This is a little misleading. There are plenty of opportunities before the 2050 US drop-off to initiate new projects or overhaul and extend existing plants. SMRs are in their commercial infancy. They need time and successful initial projects. With so many under development, the odds are quite good with the largest risk being solar + battery undercuts which is also a win.
Markets dislike the uncertainty of searching for the right geothermal conditions. Battery storage is just cheaper and certain. You also can’t gloss over the hydrogen sulfide pollution. Geothermal is not truly clean.
Maui and Kauai have small populations and are easy for wind +solar + storage. The Big Island has geothermal, but it is only going to supply 15% of the energy mix because of the pollution. They have the room for renewables for 200k people. Oahu is the challenge. It’s populous, dense, and needs approximately 1.8 GW. This is why biofuels are the current strategy.
Time for one of the wealthiest collections of humans on Earth to stop walking and start running towards climate solutions. Decarbonization alone is not enough.
There is nothing wrong with the article.
Please consider judging things on their own merit.
There isn’t a conspiracy. It’s simply that most of the older islands have cooled and the studies necessary to find the right conditions are incredibly expensive. The Big Island is where the opportunity is, and they are expanding the existing plant as part of the carbon-free 2045 plan. The state is also funding exploration on Maui.
https://energy.hawaii.gov/geothermal/
I love the idea of geothermal, but the reality is difficult. You need to drill to find the right conditions. There’s also the H2S emissions. Solar and wind resources are much easier to confirm and build.
It is not an error. The Trump administration opposes renewable energy and heavily favors fossil fuels.
He simply speaks out more against wind as he holds bizarre views unsupported by science about its health effects.
It is bizarre how hostile to humans we build cities.
Reducing the urban heat island effect is the easiest countermeasure to mitigate some of the effects of climate change. A tree canopy is cheap with additional benefits to psychological well-being and air quality.
Yes.The Pure (base) is $72,000 delivered, plagued with issues, and subsidized so heavily the company lost $1 billion in the last quarter alone. This is reflected in some of the highest replacement parts costs in the industry rivaling ultra luxury manufacturers like Bentley. It is why residual retention is so poor even by EV standards.
This car is the poster child for my point. They put a powerful motor in, added battery to mitigate the lost range, then had to engineer around the weight at a price. You just don’t see the full cost which easily exceeds $150,000 per vehicle shipped.
Car rental is the last use case for EVs. Most renters are unfamiliar with the region, have limited time, and rent to put on miles at a faster rate than owners.
It will take ubiquitous megawatt charging infrastructure and 1,000 volt architecture for this to change. We are likely ten years away in North America. China will get there first, but it isn’t a large car rental market.
It is. Higher horsepower is predictive of higher driving speeds, higher collision rates, and more damage/risk per collision.
Even if it weren’t, it requires a heavier motor and stronger parts be used in the car, increasing costs and weight, which in turn decrease range.
Not necessarily. The answer could be to make clean electricity prices so low that even normal gasoline prices are more expensive.
I’ll hold until RDNA 5.
Europe and Asia are rapidly rejecting oil for transportation and I doubt it will ever come back.
If they can’t work with the high prices Trump created with his war, they can’t work with anything.
I hope they enjoy the long-term global demand destruction.
Yes, on the first screen it is an absolute total. On the second it is a percentage share.
So if something is growing, but slower than the growth of the rest, its share is declining.
Then go to your HOA meeting and speak for amending the bylaws to allow them. It doesn’t take much to get changes.
Metro Toronto is a disappointment. It should be have been doubling its subway network every 20 years. Instead it shut down a line, added a few stations on another, and built LRT that’s slower than the bus it replaced.
It needs express subway tracks, GO with 10 minutes headways, and transit oriented development able to house 10k people within a ten minute walk of every GO stop which means zoning for density,
Pay for it by owning the land around stations like HK or Singapore and leasing it to developers for 40 story affordable apartments, increasing the gasoline tax, and putting tolls on the 401 and Gardiner.
Toronto is a transportation nightmare. It’s time to adopt successful models from Asia to make transit fast, convenient, and cheap while making driving fast, convenient, and incredibly expensive. Fill in with protected bike lanes and the city will be liveable and affordable with great air quality
Nice that the rest of the world is moving forward and a decentralized energy future is coming closer.
Yes, the dormant Commerce Clause specifically. One state cannot unduly burden interstate commerce nor use their size to force national standards since manufacturers cannot feasibly have a California packaging, then another for 49 other states.
Sadly, there is a real chance that the suing states prevail.