The bats and birds is an issue that the oil and gas industry regularly pushes because it sounds concerning, but really isn't.

There is not a single analysis out there that tackles the twin problems of meeting growing electricity demand with a power source that depends on an uncertain and changing climate.

You say "occasional" dunkelflaute, but we have no idea whether occasional is once a season or once a decade.

This is exactly where nuclear shines, because although it is expensive, it insulates a country against the vagaries of external forces. Whether or not that guarantee is worth the price tag is the question a lot of governments are grappling with and they mostly seem to agree that the value is indeed worth the cost.

Do you want to hazard a guess as to why?

The answer is because we still do not know how to supply expanding electricity demand with wind, solar and batteries. The side of the story that people on this website love to bring up is the fact that China happens to be the largest builder of solar and wind, which is true, but the increased electricity demand is being met via coal, for the most part.

Your argument is then essentially that people should be working indefinitely.

I cannot name a single Mexican team, and that is partly because the oldest club dates back to the 1940s. The oldest Brazilian and Argentina clubs date back to the 1900s.

The modern education system is far from perfect, but it did not evolve in a vacuum.

These supposedly better ways to do things are how we ended up with disproven ideas like while language learning and a generation of kids who struggle to read.

Being able to opt out of calculus is not the same as being unable to add single digit numbers. I do not share your belief that a child or the average parents are anywhere near qualified to follow their interests and produce people who are competent members of society.

Our society and any democracy relies on a shared minimum level of competence. If you cannot compare costs per unit, do not understand basic biology, or cannot compare evidence, just because it does not interest you, you are cannot function in modern society.

This is not as simple as people here make it out to be.

Consider also that solar is profitable today because it does not set the price of electricity in most markets. In a world where solar dominates, the prices of electricity could be negative. The economics of negative electricity prices becoming the norm are not yet fully understood.

Excess renewable power is great but it creates a problem and the cost of that problem is not borne by the generators that created the problem.

What LCOE captures in this context is that solar panels are cheap and that the fuel cost is zero.

The average price of electricity is greatly affected by this, which is why electricity is Europe is generally more expensive than in North America.

Edit - the response below is also incomplete. The trouble with modelling the cost of balancing the power grid is that it depends on many variables, many of which are difficult to forecast. The primary challenge with depending on the weather for power generation is that the climate is changing. What that change looks like in 20 years is impossible to forecast. A great example is from the winter o 2023, during the "dunkelflaute" in europe. Both wind and solar power generation were low for three days.

The estimates for solar plus battery storage typically only account for eight or twelve hours of storage.

Looking for contract, part-time or volunteer work, specifically in renewable energy or smart grid consulting. I can also help write/review grant applications for Canadian federal/provincial support, but outside my areas of direct work.

Preferably smart grid technology, wind energy, solar PV, energy policy. Happy to chat about the long term revenue streams on the electricity grid, especially opportunities on the distribution system.

Location: Remote, prefer opportunities in US/Canada

Experience - Fifteen years total. Wind energy design background (Netherlands), Power systems degrees, experience working with the Canadian Federal government.

Remote: Yes, please. Willing to relocate: No.

Résumé/CV: On request. See linkedin: https://www.linkedin.co/in/eldrichrebello Email: eldrich [at] eldrichrebello.ca Scientific publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=a0oog-YAAAAJ

Directing the expression of that opinion at random Jewish people, in a targeted manner is hate.

Even though you cannot buy 100% ethanol in the US, the US alone is responsible for over half of global ethanol production, mostly from corn.

Regardless, any EV will almost certainly be cheaper to operate on electricity, rather than using corn, petroleum, or sugarcane for fuel.

Brazil does not "fuel" cars on sugarcane any more than the US fuels its cars with corn. No one is missing any forests or trees. What you are missing is that the cost savings in fuel are so large with any EV that by itself, the money saved is an extremely compelling incentive to many people.

What i remain opposed to is this persistent idea that heat pumps work in all situations, for all people and for all time. They do not, and heat pumps create a unique set of problems that we might not be fully prepared for.

Too many folks here do not understand or care to appreciate the constraints of the real world. Heat pumps are excellent and relatively cheap but have limitations. One of the biggest limitations is that a heat pump's efficiency drops as ambient temperature drops. This is the worst possible situation for heating as the conditions when the risks of losing heat are the highest, are precisely the conditions when these devices are least efficient.

The reality is that operating an EV is a hassle unless you can deal with the hassle or have sufficient privilege (e.g. live in a detached home) to be able to offset some of the hassle.

I did the maths on my situation and it did not work out. It is currently cheaper to pay the $120 / month or so on insurance and maintenance for the second car as opposed to renting a car for the once a month that we actually use the second car.

The trouble is that renting a car is expensive and public transit is an even bigger hassle.

An EV dropped my transportation fuel bills by 90% but even i will admit that an EV is a hassle. On any trip that exceeds the range of the car, we must identify EV chargers, then determine whether they are working and only then can we start counting the additional minutes.

In the winter, seeing the range of you car drop by 26% and not knowing where the next working charger is, is the #1 reason why we still have two cars. If i could eliminate one with access to better transit, it would be the EV, not the combustion car.