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Why doesn't the capitalist economy invest in cheap renewable energy? (www.youtube.com)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Disclaimer: OP doesn't support CCP or authoritarian communism.

TLDR Despite significant advancements and price drops in renewable energy sources, the lack of profitability compared to fossil fuels hinders investment and expansion. Factors like unbundled energy markets, volatility in pricing, and reliance on private investment further complicate the transition. The narrative calls for a reevaluation of energy production systems, advocating for state-led, publicly funded renewable projects to ensure a viable path toward sustainable energy solutions.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Compounding the problem is that the incentives for the company don't always align with the incentives for the person making the decisions.

If you work in an oil company, anything you do to invest in renewable energy will make you look like a traitor to your peers, and on a personal level, you'll be at risk of trading the existing huge well-polished mature empire underneath you for a scrappy little tiny empire that might or might not succeed. That distorts decision-making away from sensible decisions even in areas like the tech sector where the scrappy little empire might have orders of magnitude more profit in it. In energy, where as pointed out, the profit might actually be lower, there's not an energy company on the planet that will do much more than tell their marketing team to talk a lot about it so they look like they're doing something that people like.