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Originally Posted by aerohead
The secret, intellectual dishonesty of that graphic is hiding in plain view.
The quanta reflect 'primary' energy,which includes 2nd-law of thermodynamics,which aren't associated with renewable energy,as their input energy is 'free.'
If you look at the net,useable energy available,after the conversion of fossil-fuel chemical energy,to actual 'work',you'll find that renewables are up to 300% higher than reported in this graphic.
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Very hopeful but untrue. Many thermal industrial processes for carbon fuel such as cement manufacturing, are very efficient and electrification will make for little reduction in the energy required. Some transportation uses of electrification are almost three times more efficient (except for the embodied energy and raw materials of the storage medium) so a good ball park figure to wish for might be more like a 2:1 reduction in energy with the full electrification of everything. So the less than 2% of total energy from solar and wind right now would be more like 4% in that case and become actually visible on the chart. But still a very small fraction of ever replacing carbon fuels without a drastic reduction in consumption and opulent lifestyle.
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Over-optimistic complacency in the hope of a Star Trek high tech replacement to allow a minimal response is a big problem right now.
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