Unexpected? Uhhhh maybe if you haven’t ever read the news or any science ever. Scientists have been saying solar will be cheaper than fossil fuels by orders of magnitude since the 80s. And guess what, now they are.
I was about to say exactly this. We made a power source that requires pretty much no maintenance, and generates power by… exisiting
Who could’ve guessed that we’d wanna invest in that…
Yes, okay, but for the ignorant who aren’t experts such as myself, you hear that and then you hear an equally solid argument as far as your understanding goes which says solar isn’t as good as nuclear and then you hear the next one swearing by wind energy, so, nothing like quantifiable evidence.
Same happens with climate change. No matter how hard you predict, the population at large will not fully get until it’s too late.
Well all of those things can be true though. The claim is that solar is massively cheaper than fossil fuels. Nuclear could still be better (generates more energy with fewer resources and less waste) wind could still be better (works 100% of the time*) but solar could still be getting cheaper and cheaper to the point where it “wins” because it’s easier to install, more distributed which means people are less dependent on the power grid, etc.
In any case, it sounds like now you know. Renewables are incredibly cheap because they don’t require continued investment in incredibly expensive infrastructure. They’re generally build once use forever. Fossil fuels are not, wells run dry, you have to continue to build pipelines, terminals, pump stations, etc for every new well pad. Those benefits from renewables can be had in a bunch of different ways and they all have pros and cons. But they are all cheaper than fossil fuels, it’s just by which order of magnitude and depends on how you measure (cost, maintenance, effect on environment, output, ease of construction, political issues at the time, etc).
Sure, and yes I know now, like you said. But the previous comment said science has been heralding solar since the 80s or so, implying it’s unsurprising. So when I rewind a couple decades (or just one), did I know? No. I think people were still arguing that the infrastructure for solar made it more expensive in the long run, that it would be so costly to implement it wouldn’t be feasible, or that it would be superseded by other renewables, etc. It’s very hard to tell which arguments are credible or not when everything is hypothetical and in the air and you have no expertise in the subject. That was my point. Everything is easy to see in hindsight.
That aside, yeah I’m glad solar is where it’s at today. Australia has a very sunny weather overall, which makes it ideal to develop and implement, and the government fortunately has supported solar in a variety of ways, which is actually pretty amazing. I only hope something similar happens with electric vehicles.
Well, to be fair to you. Even though the previous comment said know since the 80s, rooftop solar on households didn’t really start in Australia until 2008 abs. From a climate change perspective, from ~1912 they knew coal increased atmosphere carbon
Scientists and environmentalists, sure. Other folks? Not so sure. People love to deny. I’m old enough to have met people believing environmental issues are just the exaggerations of some hippies- and I’m not that old. People also tend to ignore a problem unless they’re already suffering the consequences. Which brings me back to my point: everything is easy to see in hindsight.
