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CIRCLE WITH A DOT

  1. Home
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  3. There’s a limited supply of oil.

There’s a limited supply of oil.

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  • tymwol@hachyderm.ioT tymwol@hachyderm.io

    @nickofnz I'm all for renewable technologies, however sorry, but I think that this kind of over-simplistic arguments using in the discourse are more harmful than useful.

    First, solar is nor unlimited (night, cloudy weather) and has environmental costs like solar panels taking land, etc. Second, solar panels need silicon which is not unlimited, and 80% of it comes from China, so it is easy to imagine how politics and possible wars can also easily disrupt it. So, in a sense, there is a limited supply of solar as well, and wars can also be fought for it.

    zappes@mastodon.onlineZ This user is from outside of this forum
    zappes@mastodon.onlineZ This user is from outside of this forum
    zappes@mastodon.online
    wrote last edited by
    #35

    @tymwol @nickofnz Has anybody ever bothered to discuss with you what silicon exactly is, from which natural resource it is extracted and how much of the planet is made of that stuff?

    tymwol@hachyderm.ioT 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • mo@mastodon.mlM mo@mastodon.ml

      @kravietz except panels will work fine for decades, while fuel will do it's job exactly once.

      It's difference between owning and subscription

      @nickofnz

      kravietz@agora.echelon.plK This user is from outside of this forum
      kravietz@agora.echelon.plK This user is from outside of this forum
      kravietz@agora.echelon.pl
      wrote last edited by
      #36

      @mo@mastodon.ml @nickofnz@mastodon.nz

      Yes, there's definitely huge difference between fuel and generation infrastructure, except it's not as simple as "buy once, use for decades":

      • due to very low surface power density of PV you need millions of these
      • each year some of them fail, which you need to replace, and the whole economic viability depends on prices of these planned for decades in advance
      • PV depend on inverters and most of the Chinese ones come with firmware backdoors that are remotely exploitable
      mo@mastodon.mlM 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • nickofnz@mastodon.nzN nickofnz@mastodon.nz

        There’s a limited supply of oil. It’s very expensive and wars are fought for it.

        There is endless sunlight. It’s free and no wars are fought for it.

        Let’s choose solar.

        deberupts@mastodon.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
        deberupts@mastodon.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
        deberupts@mastodon.social
        wrote last edited by
        #37

        @nickofnz Solar is an enormous improvement on traditional sources of electricity production in terms of sustainability — especially fossil fuels.

        1 Reply Last reply
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        • zappes@mastodon.onlineZ zappes@mastodon.online

          @tymwol @nickofnz Has anybody ever bothered to discuss with you what silicon exactly is, from which natural resource it is extracted and how much of the planet is made of that stuff?

          tymwol@hachyderm.ioT This user is from outside of this forum
          tymwol@hachyderm.ioT This user is from outside of this forum
          tymwol@hachyderm.io
          wrote last edited by
          #38

          @zappes @nickofnz you mean this? https://thesciencesurvey.com/news/2025/07/06/the-world-sand-crisis/

          zappes@mastodon.onlineZ 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • kravietz@agora.echelon.plK kravietz@agora.echelon.pl

            @mo@mastodon.ml @nickofnz@mastodon.nz

            Yes, there's definitely huge difference between fuel and generation infrastructure, except it's not as simple as "buy once, use for decades":

            • due to very low surface power density of PV you need millions of these
            • each year some of them fail, which you need to replace, and the whole economic viability depends on prices of these planned for decades in advance
            • PV depend on inverters and most of the Chinese ones come with firmware backdoors that are remotely exploitable
            mo@mastodon.mlM This user is from outside of this forum
            mo@mastodon.mlM This user is from outside of this forum
            mo@mastodon.ml
            wrote last edited by
            #39

            @kravietz
            solar cell is literally just thin silicon plate with wires, under glass, if you don't throw rocks on it there's no point of failure

            Do you have any sources on remote exploits in inverters, or it's just speculations?
            Because inverter (especially producing constant frequency AC) is such a simple device, you literally don't need any microprocessor to run it, neither connect it to network

            @nickofnz

            kravietz@agora.echelon.plK 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • mo@mastodon.mlM mo@mastodon.ml

              @kravietz
              solar cell is literally just thin silicon plate with wires, under glass, if you don't throw rocks on it there's no point of failure

              Do you have any sources on remote exploits in inverters, or it's just speculations?
              Because inverter (especially producing constant frequency AC) is such a simple device, you literally don't need any microprocessor to run it, neither connect it to network

              @nickofnz

              kravietz@agora.echelon.plK This user is from outside of this forum
              kravietz@agora.echelon.plK This user is from outside of this forum
              kravietz@agora.echelon.pl
              wrote last edited by
              #40

              @mo@mastodon.ml @nickofnz@mastodon.nz

              if you don't throw rocks on it there's no point of failure

              How about hailstorm or strong wind? There are documented cases where each of them have annihilated whole PV farms in one go.

              any sources on remote exploits in inverters

              Of course: https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/the-gigantic-unregulated-power-plants-in-the-cloud/

              That's one reason why NIS2 was extended to energy sector, against the protests of the PV sector who of course moaned about "cost increases".

              neither connect it to network

              Unfortunately, we're living in 21st century and every PV owner wants to show off their generation on an online app 🤷

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • tymwol@hachyderm.ioT tymwol@hachyderm.io

                @zappes @nickofnz you mean this? https://thesciencesurvey.com/news/2025/07/06/the-world-sand-crisis/

                zappes@mastodon.onlineZ This user is from outside of this forum
                zappes@mastodon.onlineZ This user is from outside of this forum
                zappes@mastodon.online
                wrote last edited by
                #41

                @tymwol @nickofnz Well, capitalism manages to enshittify everything it touches, that's true. But this is not a problem of silicon being rare, it is one of greedy people doing greedy people stuff.

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • drq@mastodon.mlD drq@mastodon.ml

                  @nickofnz

                  > It’s free and no wars are fought for it.

                  ... Yet.

                  brad@1040ste.netB This user is from outside of this forum
                  brad@1040ste.netB This user is from outside of this forum
                  brad@1040ste.net
                  wrote last edited by
                  #42

                  @drq @nickofnz Those wars will hopefully be fought in low-earth orbit, and be short and spaced well apart in time due to Kessler Syndrome.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • tymwol@hachyderm.ioT tymwol@hachyderm.io

                    @nickofnz I'm all for renewable technologies, however sorry, but I think that this kind of over-simplistic arguments using in the discourse are more harmful than useful.

                    First, solar is nor unlimited (night, cloudy weather) and has environmental costs like solar panels taking land, etc. Second, solar panels need silicon which is not unlimited, and 80% of it comes from China, so it is easy to imagine how politics and possible wars can also easily disrupt it. So, in a sense, there is a limited supply of solar as well, and wars can also be fought for it.

                    brad@1040ste.netB This user is from outside of this forum
                    brad@1040ste.netB This user is from outside of this forum
                    brad@1040ste.net
                    wrote last edited by
                    #43

                    @tymwol @nickofnz In terms of land, we have a load of it that's being wasted on a single use (buildings, roads, monocrops) that are prime candidates to gain a second use. Put a relatively small number of PV panels on your house and you've removed 20-25 years' worth of fuel being burnt to supply you with electricity.

                    In addition, the vast majority of material in the panels is recyclable; even better, potentially reusable.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • kravietz@agora.echelon.plK kravietz@agora.echelon.pl

                      @nickofnz@mastodon.nz

                      Not quite. 85% of the whole PV supply chain is controlled by one country - #China

                      Just a moment...

                      favicon

                      (www.iea.org)

                      Not saying PV is wrong on itself, but the current European model of "energy transformation" where all manufacturing was outsourced to a hostile country is just as suicidal as previous outsourcing of fossil fuels to Russia.

                      brad@1040ste.netB This user is from outside of this forum
                      brad@1040ste.netB This user is from outside of this forum
                      brad@1040ste.net
                      wrote last edited by
                      #44

                      @kravietz @nickofnz The degradation of manufacturing capability, and the externalisation of the damage it incurs to other parts of the world, was an unconscionable mistake. Happily it's one that can and must be addressed.

                      1 Reply Last reply
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