to conquer. Are you saying
these things can't make enough power? (I suspect everybody knows this except
for me.)

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thesethings
[Update. I'm slightly more educated than I was a few hours ago.]

I've found two reports that outline ways to migrate to renewables. They are
sobering, but actually achievable.

A common thread among those who create actual concrete plans for running on
renewable energy is this: _We must use less energy to have our energy needs
met by renewable sources._

(Their projections do account for the growth of newly industrialized nations,
so it's not double-trouble.)

Some of the use-less-energy changes we would notice (how we get the food that
reaches our table), and other changes we could integrate and not notice at all
(lots of energy escapes buildings for no good reason, and that could change
with different process + design becoming more dominant).

A cool part is that they don't see higher cost as long-term issue (that
renewable energy is only temporarily expensive because it's uncommon and used
in small doses).

Another kinda optimistic thing is that parts of the world that are still
becoming "industrialized" have somewhat of an advantage (as they do with
leapfrogging any kind of tech generation), and in some cases are being born
with more renewable systems to begin with.

I completely understand those who overlook renewable sources because of the
amount of energy we _currently_ use is more than we can produce with them.
It's not a dumb conclusion. But after going over these reports, I don't think
using less energy is any more of an imposition than changing any other kind of
infrastructure, and in many cases is stuff we're moving towards anyway.

[http://getsatisfaction.com/wwf/topics/debate_the_energy_repo...](http://getsatisfaction.com/wwf/topics/debate_the_energy_report)
[http://assets.panda.org/downloads/101223_energy_report_final...](http://assets.panda.org/downloads/101223_energy_report_final_print_2.pdf)
[pdf, pdf, pdf! i warned you] [http://www.greenpeace.org/er-
ship/Global/international/publi...](http://www.greenpeace.org/er-
ship/Global/international/publications/climate/2010/summary.pdf) [pdf]

