Wind and solar are well and good, but I am yet to see a country with low-carbon electricity that don't rely primarily on hydroelectric or nuclear power. I feel like we have a big "we'll cross that bridge when we get there" attitude about this. Long-distance electricity transmission is held up by nimbys. Batteries alone can't fill the gap from hours without electricity generation. And solar doesn't really work in the winter. It feels like there's really no plan for what we're gonna do here
@tormeh Power-to-X (P2X) is the main puzzle piece missing in your description. But clearly there's a lot of work left in bringing that idea to life, we haven't even fully settled on what kinds of X we'll be relying on.
But pilot-project P2X plants are now being built, with serious grid-scale P2X facilities being planned for the near future. We can get there if we decide to commit. We'll need more politicians who are willing to take action during their term in office, not "5 years after I retire, we suddenly stop emitting CO2."
@bjarne I’ve heard talk of hydrogen, which is promising, but can only be stored for short periods of time. The economics seem to not work out for anything at the scale we need it. At least so far.
I have thought about whether nuclear waste could be used for heating in winter (since we refuse to build reactors that can use it), but somehow that sounds like it won’t work/happen