this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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Data Is Beautiful

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

No shit, the global south is leading the renewable charge.

What's the breakdown on emissions though?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

The South had less in the way of infrastructure, self contained solar and wind are totally obvious.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

South America has a ton of hydroelectric capacity.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Gonna need this map with biomass excluded

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It would also be nice to get one with nuclear added. Not renewable, but still green.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

And another with hydropower removed. Dams weren't exactly built with green energy as a goal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why does it matter why they were built? Low carbon energy is low carbon energy, while some countries may have an natural advantage it typically tends to be in places with lower options for solar.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Dams are hugely problematic in their own way. Dam removal is a real thing. We may want fewer dams in the future.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Perhaps, but definitely something to worry about after net zero. Dams, especially existing ones, tend to cause local damage to a handful of species, while the natural gas they take off the grid damages nearly all of the ecosystems on the planet while killing people even in normal operation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It's a strong argument in favor of nuclear power. You get power like a dam, but without the impact on local ecosystems.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is blatantly untrue. Dams act like huge batteries that can be used to smoothen out the load if demand or supply drop.

It should be used in conjunction with other sustainable energy methods. Over production can be used to pump up water and if production of wind and solar drops (as they tend to). Water electricity can fill the gap.

Power grids are very complex and require great forethought and balancing options. If water energy cannot be used, nuclear is the best balancing power.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The dam still causes huge environmental damage though. We may not want to use dams like that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For a dam which already exists, surely keeping it in use makes more sense than decommissioning it in favour of fossil fuels though?

We probably shouldn't be building any more, but unless our grid is already completely renewable, hydro stations are the last ones we should be taking offline.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

For the time being, dams will have to exist. But eventually, there will come a time when we won't need nearly as many dams.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

How/why is North Korea so green?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

doesn't a lot of their energy come from solar and hydropower?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

In france-cool's defense, they at least have nuclear which doesn't need to be counted as "renewable", but is definitely leagues better than dinosaur juice.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Norway playing both sides...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Man the ocean is really behind everyone else. I expected better from the worlds largest watermass.