It's not necessary to come up with some novel whackadoodle idea to fix this.
The solution is to charge enough for power that the grid can be maintained to deliver it. The public have been giving themselves a pass on this since the 1960s with some fanciful idea that noting will ever break or fail and we will someday reduce our energy consumption -- something which has yet to occur in the entirety of human history. Energy is way too cheap; modern habits are the result of decades of market dumping. The bill is due; it must be paid.
The energy efficiency initiatives of the 1970s significantly reduced the energy cost of economic activity. (Ironically, this helped kill nuclear, by undercutting the expected increase in demand that utilities built all those nuclear power plants to meet.)
The ongoing clean energy transition could bring us cheaper energy and divorce grid energy usage from greenhouse gas emissions.
I disagree. Efficiency gains lead to more economic opportunity and therefore increase demand. People are not content to "do the same with less;" they will instead "do more with the same."
I will leave it to say that there's no evidence that any kind of "energy transition" is or will take place any time soon, at least not at the global scale. Pick any source of energy you like; our peak consumption of that energy source throughout the entirety of of human history is today.
Today is peak oil; today is peak solar; today is peak nuclear; today is peak wood burning stove. We can't even "energy transition" people off of open flame kitchens! Whatever belief you hold that that things are in motion that will fix this -- they seem to be very much not.
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Think hard and write better solution.
It's not necessary to come up with some novel whackadoodle idea to fix this.
The solution is to charge enough for power that the grid can be maintained to deliver it. The public have been giving themselves a pass on this since the 1960s with some fanciful idea that noting will ever break or fail and we will someday reduce our energy consumption -- something which has yet to occur in the entirety of human history. Energy is way too cheap; modern habits are the result of decades of market dumping. The bill is due; it must be paid.
The energy efficiency initiatives of the 1970s significantly reduced the energy cost of economic activity. (Ironically, this helped kill nuclear, by undercutting the expected increase in demand that utilities built all those nuclear power plants to meet.)
The ongoing clean energy transition could bring us cheaper energy and divorce grid energy usage from greenhouse gas emissions.
I feel like the future is looking bright.
Sorry in advance for a fatalistic argument.
I disagree. Efficiency gains lead to more economic opportunity and therefore increase demand. People are not content to "do the same with less;" they will instead "do more with the same."
I will leave it to say that there's no evidence that any kind of "energy transition" is or will take place any time soon, at least not at the global scale. Pick any source of energy you like; our peak consumption of that energy source throughout the entirety of of human history is today.
Today is peak oil; today is peak solar; today is peak nuclear; today is peak wood burning stove. We can't even "energy transition" people off of open flame kitchens! Whatever belief you hold that that things are in motion that will fix this -- they seem to be very much not.