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   Sue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱 (susankayequinn@wandering.shop)'s status on Tuesday, 15-Oct-2024 02:31:13 JST Sue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱

   Renewable distributed power is radical. It would transform the world.

   #ClimateChange #power #renewables

   • clacke likes this.
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     argv minus one (argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Thursday, 17-Oct-2024 03:49:29 JST argv minus one

     in reply to

     @susankayequinn

     Planes have the problem of low surface area. To capture lots of sunlight, it has to be big…but being big makes it need more sunlight! Decarbonizing them is probably going to need either better energy storage or fusion power.

     Ships are another story, though. Humanity invented a zero-carbon way to propel them millennia ago: sails! The OG wind power. I've heard that research is now happening to develop newer, better sails to at least supplement the motor. Seemed pretty cool.

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     Sue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱 (susankayequinn@wandering.shop)'s status on Thursday, 17-Oct-2024 03:49:30 JST Sue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱

     in reply to

     • argv minus one

     @argv_minus_one Agreed! The drop in price on solar (plus the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits) are superpowering solar adoption (and batteries)! The real limit now is how fast we can make them, and that's going to be a challenge for a long time just because we have so much to build out. But it's coming. (Decarbonizing ships and planes is tougher but we're working on that too)

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     argv minus one (argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Thursday, 17-Oct-2024 03:49:35 JST argv minus one

     in reply to

     @susankayequinn

     It's coming!

     I see offerings on Amazon for small solar+battery systems for only like $300. Little things, just enough wattage to run a small appliance or something, but still, that is shockingly cheap.

     Unless there's some kind of economic or political catastrophe (like Trump winning the upcoming election), it seems to me that household solar is now inevitable and the oil-and-gas industry is basically screwed. Just gotta keep up the inertia.

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     Sue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱 (susankayequinn@wandering.shop)'s status on Thursday, 17-Oct-2024 03:49:42 JST Sue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱

     in reply to

     • argv minus one

     @argv_minus_one new tech sails can definitely augment but cargo ships are huge. It’s an argument for smaller ships and less shipping but in the mean time probably green H2 is the answer. Same for planes—small planes can go electric like large trucks, but it’s the weight that kills you (or more specifically energy density of storage)—green H2 has energy density like jet fuel which is what makes air travel possible (only ultralights could work directly on solar). Again: less flying too.

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     Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐 (gcvsa@mstdn.plus)'s status on Thursday, 17-Oct-2024 03:49:49 JST Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐

     in reply to

     @susankayequinn Bill McKibben lives a lavishly polluting jetset lifestyle, flying all over the world, being paid to blame environmental damage on "Big Oil", and not the people who actually burn the oil, because people like him are among the worst offenders of all.