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    • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      15·
      4 months ago

      It’s also got a total population smaller than a lot of large cities, just over 3 million, and not much industry (where most energy is used). “Easy” to have almost 100% renewable energy in that case. Still very impressive.

      • WrongOnTheInternet [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        14·
        4 months ago

        Uruguay is around the global average for electricity consumption per capita, about 10kwh a day.

        Hydro is obviously very helpful but transition to a renewable grid is basically straightforward for most countries, noting the real challenges in diverting fossil fuel energy use to renewable electricity use

        • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
          7·
          4 months ago

          A renewable grid (excluding nuclear and hydro) is definitely not a straight forward engineering problem because energy sources such as wind and solar are intermittent. That requires the grid to be backfilled by a non intermittent source of energy, and/or storage of energy from intermittent sources (using for instance a lot of batteries.) That storage can get complicated at scale, especially with inverters feeding directly into the grid. (Batteries are DC, the grid is AC). Lots of complex mathematics to prevent surges and brownouts. Nuclear + renewables would be a great solution but almost no one wants to build nuclear power plants.

          • WrongOnTheInternet [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
            21·
            4 months ago

            Electricity storage requires investment in static pumped hydro or batteries but it’s not an engineering mystery.

            I can’t take anyone who suggests nuclear seriously - why would nuclear be great?

            Pros

            • doesn’t emit greenhouse gasses
            • generally consistent output (though some countries’ capacity factor has been shit over the last ten years)
            • limited land use

            Cons

            • significantly more expensive than renewables and storage
            • take 5-10 years to build a plant with the world’s strongest industrial economy only managing to build one every 1-2 years
            • takes unique skills to know how to build a plant, let alone run it
            • significant long term safety risks if things go wrong
            • nuclear proliferation
            • not enough nuclear fuel for a significant proportion of global electricity use
            • can only be built in certain locations
            • nuclear waste