/sci/ - Science & Math

The primary way to CO2 emissions is with a cap and trade system (see Kyoto protocol) or a carbon tax (see switzerland).

It is just a short term tax that automatically phases itself out. It will hurt during the transitioning period but as more people invest in reducing their CO2 output the amount of tax people pay will shrink over time. If you buy an electric car and drive 20000km per year in Germany you would save around 100€ per month. If you change your electricity provider to only use 100% renewables you can further reduce your bill.

The solution to energy storage requires temporary investments into natural gas power plants. Yes, all the coal worker can now switch to natural gas to keep their jobs until they retire. Renewable power follows a normal distribution. If you have an average of 30% renewables then your average day will have 50% renewables. Extremely low output say 10% may happen but the probability of that happening gets lower and lower the more extreme it is. That means that on around 10 days per year you may only have 20% renewable power output. The shortfall can be covered with natural gas which is load following unlike coal. This means 90% of the time renewables are enough and you may need natural gas during extreme events.

Why are natural gas plants more desirable than coal? They produce less emissions per kWh. They are less expensive to build. (remember they must stay idle most of the time so they can't be expensive). Coal plants can only throttle their output to 75% of their maximum production capacity. Natural gas plants can throttle arbitrarily. Finally the key ingredient. Natural gas is more expensive than renewables per kWh. This means if renewables are available they will be prioritized and natural gas plants will be shut down. Coal plants? They would keep running and clog the grid.