Thread

1. gnull · 1791105951 · focus · HN ↗

   This is greenwashing.

   The article suggests that renewables are somehow more helpful in a war when your grid is targeted by drones and missiles. It doesn't do a comparison to back it up though.

   Decentralized power production vs. centralized does make sense: decentralized doesn't offer a single point of failure taking out which causes a lot of damage.

   But can't energy from fossil fuels be generated in a decentralized manner too? Sounds only better than renewables because it doesn't go up and down throughout a day, and doesn't need grid to amortize the jumps.

   Renewables sort of need to be out there in the open to harvest energy from the elements. Solar needs sunlight, wind needs to spin its huge blades in open air. A diesel generator, on the other hand, perfectly goes underground, much harder to target.

   So the article doesn't really establish that renewables offer a clear advantage over fossils in a war.

   Upd: some comments below have convinced me that fossils don't decentralize as easily as renewables.

   1. vrganj · 1791107619 · focus · HN ↗

      > But can't energy from fossil fuels be generated in a decentralized manner too?

      How would that possibly work? Everyone has their own oil well and refinery? Their own fuel depots?

      And even if you were able to build all that, we would basically have giant bombs waiting to be ignited all over residential neighborhoods during war time...

      I would invite you to think through the logistics of what you propose before you launch into multiple paragraphs that assume those logistics are solved.

      1. gnull · 1791108160 · focus · HN ↗

         I meant a diesel generator in a residential building. The refineries stay centralized somewhere safe (not a problem in Ukraine's case).

         1. vrganj · 1791108815 · focus · HN ↗

            Then you don't solve the core problem of having a big juicy single point of failure. One that is very flammable at that, as Ukraine has proven in Russia recently.
         2. thelastgallon · 1791108940 · focus · HN ↗

            Do you mean a generator that creates diesel from bullshit[1]? Or a diesel generator that generates electricity?

            If its the latter, how is your idea decentralized fossil fuel? You are using the same fossil fuel supply chain as it exists today.

            For decentralized, you need an oil well in your backyard, and a refinery. THEN a diesel generator, if you want electricity.

            [1] Assuming you have enough cows

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.