When I said this to @bradplumer.bsky.social in March, even I couldn't have imagined 9 months later we'd be talking about scrapping open access in the largest US power market to fast-track gas & building multiple gas units for single data centers. www.nytimes.com/interactive/... - ThreadSky

tnorris.bsky.social • 80 days ago

When I said this to @bradplumer.bsky.social in March, even I couldn't have imagined 9 months later we'd be talking about scrapping open access in the largest US power market to fast-track gas & building multiple gas units for single data centers. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/13/climate/electric-power-climate-change.html

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suddenlygarmo.bsky.social•80 days ago

It's infuriating that we're simply allowing countless meters of sea level rise to happen in the name of a dumbass tech bubble

billtilles.bsky.social•80 days ago

For the reasons you mentioned I believe 2025 will be the year that climate targets are abandoned and CO2 emissions largely ignored at keast in the popular press. I’m using Covid as an analogy. The gov’t will declare it solved and tell us to move on.

tnorris.bsky.social•80 days ago

Net zero by 2050 almost certainly toast, but may still be useful for now as aspirational goal

billtilles.bsky.social•80 days ago

You’re more optmimstic than I am. I think giving corporations a 25 year compliance window simply invites can-kicking. It’ll be the next CEO’s job they’ll promise etc etc.

jlindblu.bsky.social•80 days ago

Tyler, I completely feel for you. When I was in high school, I was vaguely aware that GHGs were a problem for the future but, nah, somebody will have worked it all out by 2000 or so. Little did I know... we haven't. In fact the solution appears to be that we say there isn't any problem!

jlindblu.bsky.social•80 days ago

Now, aged as I am, I find that the loooong view is best. We will work it out after all the worst ideas are tried first. Build Nukes and make 'em better and then better, yet. I will be 99 in 2050. Hoping to see better nukes.

billtilles.bsky.social•80 days ago

As a relatively clean technology (with a past) I like nukes. But electricity is a commodity and nukes’ electricity costs 4-5 times more than the competition. Unless something radically changes, this remains a niche technology like the tiny eVinci reactor brilliantly suited to remote applications.

jlindblu.bsky.social•80 days ago

I guess the details of electricity cost are important. Note, also, that much of the GHG-emitting energy is only heat and is never converted to electricity. The objective is low-GHG, with reasonable cost and supplied when needed.

jasonandrade.bsky.social•80 days ago

What is a “better” nuke?

How long does it take to develop one?

Are “better” nukes quicker or slower to construct and commission?

It feels like these are fairly straightforward and serious questions there should be answers for..

jlindblu.bsky.social•80 days ago

A better nuclear energy system would be much faster to construct and require less material. They are under development now in many places. I attended the 2024 Molten Salt Reactor Workshop last month in Knoxville, TN with nearly 400 others. There is much activity going on.

jlindblu.bsky.social•80 days ago

Better nuclear energy would use a greater proportion of the fuel, reduce refueling, operate at higher temperatures to improve industrial utility and reduce the amount of redundancy required while also reducing the operational workforce required. All of that is quite possible.

thejgcole.bsky.social•79 days ago

Was always toast barring massive nuclear buildout which the current admin refuses to subsidize via cost guarantees

royjemison.bsky.social•80 days ago

Archive link: https://archive.ph/2024.03.14-095535/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/13/climate/electric-power-climate-change.html

agelston.bsky.social•79 days ago

I can imagine quite alot :)

worstcaseeng.bsky.social•79 days ago

To paraphrase @edzitron.com - we're boiling the oceans to produce more jpegs of big breasted Garfield with a gun

xiaowang1984.bsky.social•80 days ago

Come on man it's a choice between decarbonization and AI generated cat pictures and LLMs doing the homework for the kids. Pretty clear to me what the American people would rather have and more importantly fund...

stopburningthings.bsky.social•79 days ago

not any people (although the American people are pretty dumb) but the billionaires that run things

xiaowang1984.bsky.social•80 days ago

So in this view if gas is the only option to affordably meet this demand 24/7/365 (- weather events 😬) then they will do it and we prob need capacity from the gas plants no matter what. They can then buy VPPAS for renewables again later to substitute the energy.

billtilles.bsky.social•80 days ago

You bring up a good point about electrification. Initially (and incorrectly it seems) I thought elecrification and decarbonization went hand in hand. Now I realize we’re getting the former without the latter.

ember42.bsky.social•79 days ago

There is decent decarbonisation potential for electrification of transport and heating via even CCGT power.
My view is that part should run first, and power kept cheap, reliable and abundant while we are doing that.
Focusing too much on power first could slow the overall progress down.

ember42.bsky.social•79 days ago

And yes, power is important, but the focus while steep in the electrification curve can be on backfilling NG power to save fuel until the 'electrify everything' load levels stablize.

xiaowang1984.bsky.social•79 days ago

I think electrification now is a prereq to decarb a bit of a down payment even if in the near term it doesn't have a lot of impact. The decarbonization would slowly follow as more of the energy system turns zero carbon

billtilles.bsky.social•79 days ago

I didn’t used to agree with you, but now I do. I used to think electrification would imply decarbonization. But watching recent trends, our CO2 reductions are due to coal to gas switching and renewables handling incremental demand growth. While fossil resources kinda flatline.

darkhoof83.bsky.social•80 days ago

I wish I could filter out news from the US in Bluesky. It will be a depressing 4 or 5 years.

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