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this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2024
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Sadly all power generation methods come at a cost. What would you suggest?
Wind and solar. They have downsides, like they all do, you're right, but they don't obliterate sensitive ecosystems of threatened species. The downsides to nature are significantly reduced with wind and solar. Tidal looks good too, but I don't know enough about it to give it the official "Some Random Guy on Lemmy Stamp of Approval ".
I'm no expert so I don't know what causes more damage, but the production of photovoltaic cells also is by no means environmentally friendly. People die, ecosystems get destroyed, ...
And people argue that birds fly into wind generators and die, idk how much damage that is comparatively but probably the least. So from an environmental perspective, as a layman, I'd rank them wind > water > sun > non-renewables (nuclear > gas > coal).
But wind (and sun) always changes, so it's impossible to only have wind (and sun). You need:
Something stable that carries a large percentage (for example water in rivers or at the end of lakes (so basically at the start of a river)).
Something flexible that can quickly be increased or decreased (for example pumped hydro storage power stations, bonus points there for also being able to use energy when there's too much wind/sun; or non-renewables (burn more gas, get more electricity))
So even if we assume that wind and sun are better than water we still need either water or non-renewables. I'd say that's an easy choice.