[lettergram]

Still buy gas, it's not like we're going to suddenly produce clean energy. All that's going to happen is we are going to build more power plants to support charging cars...

With the push for less nuclear, and less coal, all that's left is oil and natural gas. Renewable energy is no where near where it's necessary. So invest in companies that build windmills, solar, etc. But also natural gaz power plants.

Really the best investments are construction companies, and companies that manage and build the power grid infrastructure.

[zamalek]

> build more power plants to support charging cars...

The bigger and engine is, the more efficient it typically is. Electric cars are already more clean even when you factor in the filthiest of power plants.

[seanmcdirmid]

Push for less nuclear? Where? Germany, Japan?

Anyways, electric cars are made for renewables (sans hydro) and nuclear that provide energy when it might not be needed but can be used for charging batteries instead. Gas will fill in the gaps, but it's on demand nature means it doesn't really become more useful like the other sources do with car electrification.

[drdrey]

France too. Public perception is against it, but so are the economics (nuclear is expensive to produce and decommission)

[seanmcdirmid]

France is way ahead on nuclear, getting most of their energy from it (90%). What are they going to replace it with?

[epistasis]

Only time will tell, but right now I would bet on wind, solar, storage, imports, exports, etc. Eventually those existing reactors are going to age and need to be decommissioned, the median age is now more than 30 years old. Every year, construction of the EPR design is proving to be more and more expensive than they thought.

Of course, if somebody in the Western world can figure out how to build a nuclear reactor on time with a competitive budget, nuclear may enter that mix of new construction. But right now, with the past decades' trends, it is not looking good for nuclear.

[seanmcdirmid]

So is this something you are saying about France or something France has said itself. Last time I checked, France was still pretty dedicated to nuclear, unlike Germany....which gets a lot of exported nuclear power from France.

[epistasis]

I believe they are very dedicated to nuclear as well. However, the entire point of my comment was that they are having a difficult time constructing nuclear reactors, just like everybody else in the Western world. Without new construction, their existing nuclear fleet (median age >30 years) will eventually need to be decommissioned just due to time.

[olivermarks]

Good paywalled piece on FT about the hedge/shift to LNG by the big petroleum players 'Big Oil bets on a dash for gas' https://www.ft.com/content/f23e35e0-92b5-11e7-bdfa-eda243196...

LNG is a big electricity creation fuel, escaping methane is the big pollution challenge.