Comment on why is fossil fuel still used?
Talos@sopuli.xyz 1 day agoThese are misconceptions, or rather a bit out of date.
Wind and solar are much cheaper than fossil fuels now. Significantly cheaper.
And is an old school investment bank presenting this information.
Even for running a car, using solar-produced electricity is a fraction of the cost of gasoline; gas is 3-5x more expensive.
And nuclear is not anywhere near as cheap as wind or solar unfortunately, although we haven’t put much effort into making it more efficient for a few decades now so that might change.
bastion@feddit.nl 1 day ago
Solar is, on a consumer level, possibly more cheap than gas for a car now, in many areas. But more is actually done with oil->gasoline framework, including plastics and chemicals which would all need to be developed into new processes. I don’t disagree that we need to replace these, but oil is literally free energy, and it’s a substance with a lot of uses.
And that fact is one of the big reasons that oil is so hard to compete with - it is literally energy we do not have to generate. All other forms of energy we must actually capture the natural energy flow. In oil, it has already been captured - we’re burning biomatter from years long gone. That’s what makes it hard to compete with. Although, the competition is getting better, and that’s good.
as far as the costs for a vehicle go - I actually live on solar, with a very cost effective system at $25k, 14kw.
If I had an electric car and drove 15k miles per year, I’d need up that system by 11kw at least. That’s adding about $20k to that system.
Where I am, gas is cheaper tha than $3/gallon, but let’s say it’s $3/gallon.
at 30mpg gasoline, that’s about $1500. At 30mpge, with my lower-than-average system costs, that’s $2000. …and that’s not including maintenance and repair to that system.
Sure, there are a ton of other factors to take into account, both for and against. But electric is no clear winner from a personal-benefit perspective - particularly when you take cold weather into account for lithium batteries, and the inability to resolve an out-of-fuel situation easily. Sure, there are services. …maybe. depending where you are. But, it’s far from ideal for a lot of people.
anyways - no, nuclear is definitely not as cheap, but it provides baseline power, which is critical. only alternatives there are fossil fuels, geothermal, and hydro. But the main draw for 3rd and 4th gen nuclear is how low-impact and environmentally friendly it can be, while still providing base load power.
bluemoon@piefed.social 13 hours ago
fossil isn’t free if the profit is considered in climate not just currency. so fossil is like a no-go-zone until we/later generationd dip back down
bastion@feddit.nl 10 hours ago
yes. this is why we’re all here discussing alternative energy and fossil fuels. But ignoring you’re enemies’ strengths is not exactly the smoothest move.