
In a First, Renewable Energy Is Poised to Eclipse Coal in U.S. - ingve
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/climate/coronavirus-coal-electricity-renewables.html
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vikramkr
Hopefully, the investments we're seeing in nuclear will help make it
(politically) competitive again to fill the need for baseline power that
natural gas is filling. Lower costs to build a plant would lower the
activation energy needed to get plants running, non-weaponizeable fuels would
help geopolitically, amd especially decreased or less dangerous nuclear waste
would be politically hugely important. In the absence of a breakthrough with
fusion, fission power could go a long way to cutting carbon emissions

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cbmuser
In the electricity sector, yes. Not so much when it comes to process heat and
district heating.

Renewables still contribute less than 10% to the overall energy consumption in
the US:

>
> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31Bi2LpLoK8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31Bi2LpLoK8)

In Germany, where renewables already contribute up to 40% in the electricity
sectors (13% of the overall energy consumption), the emissions in the
electricity sector are still very bad with up to 600 grams of CO2 emitted per
kWh while France emits only 50 grams on average. At the same time, a kWh costs
around 30 cents per kWh in Germany while the price in France is half of that.

> [https://www.electricitymap.org/](https://www.electricitymap.org/)

>
> [https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Japan/electricity_prices/](https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Japan/electricity_prices/)

See also this study which has researched the negative effects of Germany's
outphasing of nuclear and the switch to renewables:

> [https://www.haas.berkeley.edu/wp-
> content/uploads/WP304.pdf](https://www.haas.berkeley.edu/wp-
> content/uploads/WP304.pdf)

What we need is nuclear, it saves lives:

>
> [https://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/kharecha_02/](https://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/kharecha_02/)

Renewables cannot and will never be able to power an industry nation unless
the country in question has the possibility for large hydro power plants.

But hydro power has dramatic negative effects on nature and humans:

> [https://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/the-
> forgotten-...](https://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/the-forgotten-
> legacy-of-the-banqiao-dam-collapse-7821)

> [https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/turkey-ilisu-dam-
> hasa...](https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/turkey-ilisu-dam-hasankeyf-
> water)

~~~
IvyMike
> Not so much when it comes to process heat and district heating.

Are you saying we are using more _coal_ than renewables for heating? Or are
you comparing all fossil fuel usage v. renewables?

