c0llision (u/c0llision)

c0llision commented on First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in operation eia.gov/todayinenergy/det... · Posted by u/ano-ther

belorn · 2 years ago

Let say a natural gas power plant has a life time expectancy of 20 years. If we say that in 20 years we can abandon natural gas with nuclear, then lets put that as a deadline for when the last natural gas power plant will be demolished.

We need to stop building new natural gas power plants and existing ones need to have a planned obsolescence so that investors know when their investment will no longer be worth anything.

c0llision · 2 years ago

gas power plant != natural gas power plant. Green hydrogen gas generated from excess renewables and biogas exist, and can often be used in existing power plants. Though they are expensive right now, we've no idea how the technology may evolve in the next few years.

In Ireland they are actually building natural gas power plants with the assumption they will be stop operation as little as 5 years and only used for emergency purposes from then on. This is because they are using OCGT gas turbines which were invented for use in 3rd world countries and are much cheaper than conventional CCGT gas turbines.

Also don't forget that nuclear power plants have to go offline for maintenance like everything else, and I'm not sure it will ever be financially viable to have redundant nuclear power plants. France recently had to take 50% of their power plants offline for a few months to fix cracks and Japan had to take all of them offline for a few years after Fukushima. Thats why it's necessary to have emergency backup power plants and right now these are typically gas.

c0llision commented on First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in operation eia.gov/todayinenergy/det... · Posted by u/ano-ther

andsoitis · 2 years ago

> I think the idea that renewables have to be paired with large amounts of energy storage is not correct. In Ireland dispatchable power is used when wind is low. Natural gas, hydroelectric, HVDC, pumped storage.

Natural gas is neither renewable nor emission-free when burning, albeit less than burning coal, for instance. About 117 pounds of CO2 are produced per million British thermal units (MMBtu) equivalent of natural gas compared with more than 200 pounds of CO2 per MMBtu of coal and more than 160 pounds per MMBtu of distillate fuel oil. Source: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/natural-gas/natural-gas-...

So while using natural gas is better than using coal, in the longer term we likely needs to reduce its usage and substitute with renewables too.

c0llision · 2 years ago

>Natural gas is neither renewable nor emission-free when burning

Yes you are correct, in fact I actually addressed that in the later part of my comment

>From 2030 onwards the focus will be on decarbonising the remaining ~20% of electricity generation that is gas. How that will be done will depend mostly on how the technology matures in the meantime, but it will likely be replacing natural gas with hydrogen and biogas. Another option could be carbon capture. Or batteries if there is some technological breakthrough and the price of stored energy drops way below it's current 200euro/MWh price.

When picking fruit from a tree, It's usually best to start at the lower branches.

c0llision commented on First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in operation eia.gov/todayinenergy/det... · Posted by u/ano-ther

mlsu · 2 years ago

Lots of disfavorable comparisons being made here between nuke and solar.

Let's do some math.

There is a total of around 10 GWh of deployed grid storage in the US.

The US consumed about 4,000 TWh of electricity in 2022.

(10GWh/ 4000TWh) * (31,536,000 seconds) == 78 seconds.

So, net, there is about a minute and a half of energy storage across the entire grid. (Most, about 90%, is pumped hydro, not battery). Of course, not really. Most regional areas have roughly 10-30 seconds until the gas peakers absolutely unequivocally must be turned on before brownouts occur.

Hours? Minutes? We are not talking about hours and minutes. We are talking about seconds.

Look at the price of a powerwall. That's for the energy needs of a residential home. What happens to your AWS bill if us-east-1 was to buy a powerwall? Let alone steel, chemical, paper, mineral processing industries. What would happen to our economy if capacity for every one of those was cut by 1/3rd (or more depending on local climate)? Never mind your power bill.

This is the problem that I have with these solar capacity discussions. The number on the tin misrepresents things in just such a fundamental way that these cost discussions don't make sense. The reason, of course, is because fossil fuels are the big batteries we turn on at night when solar is not working.

If you actually care about making the grid green, you must solve this problem. Either with transmission, with battery manufacturing (the cost and environment friendliness curve on that is a bit less rosy compared to solar power...), or with nuclear. There is simply no other way.

c0llision · 2 years ago

I think the idea that renewables have to be paired with large amounts of energy storage is not correct. In Ireland dispatchable power is used when wind is low. Natural gas, hydroelectric, HVDC, pumped storage. Lithium ion batteries are generally only used briefly while the gas power plant gets up to temperature because of their high cost. There are also HVDC interconnectors that allow excess wind to be exported to the UK and electricity to be imported from there when it is cheaper. They expect to be able to achieve 70-80% renewables using this system by 2030, and are currently at around 45%. From 2030 onwards the focus will be on decarbonising the remaining ~20% of electricity generation that is gas. How that will be done will depend mostly on how the technology matures in the meantime, but it will likely be replacing natural gas with hydrogen and biogas. Another option could be carbon capture. Or batteries if there is some technological breakthrough and the price of stored energy drops way below it's current 200euro/MWh price.

I also think that electricity grids are very complex and powering any large grid with 100% of any one source is impossible. As each energy source has different pros and cons, you'll generally always have a mix of different sources.

c0llision commented on Free speech under attack across Ireland, UK, Europe and globally twitter.com/threadsirish/... · Posted by u/Bran_son

youwillsee1 · 3 years ago

The thread is spot on. The hate speech laws have a very broad and vague definition so governments can act on populist impulses.

In UK, some guys got arrested under this pretext for burning a cardboard pretending it was a Grenfell tower. How is this the governments business? At all?

But people demanded "justice" and so the police stepped in

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8akk-nZtuk "hate speech"

c0llision · 3 years ago

I remember not too long ago Ireland had blasphemy laws. Does anyone remember what happened to the guy who was criminally charged for mocking God on TV?

c0llision commented on NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts arstechnica.com/gadgets/2... · Posted by u/pseudolus

scrapcode · 3 years ago

Wouldn't the notification that an AirTag is located somewhere in the vehicle they're thinking of stealing deter them from stealing it?

c0llision · 3 years ago

I don't have an AirTag, but I think if you get the notification you can make the tag play noise to help find it.

c0llision commented on NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts arstechnica.com/gadgets/2... · Posted by u/pseudolus

schwartzworld · 3 years ago

I bought a bunch of Tiles, and after a year the non-replaceable batteries failed and I got an offer to replace them at 15% off. Talk about garbage. Your product isn't good for anything if it just stops working after a year and needs a full replacement.

c0llision · 3 years ago

The newer models have replaceable batteries

c0llision commented on Social Media Influencer Charged with Election Interference justice.gov/opa/pr/social... · Posted by u/beefman

vfclists · 3 years ago

It is questionable whether people foolish enough to vote via SMS should be considered competent enough to vote in the first place.

But then it is the failure of due diligence of educational system to teach from an early age how democracy works and how to participate in it.

People are trained to be doctors, lawyers, technologists etc, but the basic social skill of participating in democracy is not taught, when in fact it is the most important skill.

That and money management skills.

c0llision · 3 years ago

I somewhat agree, but at the same time, e-voting via internet and phone has been a thing in Estonia since the 90's. I think it's a terrible idea, but it's how it's done there. I don't think it would be that foolish for people to believe the same concept could be brought into the US, especially if it was under some strange situation like a pandemic. There are even a bunch of blockchain-based startups trying to push the idea, claiming it can be done securely with modern cryptography (which is not true IMO).

c0llision commented on Dublin-based Twitter executive secures injunction to prevent dismissal irishtimes.com/technology... · Posted by u/rmchugh

sn0w_crash · 3 years ago

This is why Americans don’t want to start companies in Europe.

c0llision · 3 years ago

It seems many Americans do want to start companies in Europe though. US multinationals directly employ about 190,000 people in Ireland, a country with a total population of 5 million.

c0llision commented on Message from cycling heaven: it’s not that fantastic here bikecity.amsterdam.nl/en/... · Posted by u/Someone

sufehmi · 4 years ago

Another thing I only noticed when I visited Amsterdam - it's scary for pedestrians.

I love cycling, been cycling for 25+ years, including commuting to my office via (beautiful) cycling path at Birmingham canals.

But when I visited Amsterdam, of course I don't have my bike there, so I went anywhere using Uber, and walking around - and that's when I noticed that:

It's really scary to be a pedestrian in Amsterdam.

In a lot of places, the cyclist path is on the same surface with the pedestrian path. Of course it's separated with lanes (read: paint job on the surface) - but we are on the same surface, next to another.

Several times I was almost hit by the cyclists, I'm pretty sure I was on my / pedestrian's path, but I almost got hit anyway. A lot of the cyclists are cycling in a very high speed.

That was a new feeling & experience for me, and I didn't like it.

I hope the situation will become better for the pedestrians.

c0llision · 4 years ago

I lived in Amsterdam for 5 years. I'm not entirely sure what your talking about with the pedestrian path being beside the cycle lane. They are normally on two different levels, there is a curb. I also never found it that dangerous to be a pedestrian. I have seen many many tourists walk in the cycle lanes though, or step into them without looking, and almost get hit. Honestly to me it kinda sounds like you were walking in the bike lane. I think there is some learning curve in getting used to all of the bikes around, but it really isn't dangerous. Also I can confirm that in the 5 years I lived there I was never hit by a cyclist. however when a family member came to visit, they walked right out into a bike lane without looking and almost did get hit.