Comments by "DynamicWorlds" (@dynamicworlds1) on "How Physicists Broke the Solar Efficiency Record" video.

@potato9832 yes and no. Yes there are advantages to massive solar farms, but you also have to take into account land value and energy losses getting the power where it needs to go. Likewise, distributed power generation feeding into a smart grid will be less susceptible to power outages. Solar on every roof combined with distributed storage batteries would be a very robust system and reliability of power is valuable as well. Weighing the costs vs benefits of different approaches gets complicated quickly.
17
The entire model of classifying civilizations by their energy usage is kinda stupid to begin with. It not only assumes infinite growth, but also completely ignores efficiency. For example, most of the increase in the lifespan of our mobile devices has been from making more efficient electronics, not higher capacity batteries. The K-scale has nothing to say about things like that, nor about what things a civilization can DO with it's technology...and that's all still judging a civilization by its tech, to say nothing about how well people are living or respect for the ecosystem, or anything else. A civilization being able to move up the K-scale JUST by being more wasteful should clue people in to how absurd it is.
7
@potato9832 you're conflating the efficiency of large wind farms to the kind of small mills that would be able to fit on a house and they're not at all comparable. You know that, right?
6
Things are going to get really bad. It's not as bleak as it could be as decarbonization is entirely within our means. The problem is the political will to do it and the fact that we've already waited too long. There are areas of the Earth which will be rendered uninhabitable already. It's just a question of how MUCH of the planet we're going to loose access to.
5
@danieljensen6154 nice strawman. Now try engaging with what I ACTUALLY said.
3
@rubbles2206 baseload power is an outdated concept in a post-carbon grid and even nuclear will need energy storage to get away from peaking plants.
2
@quietackshon yeah, there may be breakthrough like those you mention that bring us over the 33%, but I don't expect it to get much higher than that. People tend not to realize how much inefficiency is inescapable in many technologies. Diminishing returns on efficiency as technology develops set in sooner than most people realize. I think most people, for example, would way overestimate how efficient ICE engines are. 100% efficiencies are functionally unheard of baring a couple rare exceptions.
2
@rubbles2206 no, we don't need baseload power because that's a completely outdated concept in a post-carbon grid.
1
@rubbles2206 the simple fact of the matter is that baseload power only makes sense as a concept when paired with peaking plants, which (with the exception of the potential of hydroelectric being used in that capacity) are all fossil fuel plants. Since peaking plants need to be phased out, baseload power will be an obsolete idea. No matter what we choose to go with (solar, wind, nuclear, or some combination thereof) the power generation over time will not match power usage over time, so we will need grid storage in one form or another. Sure, I have tech that I am most optimistic about implementation of, but the specifics of that are irrelevant for this conversation. Also, none of them are used in mass scale right now because we're largely leaving peaking plants as the last mode of energy generation to phase out since natural gas is the lowest emitter per kwh of all the fossil fuel forms. Agree or disagree with that strategy, it is what is being attempted, so all grid storage tech is taking a backseat when it comes to implementation. Now do you actually want to defend the idea of baseload power generation, or do you want to admit it was just a buzzword you never really questioned before?
1
@rubbles2206 we're talking past each other because you refuse to engage with the fact that baseload power generation is an outdated concept and want to keep running off on tangents instead. Focus and stay on topic.
1
@wingracer1614 you can arguably go past 100% but using heat pumps for heating is the only thing I know that does it because all waste heat in the system is also accomplishing the desired goal too.
1