| ▲ | apatheticonion 3 days ago | |||||||
Keep in mind the energy vs electricity "gochya". Australia, for instance, powers 40% of its electricity with renewables. However, electricity makes up ~20% of _total_ energy consumption which means renewables made up 9% of _total_ energy production. As the electrification of transport, industry, manufacturing, etc proceeds, the demand for electricity will increase (in the case of Australia, we need to 5x our electricity production). Ironically, legislators are disincentivized from stimulating electrification as getting to 100% renewable electricity production is easier when electricity is only 20% of our energy usage. | ||||||||
| ▲ | laurencerowe 3 days ago | parent [-] | |||||||
Energy consumption does not equal useful work though. Much of that non-electrical energy consumption is wasted, e.g. car engines are only about 30% efficient and heat pumps can provide 3-5x the amount of warmth compared to the electrical input required to run. So we’re probably looking at around a 2x increase in electricity consumption rather than 5x. | ||||||||
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