Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/17/worlds-cheapest-electricity.html
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The sun is cheaper in Mexico, didn’t everybody know that…
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I don’t know how we are going to get all those power lines over or under the new wall.
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Yeah, but what quality is it? I hear the most dank electricity comes from Colorado.
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How will the buggy whip manufacturers survive the coming auto-mobile apocalypse?
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What will we do with all of this cheap energy?
Save the earth & make a space elevator simultaneously.
Capture as much atmosphereic and oceanic CO2 as possible, use the sabatier reaction to convert it to CH4, and use that captured carbon as fuelstock for carbon nanotubes.
I’m actually working on a system to do this ( the first phase anyway) in my basement using my own solar panels.
edit: The only way to reverse climate change is to sequester carbon in a carbon neutral way. Solar, combined with large power banks is quickly making itself apparent as the best method to power your gizmo to do this. it needs to 1) scrub C02. 2) do something (really anything) with it that doesn’t release it back as a greenhouse has. Since we’ve done about the crappiest thing possible with it (attached a molecule that really really likes it ie Oxygen) the energy price is high. this makes the ‘lots of free power’ necessary as the sabatier requires high temperatures. The system needs to discharge lots of power to break that bond.
my initial goal is to built a self contained ‘passive’ unit that can occupy a small corner of your backyard, consume sunlight, and poop out graphite. This already requires lots of power to, and its only a step in the right direction. Average american families create 20 metric tons in C02 emmision. My machine would need to poop out. drumroll. 320lbs of graphite per week to offset that lifestyle
Doing something useful with it, ie adding a graphene/CNT module after that is the stretch goal.
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You have solar panels in your basement? Doesn’t sound too bright, to me.
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Do we classify electrons as criminals, drug dealers, rapists, or "etc.”?
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My thought exactly. It’s not like this came out of the clear blue to destroy those industries. They’ve seen it coming for years and instead of taking a lead they tried to obstruct and prevent progress. I’m sorry for miners but the companies and unions both screwed them and the world must move on to survive.
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It’s a steal now that the peso is down.
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the same way the original buggy whip manufacturers survived.
By lobbying congress to heftily tax automakers, prevent cars from being sold in particular states, extorting the government into massive tax cuts lest they offshore which they did anyways, paying Jeremy Clarkson to pretend to run out of gas while the Stig raced by on his horse…
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Bad particulas
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Cheaper energy is always good news to me. I wish there were a source of abundant, cheap, non polluting electricity for everyone in the world.
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Thank you. A decade ago I might have given a hang about the social fabric of those dependent on fossil fuel extraction, but they’ve spent that time only digging their own economic graves deeper (a decade ago I also thought they’d hit rock bottom in electing Prince Bush, but here they are, still digging).
Next up, watch them vote people in who’ll ensure that American solar power is the most expensive solar power in the world.
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I’m just waiting for Trump to demand the UN to outlaw renewables because they hurt the bottom line of coal and petroleum companies. :3
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Not just the unions and companies but regular consumers like you and me. Could it have been mitigated? Maybe, but we would have all had to have payed a higher price for our power, and that was never going to happen.
What I want to get at is that we need to get off of fossil fuels no matter the economic cost, there’s no getting around that. That creates a situation where people are going to be left behind no matter what.
It may be comforting to think people had a choice, but a lot of them didn’t, not when they were busy digging for coal until we needed them to stop.
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Some, I assume, are good particles.
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We can’t allow any of this cheap Mexican energy over the border. It might transmit leprosy!
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I’m just waiting for Trump to propose invading Mexico so we can steal the Mexican sun.
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“Too cheap to meter!”
Never heard that one before. Nothing can possibly go wrong.
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