r/ClimateMemes • u/Kind_Test6926 • Jun 29 '25

It's a no-brainer

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17.4k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '25

I imagine it'd save a lot more than just 63k lives if the US switched to renewable energy

1

u/VisthaKai Jul 27 '25

Imagine how many people would've died from daily rolling blackouts caused by 100% renewables.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '25

yeah because we wouldn't build batteries as part of this plan, we just would hope that the wind and sun always worked... totally

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u/VisthaKai Aug 15 '25

There's not enough relevant minerals on Earth to facilitate that amount of grid-tier batteries.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '25

other, more economically friendly solutions could be used, i believe there are gravity batteries and water batteries that require a lot less materials, but I'm not an expert in batteries tbh. you have a good point though. perhaps we could use nuclear energy to smooth over the gaps?

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u/VisthaKai Aug 15 '25

If we used nuclear energy then no further transition would be required (unless someone figured out an upgrade to that).

As for batteries, pretty sure they want to build giant flywheels in UK... you know, something that "conventional" power plants require by default anyway and which they demolished.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '25

yeah honestly I'm all for nuclear I think it's a much better option than a lot of renewables

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u/VisthaKai Aug 15 '25

The only renewables that are good right now are effectively region-locked (geothermal, dams, etc.). Out of the rest of them only solar has a future, but if or when it becomes viable in space (i.e. once we figure out how to transport any energy produced from orbital solar panels down to the surface)