Alternative Energy

Alternative Energy is the tag under which Kyle files saved material on non-fossil power: solar, fusion, nuclear and hydrogen. The saved posts make three different kinds of claim:

• Solar costs. A Ramez Naam thread updating his solar cost forecasts says the unsubsidized cost of utility-scale solar fell by a factor of 5 or more from 2010 to 2020, that 2020 prices were half of what he projected in 2011 and a quarter of what the IEA projected in 2010, and that solar is now often competitive with new coal or gas (THREAD Solar is plunging in… (tweet)).
• Fusion. A post calls fusion the most underrated climate tech and argues that limitless, CO2-free, around-the-clock power would be a step-function improvement for civilization (The Most Underrated Climate Tech… (tweet); see also Nuclear Energy).
• Scale and export. A post by Mike Cannon-Brookes lists the biggest island, sun resource, wind resource, solar farm and cable, and concludes “We should be the biggest renewable export superpower” (🏝Biggest island in the world… (tweet)).

In the long reads, It’s Time To Build proposes building new zero-emission nuclear reactors to replace carbon-based generation, and Not So Lazy & Entitled Millennials- David Perell asks who is writing the book about a world with free, infinite energy. The reading queue holds Elon Musk’s Solar Plan Has One Key Flaw. The adjacent concept pages are Hydrogen Fuel Cells and Distributed Energy Model.

Where this appears

• The Most Underrated Climate Tech… (tweet)
• THREAD Solar is plunging in… (tweet)
• 🏝Biggest island in the world… (tweet)
• It’s Time To Build
• Not So Lazy & Entitled Millennials- David Perell
• Elon Musk’s Solar Plan Has One Key Flaw (reading queue)
• Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Distributed Energy Model, Nuclear Energy