Green energy getting a boost in Europe due to Russia

[woolfe9998]

Twitter thread below discussing specific policy moves already made.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1505248550975938560

Summary:

Netherlands: doubling its wind farms.
France: ends subsidies for gas heaters, ramps up renewables for home heating.
Belgium: passes bill extending life of two newest nuclear reactors.
Italy: building six new wind farms.
Germany: large planned increase in solar capacity.
UK: expanding wind farms.

There's more in the thread. I haven't read all of them.

These look like good first steps, but are they token actions taken in reaction to a crisis, or will there be long term follow through?

 

[cytg111]

Its follow through.

 

[Pohemi]

Hopefully the initial token actions being taken will catalyze/accelerate further changes and make the rolling ball heavier (make it easier for further and possibly more drastic action).

 

[biostud]

While not as visible as solar panels an wind mills, the whole powerline infrastructure and how we trade and move electricity is just as important.

 

[zinfamous]

While not as visible as solar panels an wind mills, the whole powerline infrastructure and how we trade and move electricity is just as important.

this guy gets it.

also, they are good responses but honestly, it's a very small amount of capacity that they are "guaranteeing" compared to what they hope to replace. Italy = 6 windfarms? eh, uh....Germany = "planning to build more solar." ..planning.

This is going to be a slog and it doesn't have to be perfect right away, this is all still very good--especially like seeing a push towards trust in nuclear--I just hope that it is also understood that the hope is to push incentive forward. We can very easily ramp this up far beyond, and quicker than this light commitments now--just have to convince the money people that money is switching industries, and that's really it. At least, petruleum is still huge for industry (lubricants and plastics and well, all manufacturing), but the point is to completely remove it's use to burn as direct energy in everything.

That's a really big deal, and the message isn't made specific that way, often enough. You've always got the petrosexuals losing their shit over "blahblah blah! you dum libtards don't realize how much stuff is made out of OIL OIL OIIILLLL! hahahaha!"

fucking coward idiots. Of course everyone knows that. That's not the point. The point is to just stop setting in fire to make explosions to make engines and go boom and power generators go turn.

 

[Dave_5k]

The US has a very significant renewable energy expansion plan - but it got vetoed by big coal (Manchin) as part of BBB. Although Manchin pretended to be open to the green energy provisions, when it was proposed to put them in separate package Manchin immediately moved the goalposts - yet again, for like the 4th time.

Biden has never even tried to pitch it as a way to reduce exposure to Russia, basically just seems to have given it up as too hard now.

 

[Franz316]

If Europe is serious about that, they need to start switching over all heating to electric heat pumps powered by renewables/nuclear. It's possible, but it's going to take some time and a ton of money.

 

[sandorski]

The US has a very significant renewable energy expansion plan - but it got vetoed by big coal (Manchin) as part of BBB. Although Manchin pretended to be open to the green energy provisions, when it was proposed to put them in separate package Manchin immediately moved the goalposts - yet again, for like the 4th time.

Biden has never even tried to pitch it as a way to reduce exposure to Russia, basically just seems to have given it up as too hard now.

Silver lining might be that it gives Europe more ability to get off Russian fuel by removing a potential major Purchaser of Green Tech.

 

[zinfamous]

The US has a very significant renewable energy expansion plan - but it got vetoed by big coal (Manchin) as part of BBB. Although Manchin pretended to be open to the green energy provisions, when it was proposed to put them in separate package Manchin immediately moved the goalposts - yet again, for like the 4th time.

Biden has never even tried to pitch it as a way to reduce exposure to Russia, basically just seems to have given it up as too hard now.

hey man, now's the time to do it.

you oppose green energy, BBB, $2 Trillion?

then I guess you support Putin. Good luck, assholes. We just grabbed $0.3Trillion, + about another $125.5billion in Putin and private Russian assets, to rebuild a fucking country that wants opportunity and a fucking hedge against fascist tyranny.

Let's pass this bill, and allocate seized assets to a portion of it's funding, all directed at Ukrainian redevelopment, infrastructure, modernizing and rebuilding their nuc plants and uh, spreading giant solar farms across the newly-formed steppes of Russian soldier-littered sunflower fields.

or something, you know. Part of the bill becomes a major way to save face for GOP shitgoblins to appropriate all of the captured wealth to rebuild Ukraine, to Ukraine and the world's benefit, and make it as part of the project/package for the rest of, say, 1 trillion, for direct US investment in infrastructure and energy rebuilding.

The world can move really fast, really well. You just need the proper stick against the specific people that are causing problems.

(or shit does that sound like blackmail? fuck hmm. yeah no. Just give Ukraine all the Russian money, whenever they want it....it's weird to think one should make it part of US political wrangling, but it's also shitty that more than half of us already think this way. ...le sigh) ...this is why Putin fails. He doesn't have people, like my second brain that I have, to come around and honestly tell me when I have just made a stupid dumbfuck suggestion, and explain it simply and fairly.

 

[Bitek]

The US has a very significant renewable energy expansion plan - but it got vetoed by big coal (Manchin) as part of BBB. Although Manchin pretended to be open to the green energy provisions, when it was proposed to put them in separate package Manchin immediately moved the goalposts - yet again, for like the 4th time.

Biden has never even tried to pitch it as a way to reduce exposure to Russia, basically just seems to have given it up as too hard now.

This is what is maddening to me. So much potential, but we can never fully embrace.
Instead we blocked by oil lobbyists or lose momentum when gas falls and gets cheap again, only to get burned at the next inevitable crisis and get foreign policy held hostage by the petro dictatorships.

I had hoped 9/11 would help push us off Saudi oil, but it went nowhere.

Then we get $4/g gas, everyone freaks out, sells their trucks, gas gets cheap again due to fracking, then everyone is lining up to buy trucks & SUVs again.

The EV tech is finally scalable, so I'm hoping the revolution really is here, but goddamn if we won't go into it kicking and screaming.

And we haven't even discussed heat pumps and induction stoves yet... So much good tech.

 

[woolfe9998]

The US has a very significant renewable energy expansion plan - but it got vetoed by big coal (Manchin) as part of BBB. Although Manchin pretended to be open to the green energy provisions, when it was proposed to put them in separate package Manchin immediately moved the goalposts - yet again, for like the 4th time.

Biden has never even tried to pitch it as a way to reduce exposure to Russia, basically just seems to have given it up as too hard now.

I wondered about your last sentence there, so I Googled, and you're right. He has not attempted to link his green energy plans to the geopolitical rationale which has become so obvious with this war.

Amid War, Biden Reluctant to Unleash Clean Energy Rhetoric

The U.S. president has not followed Europe’s calls to produce more renewable energy to weaken Russia’s global influence

www.scientificamerican.com

Right now he seems focused heavily on lowering gas prices, which is contra to the clean energy goals. Likely because high gas prices will hurt him and the dems politically if they persist through the next election or beyond. I agree with that, in the short term, anyway. But it doesn't preclude him using this opportunity to explain to the public the other benefits of getting off fossil fuels. I just think too many people don't get it.

 

[woolfe9998]

this guy gets it.

also, they are good responses but honestly, it's a very small amount of capacity that they are "guaranteeing" compared to what they hope to replace. Italy = 6 windfarms? eh, uh....Germany = "planning to build more solar." ..planning.

I agree these are first steps, but I would point out in relation to Germany's plan to expand solar, that Germany is already number three in the world for per capita solar installed capacity. (US is number 9.) So this is not new but something they've been doing. This is a planned acceleration which I would take seriously given that they've already showed some commitment to solar in the past.

As for 6 wind farms in Italy, it depends on the size of the farms. They should really show us the planned capacity in gigawatt hours rather than talk about the number of farms.

Still, you're correct that this planned expansion will not replace all Russian NG. The world and it leaders should have listened better a long time ago.

 

[K1052]

The Germans also agreed to the EU ICE phaseout by 2035, which they had previously opposed.

 

[Roger Wilco]

How quickly can Ukraine restart its neon production? It seems like that, combined with the preexisting chip shortage, could cause a lot of pain for the solar industry.

 

[woolfe9998]

The Germans also agreed to the EU ICE phaseout by 2035, which they had previously opposed.

I'm guessing their initial opposition was because they make cars there. Some of the German auto manufacturers likely opposed this. Though Volkswagen is being aggressive in pushing EV's now, I still wonder about Mercedes and BMW who are moving more slowly on EV's. In any event, it looks like they won't have a choice.

 

[woolfe9998]

How quickly can Ukraine restart its neon production? It seems like that, combined with the preexisting chip shortage, could cause a lot of pain for the solar industry.

Whatever the effects of those shortages, in the US we added 25.5 thousand GWh in solar to our grid year over year, 2020-2021. That is by far our largest added capacity ever. And it doesn't include rooftop solar.

Edit: corrected my error by adding "thousand" after 25.5. I was three orders of magnitude off.

 

[K1052]

I'm guessing their initial opposition was because they make cars there. Some of the German auto manufacturers likely opposed this. Though Volkswagen is being aggressive in pushing EV's now, I still wonder about Mercedes and BMW who are moving more slowly on EV's. In any event, it looks like they won't have a choice.

Yes, it's a substantial employment hit especially considering suppliers and the need for fewer workers to assemble the same number of EVs.

BMW in the middle between VW and MB on speed. VW is absolutely going to warp though with massive investments globally.

 

[woolfe9998]

Yes, it's a substantial employment hit especially considering suppliers and the need for fewer workers to assemble the same number of EVs.

BMW in the middle between VW and MB on speed. VW is absolutely going to warp though with massive investments globally.

Yep, Mercedes just announced some new luxury EV. It's gotten my wife interested, which is a good thing. Because she only drives these luxury cars. It's probably going to cost a fortune though...

 

[K1052]

Yep, Mercedes just announced some new luxury EV. It's gotten my wife interested, which is a good thing. Because she only drives these luxury cars. It's probably going to cost a fortune though...

I want the VW ID3 but they don't think there is a market here because Americans only buy trucks and s/cuvs.

 

[woolfe9998]

I want the VW ID3 but they don't think there is a market here because Americans only buy trucks and s/cuvs.

Yeah I don't get that. Even here in the bay area where we have wall to wall Priuses and Teslas, certainly compared to the rest of the country, 1 in 3 vehicles on our roadways are what I would call "oversize." Trucks, SUV's, vans, jeeps, etc.

And it's not like they're being used to capacity. Most times I see one person driving it as a commuter vehicle.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Whatever the effects of those shortages, in the US we added 25.5 GWh in solar to our grid year over year, 2020-2021. That is by far our largest added capacity ever. And it doesn't include rooftop solar.

Yes the growth has been amazing to watch, I’m just wondering how a prolonged neon shortage will affect that growth? Or is neon production something that another country can easily ramp up in a short period of time?

 

[woolfe9998]

Yes the growth has been amazing to watch, I’m just wondering how a prolonged neon shortage will affect that growth? Or is neon production something that another country can easily ramp up in a short period of time?

Yeah, neon is a concern, especially since Ukraine's two major producers of it are based in Mariupol (ouch) and Odessa, about to be under attack.

I see it as a short run issue, though. Neon can be purified anywhere. It's not like they have the only supply of the element itself. They just need to build facilities to do it outside Ukraine. Not at all sure what that entails.

Anyway, it's mainly a concern that after neon reserves run out in about 6 months, chip prices will skyrocket even higher than they've been, for awhile.

 

[Moonbeam]

Yeah I don't get that. Even here in the bay area where we have wall to wall Priuses and Teslas, certainly compared to the rest of the country, 1 in 3 vehicles on our roadways are what I would call "oversize." Trucks, SUV's, vans, jeeps, etc.

And it's not like they're being used to capacity. Most times I see one person driving it as a commuter vehicle.

Personally, the bigger the truck I drive and the more expensive and tricked out it is, the more of a man I become behind the wheel. I especially like thundering rap music vibrating the cars next to me on the road and an air horn that says look at me, look at me. please please look at me, nobody ever did.

 

[woolfe9998]

Personally, the bigger the truck I drive and the more expensive and tricked out it is, the more of a man I become behind the wheel. I especially like thundering rap music vibrating the cars next to me on the road and an air horn that says look at me, look at me. please please look at me, nobody ever did.

Yes, well, unfortunately many of these solo SUV drivers are actually women, so I don't think machismo is a complete explanation. I'm honestly not really sure what the explanation is. They are bulky and difficult to park. Most people don't need the extra capacity except on occasions.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Yes, well, unfortunately many of these solo SUV drivers are actually women, so I don't think machismo is a complete explanation. I'm honestly not really sure what the explanation is. They are bulky and difficult to park. Most people don't need the extra capacity except on occasions.

Round these parts women drive giant SUVs and men drive giant Trucks. The bigger the better, regardless of occupation. And vans are for libtard pussies or something.