My guess is that in a climate like Germany’s, solar isn’t consistent enough to provide the steady baseline power that coal plants can.

One of the complexities of power infrastructure is that demand must be met instantaneously and exactly. Coal and solar typically occupy different roles in a grid’s power sources. Coal plants are slow to start, but very consistent, so they provide baseline power. Solar is virtually instantaneous, but inconsistent, so it’s better suited to handle the daily fluctuations.

So, in a place like Germany, even in abundance, solar can’t realistically replace coal until we have a good way of storing power to act as a buffer. Of course, nuclear is a fantastic replacement for coal, but we all know how Germany’s politicians feel about it…

As bad as this sounds, I’m glad it has an outlet, rather than living 100% in someone’s blood for the rest of their life

Yeah I’m just surprised how fast that is, dang

80 megaBYTES? What part of the US are you in?

Depending on their impact, it is often worthwhile to seek alternatives that are less effective or convenient, but also less dangerous. We’ve had materials in the past which were also deemed “essential”, and yet we moved away from them.

A lot of miracle substances tend to be extremely dangerous. There’s nothing quite like asbestos when it comes to fire and heat resistance, but we can still make firefighters’ clothes, or fireproof buildings, or brakes, even if it means they’re heavier or harder to manufacture. R134 and especially R12 make fantastic refrigerants for car AC systems, but we phased those out in favor of substances that are more complex and costly to implement because of the calamitous effect they had on the ozone layer. Carbon tet is an incredible solvent and great at extinguishing fires too. But we don’t use that anymore either.

You could be right, maybe there is truly no way around PFOAs, but I’m just calling out a pattern here. And maybe there’s no workaround right now that doesn’t cause more harm, but with enough research and investment, we can get there in the future.

I’m cool with it in that state. But my concern here is that while it starts out innocent, if demand increases, it’s only a matter of time until they start mining it and chartering more ships to transport it. Especially in an economy like Greenland’s.

This same pattern has been followed a thousand times in the past. Lots of instances of abusing our natural resources start out innocently.

First of all, rooting for decentralized net 100%. Watching Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, etc. all get screwed over from the top down sucks. I really appreciate the strong community here - having it smaller and more engaging encourages participation and makes it feel a little more human.

However, I’m considering leaving Lemmy just because somehow it’s even more cynical than reddit, and I’m losing interest in opening the app if it’s just 99% downers. I mean almost every article is just crushingly bad news. The world is in a rough state for sure, and staying informed is really important! But trying to live on and find the good is near impossible here.

(Yes, I’m subbed to upliftingnews. That’s the 1%.)

Is this a demographics thing, or am I just subbed in all the wrong places? Maybe a bit of both?