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Comment by fivea | Hacker News Reader

> How much would renewable cost if it wasn't supported by fossil fuel (e.g. for extracting and processing the resources needed to build solar panel)?

I find your comment pointless, given that in a not so distant past the bulk of energy was produced from fossil fuel.

Thankfully, the world is transitioning away from that, and at a considerable speed. We went from propaganda selling the lie that renewables were a passing fad to a point in time where entire countries register days where all their energy needs come from renewables and even overproduce energy, leading to negative energy costs.

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> given that in a not so distant past the bulk of energy was produced from fossil fuel.

80% of energy used is in the world is from fossil fuel, and fossil fuel usage is still growing.

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/global-fossil-f...

Renewable are cheap when you have a coal/nuclear plant nearby for the days without wind or sun, and because solar panels are built in China. It's wrong to think that they could replace fossil fuel and still be cheap.

> 80% of energy used is in the world is from fossil fuel (...)

That's a clear example of lying with statistics, given that only a very limited number of countries in the world started investing in shifting away from fossil fuels.

It took the EU a massive politically-driven subsidies program to jump-start their own shift to renewables, and currently we're seeing European countries meeting all their country's needs for a few days with their own wind, solar, and hydro.

"[..] entire countries register days where all their energy needs come from renewables and even overproduce energy [..]"

I think you mean electric needs. That it's around 30% of the needs of the average country. It's important to be very clear about those distinctions. I think, in this issue, overselling is so dangerous as underselling.

That must depend enormously on the country though right?

Motor vehicle use, gas heating, air travel, intensive agriculture these are surely things that will vary a lot from one country to another, yet they use large amounts of non-electrical energy.

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