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A reality check on renewables - David MacKay

TED-Ed · talk · Watch on YouTube

Renewables, batteries & storageClimate policy, solutions & debate

What it is

David MacKay's TEDxWarwick talk uses basic arithmetic to show how much land and energy renewables would need to power a country like the UK. It explains the limits of sustainable options and why they should still be pursued.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Cited in energy debates for its back-of-envelope scale of the transition and the land and storage limits of wind and solar.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2017, last 2021

What HN commenters said

  1. “Scale of the energy transition needed”

    CuriousSkeptic, 2018-12 · Recommendation · in “As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the world’s “extraction colony””

  2. “Good video by the late David Mackay on that point here.”

    Energy density per head limits wind and solar

    neilwilson, 2019-03 · Recommendation · in “Australia has enough solar, wind storage in pipeline to go 100% renewables”

  3. “showing the downside of renewable energy - such as the enormous land usage and reliable energy storage”

    Downsides of renewables: land use and storage

    kinjba1, 2020-08 · Recommendation · in “Air pollution is worse than we thought”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: david mackay, renewables, energy density, land use, sustainable energy

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