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Europe is locking itself in to US LNG

(davekeating.substack.com)
151 points hunglee2 | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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jsnider3 ◴[] No.45262472[source]
Renewables solves this.
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probablypower ◴[] No.45262574[source]
This is confidently incorrect.

Gas power generation is a necessary evil to balance out the variability of intermittent energy generation (i.e. wind and solar).

Hydropower isn't a feasible alternative because the easy resources have been developed.

The only alternative source of flexibility available today is demand side response.

Edit: I appreciate the down votes, as I've not explained in detail. It is a complex issue. My opinions are based on having a phd in the topic, 10+ years in control rooms, years of market operations and design, and years contributing to europe-wide risk assessment methodologies.

I emplore anyone who is actually interested in how energy mix actually impacts grid stability/reliability to look into the Eirgrid DS3 programme (https://www.eirgrid.ie/ds3-programme-delivering-secure-susta...).

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lukan ◴[] No.45262624[source]
What about large quanzities of batteries everywhere around europe?

If prices continue to drop, there will be a powerwall alike in every second house in some years.

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nradov ◴[] No.45262829[source]
You can't run a factory or data center off of batteries for long. Why do people think that residential power is the issue here?
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1. roadside_picnic ◴[] No.45265765[source]
> Why do people think that residential power is the issue here?

My experience has been that the vast majority of people, even very technical people, don't really understand the energy mix required to sustain modern industrial technology. Their only experience is with their utility bill which shows them a pie-chart with a big area showing "green" so they can feel better about the state of things.

Electricity production accounts for the minority of energy usage, and residential a minority of the usage of electricity. People don't think about the energy required to send an Amazon package to their door or have fruits from South America stocking their grocery store year round, or even to create the industries that ultimately make up their paychecks each month.

The pandemic was the best view of what real energy usage changes would look like. Early pandemic was a rare moment when global energy usage dipped and that had nothing to do with the demand on the residential grid.