Although good news, maybe do something about the fact that every minute 13 million dollar in subsidies is going to fossil fuels… In 2022 the total was 7 trillion, dwarfing the 1 trillion for renewables (globally)
Source: IMF
Would fossil fuels even be profitable anymore if the subsidies were removed, or is the recent history of fossil fuels just a tale in wealth extraction and collusion by a dead industry?
They absolutely would be profitable, it’s just that those costs would then be passed on to the consumer. People would see energy costs skyrocket to make up the difference.
The oil companies still have a product most of the world needs and people will (and have) killed to get it. We’d rebel against a government they tried
In order to get passed oil we need to move to alternatives like EVs.
Fuel does have insane taxes on it.
Im still not used to pirate Olaf
jeez… just noticed, what happened?!?
He fell while jogging.
Yeah… yeah… He “fell”…
Pulled the wrong lever.
The actual roadblock (sic) to e-cars in Europe and especially Germany is that culturally, people don’t live in the urban sprawl (one house one garage per family) but more like Americans do in big cities like NYC: Multi-flat apartments with no reserved parking spots - street parking is the norm, and in bigger cities is very hard to find in the evening. That of course means overnight charging is only possible for those who own a parking space closed off to the public, and can convince the person who they rent from to install a charger. Then you have the further problem of the electric grid in most cities not being able to supply the needed bandwidth for a big number of fast chargers. That’d mean that the whole grid would have to be upgraded, so digging up city streets for the next decades. People in the sticks who own property (single house on a plot of land) are those who can reasonably switch to electric cars for the time being, because let’s face it, no amount of chargers at service stations will be enough - if I can’t charge my car overnight at home, I won’t buy an e-car. I’m not driving to the next service station, wait for a charger to become available, then sit in my car playing Vampire Survivors for 2h until it’s charged. Every other day.
I seriously doubt electric cars will take off in Europe due to the lack of the “charging at home” option for the majority of people with no real resolution in sight.
I live in Amsterdam and while we do have a personal parking space, we do not have (nor need) our own charging point. At the end of my short road, there are four public slow-charging points (11/22 kW). There are plans to add 2 more just one road over. Throughout my neighbourhood (all within at most 10 min walking distance) there are probably a few dozen total. We’ve never had to go farther than the end of the road though. There are many EVs in my neighbourhood.
When we get solar panels, we do intend to install an charging point in our driveway. It’s cheaper!
I seriously doubt electric cars will take off in Europe due to the lack of the “charging at home” option for the majority of people with no real resolution in sight.
I realize that the Netherlands is good for some 25% of Europe’s public charging infrastructure, but this certainly does not resonate with me at all. Besides, the EU is regulating the construction of new public charging infrastructure (through highway charging and working on local charging).
My understanding is that level 2 street charging is growing. They also do things a little differently in that rather than having a cord at each station (prone to theft/vandalism) drivers carry their own cord that plugs into the station and the car.
Another thing to consider is that people driving within the city probably don’t cover much distance. Depending on pricing vs gas, 15 minutes at a fast charger every week or two may be enough to get by and worth it.
Housing density and the things it comes with are absolutely a factor. But maybe not an insurmountable one.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
MUNICH, Germany, Sept 5 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lauded the German car industry’s efforts at electrification at Munich’s IAA car show and condemned protests as “irritating” as he announced a new law to expand the number of electric vehicle charging stations.
Scholz said that the coming weeks will see Germany become “the first country in Europe to introduce a law requiring operators of 80% of all service stations to provide fast-charging options with at least 150 kilowatts for e-cars”.
Sporting an eye patch after a jogging accident at the weekend, Scholz did not give a time frame for the initiative.
Europe’s biggest economy has only 90,000 public charging points but is targeting 1 million by 2030 to boost EV take-up.
High prices, limited range and a lack of charging stations, especially in rural areas, have been cited as the main reasons for the lag in EV sales.
While Western carmakers fret over intense competition from Chinese rivals, major German auto suppliers told Reuters at the mobility show that they were eager to expand existing partnerships in China and provide those rising manufacturers with European-made parts.
The original article contains 453 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 59%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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As they banned nuclear that means it’ll be all power coming from coal burning?
Yes because we have nothing else and never will.
To be fair, they were dismantling a wind farm to mine the coal instead just the other day, but I see your point of course.
Yeah that was some stupid shit, but coal was phased out at the same rate as nuclear in the last years. You also got to take into account that the decision to phase out nuclear was made before a critical mass (lol) of people realized that CO2 is a far bigger problem. I think the plants could be run some years more, but it takes more to flip a switch for that to work. We neither have personnel nor the supply chains anymore and building new plants will take decades, so it’s far easier to just put all effort into renewables.
That sounds like progress
🥱
And Russian LNG!
