From 1bfd98d4136043b94357aefe7097aa16fa185364 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Valentino Urbano Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2020 19:49:20 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 1/4] 2020-03-02 --- _posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+) create mode 100644 _posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md diff --git a/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md b/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6144d5d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: AC Use Due To Climate Change +date: 2020-03-01 16:28:05.000000000 +01:00 +type: post +published: true +status: publish +categories: [General] +image: +image2: +author: Valentino Urbano +--- + +In the last few years summer in Italy (and most of southern Europe) have become too hot to be able to live comfortably without air conditioning. We have seen peaks of more than 40 degrees with a really high humidity and from every trend it looks likely to keep rising. + +People here are used to the hot climate and just a few years ago when temperatures were already becoming dangerous in the summer months (for old people and people with existing conditions) it was still hard to convince them of the need for AC. + +I went back on the topic recently and almost everyone in the family is now adamant that they're going to need it in the next few years, with few already having plans to install it before the summer. I expect this to be a sentiment shared among most southern European residents. + +This brings us to the problem. Demand for electricity will surely increase as most people will soon start turning on their AC during the summer months as it is the norm in the US. There is no alternative, this is going to happen. It is simply too dangerous to live without, especially for old people. + +This will require even more work from the various governments to migrate to sustainable ways of generating electricity to be able to both sustain the increased demand during peak hours as to cope with the increased overall energy footprint. + +Using solar is not a viable strategy without a way to store the generated energy. Solar is very inconsistent and the energy generation peaks at a time when most people do not need it and stops when people need it the most. Tesla has solved it using batteries and in the UK they have solved it by using the cheap energy during off peak hours to pump back uphill water to be later used during peak hours to generate more electricity to keep up with the demand. Nuclear is also a good idea to use in this transition period before we can switch completely to renewables, but after Chernobyl and now Fukushima most EU countries are migrating off it excerbaceting the problem. \ No newline at end of file From 8665025d382f0e2a8851c84e8bf792b541eabd73 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Valentino Urbano Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2020 18:45:50 +0200 Subject: [PATCH 2/4] Update 2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md --- _posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md | 4 ++-- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md b/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md index 6144d5d1..e16899af 100644 --- a/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md +++ b/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ image2: author: Valentino Urbano --- -In the last few years summer in Italy (and most of southern Europe) have become too hot to be able to live comfortably without air conditioning. We have seen peaks of more than 40 degrees with a really high humidity and from every trend it looks likely to keep rising. +In the last few years summer in Italy (and most of southern Europe) has become too hot to be able to live comfortably without air conditioning. We have seen peaks of more than 40 degrees with a really high humidity and as far as sources show it looks likely to keep rising. People here are used to the hot climate and just a few years ago when temperatures were already becoming dangerous in the summer months (for old people and people with existing conditions) it was still hard to convince them of the need for AC. @@ -21,4 +21,4 @@ This brings us to the problem. Demand for electricity will surely increase as mo This will require even more work from the various governments to migrate to sustainable ways of generating electricity to be able to both sustain the increased demand during peak hours as to cope with the increased overall energy footprint. -Using solar is not a viable strategy without a way to store the generated energy. Solar is very inconsistent and the energy generation peaks at a time when most people do not need it and stops when people need it the most. Tesla has solved it using batteries and in the UK they have solved it by using the cheap energy during off peak hours to pump back uphill water to be later used during peak hours to generate more electricity to keep up with the demand. Nuclear is also a good idea to use in this transition period before we can switch completely to renewables, but after Chernobyl and now Fukushima most EU countries are migrating off it excerbaceting the problem. \ No newline at end of file +Using solar is not a viable strategy without a way to store the generated energy. Solar is very inconsistent and the energy generation peaks at a time when most people do not need it and stops when people need it the most. Tesla has solved it using batteries and in the UK they have solved it by using the cheap energy during off peak hours to pump back uphill water to be later used during peak hours to generate more electricity to keep up with the demand. Nuclear is also a good idea to use in this transition period before we can switch completely to renewables, but after Chernobyl and now Fukushima most EU countries are migrating off it excerbaceting the problem. From f999046105e3d6669ddaf85b20488d6929713195 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Valentino Urbano Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2023 14:16:33 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 3/4] Update 2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md --- _posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md | 24 ++++++++++++++++++------ 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) diff --git a/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md b/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md index e16899af..46d075d0 100644 --- a/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md +++ b/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md @@ -11,14 +11,26 @@ image2: author: Valentino Urbano --- -In the last few years summer in Italy (and most of southern Europe) has become too hot to be able to live comfortably without air conditioning. We have seen peaks of more than 40 degrees with a really high humidity and as far as sources show it looks likely to keep rising. +In these last few years summer in Italy (and most of southern Europe) has become too hot for people to live comfortably without air conditioning. We have seen peaks of more than 40 degrees with a really high humidity and as far as sources show it looks likely to keep rising. -People here are used to the hot climate and just a few years ago when temperatures were already becoming dangerous in the summer months (for old people and people with existing conditions) it was still hard to convince them of the need for AC. +Italian people are used to the hot climate, so much so that they keep refusing to install AC units despite temperatures being dangerously high in the summer months (especially so for old people and people with existing conditions). But finally something is starting to change... -I went back on the topic recently and almost everyone in the family is now adamant that they're going to need it in the next few years, with few already having plans to install it before the summer. I expect this to be a sentiment shared among most southern European residents. +I went back on the topic recently and almost everyone in the family is now adamant that they're going to need it "in the next few years", with few already having plans to install it before the summer. I expect this to be a sentiment shared among most southern European residents. Heck probably even in Central Europe soon. -This brings us to the problem. Demand for electricity will surely increase as most people will soon start turning on their AC during the summer months as it is the norm in the US. There is no alternative, this is going to happen. It is simply too dangerous to live without, especially for old people. +This brings us to the real problem that no one is discussing. Demand for electricity will surely increase as most people will soon start turning on their AC during the summer months as it is the norm in the US. There is no alternative, this is going to happen. It is simply too dangerous to live without, especially for old people. As they say habits diie hard, but I'm confident that despite the slowness to change it will. -This will require even more work from the various governments to migrate to sustainable ways of generating electricity to be able to both sustain the increased demand during peak hours as to cope with the increased overall energy footprint. +This will require even more work from the various governments to migrate to sustainable ways of generating electricity to be able to both sustain the increased demand during peak hours and to cope with the increased overall energy footprint.[^1] -Using solar is not a viable strategy without a way to store the generated energy. Solar is very inconsistent and the energy generation peaks at a time when most people do not need it and stops when people need it the most. Tesla has solved it using batteries and in the UK they have solved it by using the cheap energy during off peak hours to pump back uphill water to be later used during peak hours to generate more electricity to keep up with the demand. Nuclear is also a good idea to use in this transition period before we can switch completely to renewables, but after Chernobyl and now Fukushima most EU countries are migrating off it excerbaceting the problem. +## Energy Generation + +The solution is to increase the domestic production of energy (preferrably of clean energy - aka not more coal mines). + +The problem with traditionally defined clearn energy (solar/wind) is that using solar is not a viable strategy on its own. Solar energy generation peaks at a time when most people do not need it (midday) and stops when people need it the most (evening). It needs a way to store the generated energy. + +Tesla (for example) has solved it using batteries which are already in use in Australia. We don't rally have that much open space in Italy though, so I think that what they are doing in the UK fits the Italian geography the most: they use cheap energy during off peak hours to pump back uphill water to be later used (during peak hours) through hydroelectric to generate more electricity to keep up with the demand. + +Nuclear is also a great form of clean energy to use, but after Chernobyl and Fukushima most EU countries have migrated off it excerbaceting the problem. Hopefully the fusion breakthrough revitalizes the sector and we have some more investment in it. + +More importantly we need to take the energy security of our countries seriously and stop relying on other countries to provide it to us. We have a lot of space to harness offshore wind, but we don't do it because the local residents don't want it because and I quote "it looks ugly from the beach and scares the tourists away". What a shame. + +[^1]: Not to talk about all the new electric vehicles coming online more and more and you have the recipe for an energy disaster if governments don't act. From c50b63d3c7d49986dd90845aaffcd7ea869a94a2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Valentino Urbano Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2023 14:18:21 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 4/4] Update 2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md --- _posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md b/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md index 46d075d0..214d8003 100644 --- a/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md +++ b/_posts/2020-03-01-ac-climate-change.md @@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ The problem with traditionally defined clearn energy (solar/wind) is that using Tesla (for example) has solved it using batteries which are already in use in Australia. We don't rally have that much open space in Italy though, so I think that what they are doing in the UK fits the Italian geography the most: they use cheap energy during off peak hours to pump back uphill water to be later used (during peak hours) through hydroelectric to generate more electricity to keep up with the demand. -Nuclear is also a great form of clean energy to use, but after Chernobyl and Fukushima most EU countries have migrated off it excerbaceting the problem. Hopefully the fusion breakthrough revitalizes the sector and we have some more investment in it. +Nuclear is also a great form of clean energy to use, but after Chernobyl and Fukushima most EU countries have migrated off it exacerbating the problem. Hopefully the fusion breakthrough revitalizes the sector and we have some more investment in it. More importantly we need to take the energy security of our countries seriously and stop relying on other countries to provide it to us. We have a lot of space to harness offshore wind, but we don't do it because the local residents don't want it because and I quote "it looks ugly from the beach and scares the tourists away". What a shame.