Comment on Elements of Renewable Energy
keepthepace@slrpnk.net 1 week agoIt is renewable in the sense that given infinite time, you can use it to grow infinite energy (for the nitpickers: assuming an eternal sun).
It is not infinite though and the amount of power you can extract from it is limited but that’s true for every renewable sources: you have a limited amount of places where you can put dams, where you can put windmills or even solar panels.
What is important is that it is not power generation that consumes a scarce good (as fossil power does) but that it is increases in power generation that consumes it, in a reversible way.
Mihies@programming.dev 1 week ago
If you look at it like that, fossil is renewable as well. Just a tiny bit slower, but still, given enough time … :)
keepthepace@slrpnk.net 1 week ago
Not really IIRC. Modern bacteria are more efficient at breaking down organic materials and forests buried today won’t make oil anymore.
Mihies@programming.dev 1 week ago
That’s interesting. You have an url handy for now details? Even if this wasn’t the case, fossil generation isn’t real feasible for us anyway.
keepthepace@slrpnk.net 1 week ago
Sorry I don’t have it handy, just read it, probably on /r/askscience a while ago. A quick search indicate that maybe this is not as true as I thought. That seems to be the case mostly for coal and for some forms of oil, but not all of it.