Allkem General Discussion, page-1647

Tthoughts for the weekend!

A major problem of the energy transition is not the consumption of resources, but that new lobby influences and wrong decisions are repeatedly explained as new solutions that continue exactly the pattern that brought us to this point.

An example of water and hydrogen:
Germany is forging cooperation with Africa in all aspects of hydrogen production. Africa has more sun than Germany, there's no denying that, so it makes sense. But what makes no sense is the fact that Africa stumbles from one drought to the next because there is no water and it is now supposed to transport its water to Europe or Germany in the form of hydrogen.

The fact that water is a raw material that is not available in abundance in Africa seems to be clear to the experts, which is why one wants to extract the water from the sea - through desalination plants. A population that does not have enough water and suffers from hunger as a result should now experience how seawater becomes drinking water, which does not go to the population, and therefore will not alleviate their hunger, but that it is converted into an energy source that then powers the country leaves and leaves behind a pair of currencies. Something like that can easily be seen as social explosives. First came the lemonade manufacturers and stole the water, now it's the new "oil or energy companies" just because you don't want to see the scenery disturbed by solar systems or wind turbines in the country of consumers?

Hydrogen as an energy carrier is already much worse than conventional fuel in terms of its overall efficiency and becomes even less efficient due to long transport routes or desalination plants. I find the route to Australia just as absurd. Likewise, a country that is not exactly blessed in large areas with water that can easily be converted into hydrogen. Quite apart from the even longer transport routes.

If you then think about making an e-fuel from this hydrogen that is easier to transport, in order to keep conventional combustion engines alive, this goes beyond the scope of the waste of energy and that of reason.

I ask myself the following question:

How much would it help the global climate if solar parks in Africa were used to desalinate seawater in order to irrigate agricultural areas, strengthen nature, prevent the further spread of the desert, fight hunger in Africa and at the same time streams of refugees not to be created at all?
As a result, the population could experience more prosperity, export their harvest, generate government revenue, which in turn would benefit the population.

The danger I see is that once the e-fuels are acceptable for one area, other areas will quickly follow, because the return is lurking as before with oil.

But the wrong turns are not only to be found in this area, but also in the area of direct energy production. Nuclear power is an example. At the moment only 26 of 57 nuclear reactors are running in France. During the pandemic, many power plants were not maintained and due to climate change, the constantly new record temperatures in the country, the low water levels in the rivers, many of the nuclear power plants had to be shut down because the cooling water of the reactors has exceeded the limit temperatures for discharge into the rivers.
Nevertheless, 6 new nuclear power plants are planned in France, which should be in operation by 2050. Isn't that insane, when we know that the climate will continue to deteriorate, so that the downtimes of nuclear power plants will be even longer than they already are in France?

To declare the whole thing as green energy in an enforcement round - or blackmail - is pure idiocy! But that is exactly what we see in many areas of thought and action. Money is flowing in directions that simply benefit a lobby, will not change the situation and only make a few richer, whose morale is controlled by returns and for whom any thought about a future is as alien as long-term thinking.

Every country can produce hydrogen locally, whether by wind power or solar power, depending on the situation. There is no need for thousands of kilometers of transport routes. But politics under the influence of lobbyists sees things differently.