this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2024
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we're basically hoping the massive push to batteries/Solar by both China and the U.S is successful in the next decade as they are the countries with the highest KW/h usage to lay a gameplan to get neighboring countries to do the same if it proves to be fruitful.
This will not save us, we're still set to burn way too much fossil fuel even with fast EV/solar/electrification.
We. Need. To. Consume. Less.
But... but... what about infinite growth??
have you seen the sharp decline of fossil fuel based energy in some locations? The whole point in the necessary move for a battery storage in the long term is to minimize the requirement to boot up gas facilities after work hours, where peak power usage happens and solar is minimum.
The problem with global usage is poorer nations cannot afford to switch off dirty energy, and richer nations have a harsh post work hour usage. Lowering usage doesn't fix the problem that there are dozens of countries that will still continue to burn dirty till some country invests in a cleaner option.
put in perspective, even though China and the US has the most power consumption, unlike GDP, it doesn't take that many more countries after them to equate how much power they consume. So unless theres a global shutoff of power (which on its own, will have a plethora of long lasting problems if everything just shuts down), the best solution is to swap the type of energy that generates the most heat/green house gasses out.
There's a few countries with huge hydroelectric resources, which are not applicable to most of the world. Other countries have merely seen a peak and slight decline, and based on trends it will take decades for that decline to reach the levels we need tomorrow. Demand for compute from the AI tech bubble has basically destroyed all the progress we've made since the pandemic.
The problem is too much consumption. Rich nations gobble up as much as they can and poorer nations are used as their mining pits and factories to feed the endless appetite for more, and as long as this continues the world is going to continue warming.