Saturday, September 2, 2023

Number's Don't Lie

By Vaclav Smil.

I think Smil writes more for policy makers, heads of industry and government officials than the likes of me. He writes of the challenges and conundrums of genuine change. 

Some of his writing is interesting and nerdy. He dives into many aspects of decarbonizing our economy. He also urges caution and to stay in this for the long run. Many of the technologies we need to switch to renewables at a large scale don't yet exist and won't for decades. Take battery powered jet's for example. A gallon of jet fuel is 40x more energy dense than today's batteries. In addition, jet fuel looses weight as it is used up. Batteries do not. As a result the economics of running battery powered airflight are very different than for running a car.

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