this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
127 points (92.6% liked)

World News

32344 readers
436 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

You can theoretically. Unfortunately, you are not considering the land difference.

More to the point, the absolute political nightmare of buying and getting permission to use so much land.

It is a nightmare for both. But rare to see the amount of land needed for the power station, have to argue about arable use. Whereas, it's pretty hard in the UK to locate the solar without others claiming land is lost. Farm land mainly as that is the cheap build option. (pricy land, lower labour).

But even brownfield land. Once you have the area to host something like this. You are usually talking about close to populated areas. And just about every NIMBY crap excuse is thrown up about history or other potential use. Meaning, at best you end up with some huge project that takes decades. With a vague plan to add solar generation to the roof.

Honestly I agree. It should be fucking easy to build these plants. Farming should be updating. And honestly can benefit from well-designed solar if both parties are willing to invest and research.

But we have been seeing these arguments for the last 20 years. And people are arseholes, mostly.

And this is all before you consider the need for storage. Again solvable with hydro etc. Theoretically easy. But more land and way way more politics and time. If hydro the cost goes insane. And the type of land become more politically complex. If battery, you instantly get the comparison of mining and transport costs. So again more insane politics.

[–] Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Right. The UK it will be a challenge for sure. Any western democracy that's stuck due to the nature of its governance system indeed. BRICS countries OTOH are some of the fastest installers of solar. Maybe we're looking at a mean regression for the west.

[–] HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 3 points 6 days ago

Yep.

Also while the UK governance structure is crap.

Other EU nations have some of the same issues. (As has briccs nations in the past)

This is more about corperation power. Capatalims control over government is everywhere. But fully embedded in the west.

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That's a lot of text, and yet, solving all of that is easier, faster and less expensive than nuclear.

[–] HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Solving politics is cheap and fast.

Utter crap. Solar power companies have been trying for 20 years.

Its not like you came up with a new idea.

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

AI post? The reply doesn't even make sense.

[–] HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 2 points 5 days ago

Only fails to make sense. If you failed to read any significant portion of the said wall of text.

It was a wall because It was detailed in the history of solar power. Ill ELI5 for you.

We have funded solar power for decades. By allowing the industry to charge equal to other fuels. Meaning, for 20 years or more, companies have been trying to build solar plants all over the nation. And those that got there made a fucking fortune. Until the Tories ended part of it nearly 14 years ago. They stopped the subsidies. But still paid the same rate as more expensive power.

The problem with building solar is the politics from farmers and local communities. As the text described.

So

Solving politics is cheap and fast.

Utter crap. Solar power companies have been trying for 20 years.

Its not like you came up with a new idea.

Of building solar over nuclear. We have been trying for decades.