Energy systems in sci-fi: we have standalone energy generators that accelerate a mech the size of a 4-story building at about 12Gs... and also solar mounting systems with the most inefficient form factor and siting imaginable. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (good game fyi)

And also completely pointless. Just make the electricity clean, and then people can do what they want.

Just a reminder: AC is completely sustainable. Nearly all energy for it can be generated by solar at peak generation times. *Heating* is the big household emissions problem, not cooling.

Solar PV hasn't actually been cheaper or much cheaper than gas for a while, wind actually was better for a while and still can be. But nothing else has as much potential for even deeper cost reductions that can enable cheap industrial development long-term.

We should do this for the much needed transmission permitting reform...

When people fail to put large figures like this in context you know they're not seriously analyzing the issue, just trying to score points.

I think regardless of climate change's severity we will be able to grow the economy, so I do worry that it will be hard to create convincing counterfactuals showing how damaging it is to both GDP and social outcomes.

Good to hear BC keeps pushing the envelope on fugitive methane regulations. They are already some of the toughest on land in the world, pushing from ~0.5% actual to 0.2%, hat should be the std for responsible O&G transitional climate management

With the Holocene, Google news yesterday I think it's important to contextualize the figure of $100/ton for direct air capture It's not real, in the sense most people think. And it also doesn't matter, as much as people think Why? 👇👇 blog.google/outreach-initi…

This is a pretty interesting idea. Peaking capacity is expensive, and there's a ton of it already paid for by personal risk preferences, and it's going totally unused outside natural disasters.

Chinese researchers have developed a novel non flammable, non ozone depleting refrigerant for heat pumps that could improve COPs by 21% (mix of CO2 & hydroflouroolefins) pv-magazine.com/2024/09/12/new…

Let's learn about a technology that saved billions of lives and enabled the modern world! And let's learn about the darkness in the soul of one man. Beyond Good & Evil? You be the judge. The Haber-Bosch process…

At a basic level I can't imagine how anyone could think combined cycle with hydrogen could ever make sense. Shows you the power of misinformation on carbon capture and the hype for hydrogen.

87% of animosity toward carbon capture technologies could be more productively redirected to carbon credit markets

My beef with large scale photocatalysis: How efficient and cheap must your catalyst be to choose this over hooking a bunch of PV to an electrolyzer? You want to pump CO2 into and collect fluid from every single panel? And lay an acre of catalyst out? interestingengineering.com/energy/liquid-…

Haven't taken this course, but it has all the same ingredients as the best course I ever took: an engineering course targeted at policy analysts. The transition demands interdisciplinary knowledge. We should really be doing more of this...(In both directions!)

Great thread, but this comment is perhaps this is indicative of the fact that Gen IV designs were mainly science projects despite being ostensibly applied research. That is, likely to yield something very long-run, but very unlikely in the short run.

Distribution is not the last mile It is the last 7 million of 7.5 million miles

Nuclear is great, pointless comparisons to wind and solar do not help make the case, it just betrays awkward insecurity.