2d ago

Sometimes we create our own problems.

261 comments

The answer is batteries. And dismantling capitalism, but batteries first
- A big flaw in German energy policy that has done a great job in expanding renewables, includes not giving its industry variable rates, that lets them invest in batteries, and schedule production more seasonally, or if they have reduced demand due to high product prices from high energy costs, just have work on the good days.
  Using EVs as grid balancers can be an extra profit center for EV owners with or without home solar. Ultra cheap retail daytime rates is the best path to demand shifting. Home solar best path to removing transmission bottlenecks for other customers. Containerized batteries and hydrogen electrolysis as a service is a tariff exempt path at moving storage/surplus management throughout the world for seasonal variations, but significantly expanding renewables capacity without risking negative pricing, and making evening/night energy cheaper to boot.
- Nah, lets squash capitalism first.
  
  Not saying we shouldn’t do both, but in reality waiting to destroy capitalism before fixing the grid just means you have too much theory and not enough praxis.
  
  Lets squash it with batteries, they are heavy for a reason.
  
  Batteries for something like this would be something like a lake on top of, and at the bottom of, a mountain.
  Then you use excess power to move water up, and when you need power, the water comes down through a turbine.
  
  Honestly, this attitude is downright suicidal for our species right now. Capitalism took centuries to develop. Anything that replaces it will form over a similar time scale. And with climate change, that is time we do not have.
  
  I've got some bad news though. If our markets keep ignoring the environmental cost of... well, pretty much anything, as they always have, capitalism will also fuck us over in the long run. I've even heard it's already happening...
  
  ~~Capitalists~~ People in just about every system ignore negative externalities, which are defined as costs borne by other people for the benefits that they receive themselves. Ironically, capitalism might be the best short-term solution, if only we had the political will. One of the major functions of government is to internalize negative externalities, via taxes and regulations. It's easy for a factory owner to let toxic effluent flow into the nearby river, but if it costs enough in taxes and fines, it's cheaper to contain it. We just need to use government regulations to make environmental damage cost too much money, and the market would take care of re-balancing economic activity to sustainable alternatives. The carbon tax is a well-known example of this technique, but we've seen how well that has gone over politically. Still, it's probably easier to push those kinds of regulations in a short time frame than to fundamentally revamp the entire system.
  
  A non-functioning government is also a feature of capitalism, though.

261 comments