Renewable energy technologies (and solar especially) are about as important as oil was in the 20th century. America literally went to war multiple times internationally to get access to that sweet juice. It makes absolutely no sense that America would not want to have access to excessive amounts of cheap energy today, and that’s why it is straightforward that America will do a 180° turn-around and start calling the Chinese their “best friend” for providing them with ample amounts of solar energy panels.
Not really. While the expertise in their manufacture is pretty concentrated, you can build a factory almost anywhere in theory. They don’t have a lot of exotic materials and the amount they need will probably drop in the future, so there won’t be a real solar equivalent to the petro-state. Maybe some places with a handy combination of sun and mineral resources could be desirable industrial regions, but it wouldn’t encourage war in the same way.
The “problem” with solar is that you can’t meter it. Nobody has yet found a way to sell you electricity from sunlight today and then sell it to you again tomorrow, which is what they’re accustomed to doing and believe is their right to do somehow. That’s why it’s so incredibly disruptive.
Genuinely thank you for this explanation. I never thought about how this is basically a fish (oil) vs fishing pole (solar) situation. Oil companies don’t want to give you the fishing pole to do it yourself, they want to charge you fish by fish, gallon by gallon of oil to maximize profits.
That is until solar-electric companies start banking electricity in huge batteries, then meting it out for a fee. Pretty sure that hellscape is in the works.
The thing is, unless governments really bring the hammer down on the installation of PV panels and batteries (and I live in FL – the sunshine state – where it can be very difficult to get permits and insurance for PV panels) or force you to buy a certain percentage of power from your utility (I could DEFINITELY see my state government try some BS like that), eventually many people will simply not need coal, gas or oil. As batteries become cheap enough, more people will install them, source more power directly from the sun, charge their cars with it, etc. It really is the endgame, the fossil execs are just trying to string us along for one more generation to squeeze every last dollar out of the market.
I don’t see oil companies pivoting to solar.
We are seeing them pivot to Hydrogen because it comes from oil.Hydrogen because it comes from oil.
and because it requires a large, centralized infrastructure they can control. if you could pull hydrogen out of the air cheaply, anywhere, they wouldn’t be in on hydrogen.
meanwhile it’s really a dead end anyway, barring leaps in fuel cell technology. who wants to deal with the pressures and infrastructure to move around cryogenic liquids?
People are already morons with gasoline, and they want to add pressure lol?
it’s a dead end, and a silly one. but big petroleum will use it to muddy the waters and keep pumping oil
True, but a lot of Aristocracies didn’t pivot to oil immediately either, and look how that turned out for them when the world wars started.
Exactly, true, The USA’s-EU’s Rich-SuperRich Economic Classes/Owners are looking at NOT clean enough Hydrogen Power (the latest version does not come through Oil, but mining <yes, as current solar panels do> & Etc. other bad for Living Earth & All Living Beings still is required, so not as clean as they claim) for the future. With that said they want to continue to drain every last bit oil energy profits, before that.
ATTENTION: ILLEGAL WEAPONS OF MASS (ENERGY) PRODUCTION DETECTED [solar panels]
PREPARE TO BE LIBERATED
PLEASE DO NOT RESIST
Your analysis assumes American decisions are made for American benefits, treating America like a monolith, or a single actor.
America has capitulated governance to a minority of ultra-wealthy psychopaths who have repeatedly proven they will fuck over anything and everything, including America as a whole, and any segment of its population. Trump is deperately trying to stop renewables and support oil and coal even though they are less economic and advantageous in the immediate here and now, let alone benefit America in the future. Its scorched earth psychopathy.
And that’s of course why they’re so very interested in Greenland, because of all the sunlight.
So the thing about solar and electronic grade silicon is…
it’s made from dirt. You don’t even have to dig for it. Quartz is high yield, but it’s present in Sand, Silt, and Clay and makes up about 28% of mineral soil in the earth’s crust. You crush it, weight separate it, melt it down, crush it, weight separate it, melt it down again, and finally crystalize it using a crystal seeding method.
I think we are already there; obviously I cannot agree with you more.
‘Economic Update’s Host Richard Wolff does a awesome job of explaining this, with intersecting USA is failing, like Rome started fail & fell apart.
