RE: How Clean is "Green Energy?"
I don't really think having a big battery allows you to save energy? The device still consumes the same amount, but you can carry of lot of charge with you which eventually has to be replenished. But ok that's a minor detail ;)
The impact of manufacturing costs indeed can not be ignored. I once read an article about electric cars leaving a larger impact on the environment than a regular car with combustion engine. Even a tesla, when using only green energy still has a larger ecological footprint thanks to production costs. (smaller e-cars tend to be better after all)
Let me see if I can find that article:
https://www.ft.com/content/a22ff86e-ba37-11e7-9bfb-4a9c83ffa852
This is the article from the Financial Times. I have written a summary about the study a while back in case this article wouldn't be available any more.
We can keep arguing about the production costs of various production methods like the solar panels or wind turbines, but overall I believe it is always a better option than burning fossil fuels and I really liked the sentence "how then can you make an omelette without breaking the eggs?" That really sums it up nicely :D
Finally I think it will eventually come down to the point that we need to be aware of electricity as a precious resource. We don't leave our faucets open because we are too lazy, so why do we do exactly that with our electricity? I think we waste a lot of electricity and in stead of pushing for those extra Kilowatts green energy maybe we can put some effort in reducing some extra Kilowatts in consumption?
Interesting post. Some similar points I brought up (as a nano-/picoplankon) in a post a few weeks back. Nevertheless, externalities need to be taken into consideration.
What are the costs of the mining for the solar panel and battery components? What are the costs of disposing of the solar panels or batteries, or to recycle these components? All of this needs to be taken into account when determining just how much things really cost (both in terms of $ and the environment and the workers that do the work to make this energy possible). Interesting post.
I also wonder about as a community if @steemstem we should be thinking about doing an internal literature review here order to use the blockchain to reference and cross-reference "first in" on ideas posted on this blockchain, etc. I may follow up with a post on this. Thanks!
Ah yes! I do recall that article. I believe posting about similar topics is inevitable but I might have some ideas to work with that. It sounds like an interesting concept and I'll make sure to check out your post about it to join the discussion there ;)
Here is a link to the post I just published. Enjoy...
With the caveat that of course there is going to be repetition. There are really no hard and fast rules here...
I agree with you on all you've said. I guess the power used in charging up big batteries still accounts for same as the one used in running the device. It only saves you energy in that the sun/electric supply is not always there-you can save for use later. I always say it is better to conserve energy than to produce it. In my country, only those that use electricity on prepaid meters tend to conserve it. People on postpaid where a fixed amount of bill comes per month tend to leave their light bulbs on during the day. This is something those on prepaid are very much aware of. In terms of water, we often use water from boreholes, the public pipe-borne water system is something you see being used carelessly, it's not hard to see running faucets and waste of such water. These are things we should put into consideration to reduce the energy dissipated in making the utility work.