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by _FKS_ 3548 days ago
Renewables depend on oil. You can't make renewables with renewables energy, because their overall EROI is insufficient to both maintain the current standard of life, and make them. The other issue is mobility, oil has the best volume/energy content ratio of all energy sources we know (except uranium). Renewables can only make electricity and you need about 10x the same battery volume (and weight) to move a vehicle, compared to oil. Unfourtunately for all of us, fosil fuels are here to stay for a while, until they run out. Or until the economy crashes. Or until climate change kicks in real bad.
2 comments
icebraining 3548 days ago
Renewables depend on oil. You can't make renewables with renewables energy, because their overall EROI is insufficient to both maintain the current standard of life, and make them.

Currently, sure, but in the long term? How so?

The other issue is mobility, oil has the best volume/energy content ratio of all energy sources we know (except uranium).

"Sustainable fuel for the transportation sector": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1821126/

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danmaz74 3548 days ago
> Renewables can only make electricity

If renewable energy becomes abundant/cheap enough, you can convert electricity into hydrogen or other high energy density chemicals.

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vkou 3548 days ago
Hydrogen is a nightmare to work with, and store. Other high energy-density chemicals tend to be complex hydrocarbons... So you're still burning oil - it just happens to be made from coal, or algae slush, or whatnot.
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Neeek 3548 days ago
Algae slush is carbon coming from our current system, our current atmosphere, it is renewable. Fossil fuel is releasing carbon from and external source (external on a human timescale at least). It will be essential in creating a renewable replacement for oil.

Burning hydrocarbons is not the issue. Burning hydrocarbons that were extracted from the atmosphere millions of years ago, is.

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ArkyBeagle 3548 days ago
If I had to insure transportation of a gas for energy storage, I'd make it methane. LNG is pretty safe. But right now, there's plenty of natural gas around.
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