this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
134 points (100.0% liked)
Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.
5146 readers
400 users here now
Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It takes 200kWh to produce a 100W panel. Within 30 years that panel produces about 26,000kWh with a capacity factor of 10%, so we are talking about a similar factor. Even crazier solar panels last longer then 30 years, but they do loose capacity over time. However that happens slowly, so a century old solar panel is possible.
The issue is that oil can be used right away, whereas renewables take decades to produce the power.
As for carbon capture plants do it no problem. Then we need to take the carbon from the plants, in processes like wood coal and store it. That works, but it takes too long. There are also industrial processes, which we know work. However none are fast and scalable enough to even make a dent in current emissions. It makes perfect sense to look into it to reduce the carbon content long term, but right now the cheapest way to reduce future carbon in the atmosphere is to use less fossil fuels.