
I’m no longer advocating for clean energy; here’s why (2017) - devy
https://jmkorhonen.net/2017/07/26/im-no-longer-advocating-for-clean-energy-heres-why/
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craftyguy
It was hard to figure out what the author's main points are, but it seems that
they are upset because (paraphrasing) "environmentalists are against nuclear
energy". Meanwhile, the author sees nuclear energy as part of the solution to
moving away from fossil fuels.

I think both, the author and the author's antagonists, are right: it'll take a
diversified source of energy (nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal, etc) to ween
the world off of burning shit, however it's very likely too late to mitigate
the problems we're going to face as a result of human-induced climate change.

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OnlineCourage
>I’ve recently studied the criticisms of prevailing economic system, and the
possibilities of radical left politics that would make “Star Trek socialism” –
or Fully Automated Luxury Communism – a topic of serious political debate.

His point is that, "I'm a consultant, I work in sweeping generalizations and
broker attention, give me money."

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andrewjl
Author has every right to stop, but should be mindful that solar is now
cheaper than coal in many geographies. And some of the most well-funded
companies on the planet are spending oodles of capital on battery technology.
(Literally almost every big tech company.)

Edit: Irony being that some of the largest deployments of solar panels are in
OPEC nations.

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mehrdadn
Does anyone know if _anyone_ in the world has been able to make even a gross
estimate of how much energy (and in general, environmental impact) goes into
making clean energy, and how it actually compares to dirty energy when
everything is included? (I mean including everything starting with mining the
relevant metals, etc.)

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js8
This is called EROEI:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_inve...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_invested)

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mehrdadn
Makes sense, thank you!

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cup
Considering the growth in renewable technology I'd like to see an updated
graph of build times. I doubt building Nuclear energy is anywhere near as fast
as renewable energy today.

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King-Aaron
This may be pretty inaccurate, but I recall hearing a comment from someone (in
a position of authority on the subject, but for the life of me can't remember
who it was) mention that "no nuclear reactor construction has ever been
completed on-time or on-budget".

I'd love to find the source of this quote though and check it's validity.

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boomboomsubban
This is a problem when you build ten, build a thousand and you'll have an
engineering force able to more accurately predict things.

