Solar power is finally becoming cheaper than fossil fuel

http://qz.com/871907/2016-was-the-y...cheaper-than-fossil-fuels-just-wait-for-2017/

The most important points of the article:

• Solar and wind is now the same price or cheaper than fossil fuels in more than 30 countries, the WEF (World Economic Forum) reported in December.
• The US added about 125 solar panels every minute in 2016, about double the pace last year, reports the Solar Energy Industry Association.
• The solar story is even more impressive after accounting for new distributed solar on homes and business, which pushed the total installed capacity to 11.2 GW. But global investment in renewable energy still lags far behind levels needed to avoid potentially catastrophic global warming, according to the United Nations.
• In August, energy firm Solarpack contracted to sell solar electricity in Chile at just $29.1 per megwatt hour, 58% below prices from a new natural gas plant.

The sooner we lose our dependence on fossil fuel, the better.

 

[Male Idiot]

Thus far? Yes. But that's why we need to invest more into research for nuclear power. At some point, it should be cheaper, safer, and less expensive than anything else with the right amount of research and thought put into it.

And yeah, this:



Also plays into how expensive it is. That and not every country has a good place for nuclear waste disposal like the US and Russia do.

Why can't they just dig a hole? Unless they are Japan and everything is inhabited by people, surely they can find a backwards part where they can dispose of the waste.

I'm very sure that fusion power will be the future solution. We just have to get by until it is perfected.

 

[Null]

I want Donald Trump to sign a nuclear power bill that involves paying Space X to fire radioactive waste into the sun.

 

[Sanshain]

Germany has more solar power than the USA and receives less sunshine than Washington State and the Northeast.

It can be done

I can vouch for this. I live somewhere it's cloudy more days than it is sunny, and just about every modern building has solar panels installed. Thing is, they aren't used to power devices (though a lot of people like to use them to charge up mobile phones/tablets/etc), but to heat water. A good solar array will keep water significantly above room temperature for most of the day, which makes it much cheaper to bring it to boil later on. This is in my opinion one of the best uses of solar energy; to take a significant edge off the costs of water heating and reduce the consumption of fossil fuels in related tasks. Solar energy is pretty hard to store in any form, but it is great for convenience.

 

[Electric Eye]

Why can't they just dig a hole? Unless they are Japan and everything is inhabited by people, surely they can find a backwards part where they can dispose of the waste.

I was mainly referring to countries like Japan which do not have the landmass and geological heterogeneity to support many good waste disposal sites. Don't want a repeat of this happening.

I'm very sure that fusion power will be the future solution. We just have to get by until it is perfected.

I imagine so, yes. But until that time, we need an arsenal of solutions against reliance on fossil fuels. Solar and wind included.

 

[DuskEngine]

I want Donald Trump to sign a nuclear power bill that involves paying Space X to fire radioactive waste into the sun.

The big problem with space-based disposal is that if a regular rocket crashes and lands somewhere, then it's just a tragic loss of life and waste of resources. The problem becomes compounded if said rocket is also carrying several hundred KGs of toxic waste.

Who knows, maybe if SpaceX can make payload delivery reliable and cheap enough, it'll be viable.

 

[Pikimon]

I can vouch for this. I live somewhere it's cloudy more days than it is sunny, and just about every modern building has solar panels installed. Thing is, they aren't used to power devices (though a lot of people like to use them to charge up mobile phones/tablets/etc), but to heat water. A good solar array will keep water significantly above room temperature for most of the day, which makes it much cheaper to bring it to boil later on. This is in my opinion one of the best uses of solar energy; to take a significant edge off the costs of water heating and reduce the consumption of fossil fuels in related tasks. Solar energy is pretty hard to store in any form, but it is great for convenience.

Ideally it should be a hybrid mix of multiple sources of energy with a shift away from fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas.

It's a good thing that the world is investing more in geothermal, solar, wind, and responsible hydroelectric and ideally nuclear energy should develop into forms that create less hazardous waste (that is if research grants don't dry up like they're predicted to), however it can't be a solitary focus on any single source of power and it can't be without a reduction in energy usage (which can be accomplished by a combination of voluntary energy saving and investments in making utilities more energy efficient).

 

[CWCchange]

Why can't they just dig a hole? Unless they are Japan and everything is inhabited by people, surely they can find a backwards part where they can dispose of the waste.

I'm very sure that fusion power will be the future solution. We just have to get by until it is perfected.

Literally dumping waste is gay and uncivilized, unless we export it to India as they have the comparative advantage. Maybe their space program can send it to the sun when the entire country is a designated radioactive waste site with no more room for designated shitting streets.

 

[Fulda's Gap]

With all of the back and forth discussing the shortcomings of each, it is prudent to remember that there's nothing preventing us (outside of dumb legislation) from adopting more than one.

Pick one or more sources for energy that are most suitable to the locale, then use nuclear power to make up for shortages and as insurance against overwhelming our power output.

Just a thought!