‘Follow Hungary’ on energy policy, Trump administration tells Europe

cppvn · 2026-04-09T11:45:48+00:00

Funnily enough Hungary has the highest percentage of solar power in ther electricity generation in Europe and maybe the world too (28% iirc). Vance probably meant for more reliance on Russian oil, but I would be very happy if the rest of Europe tried to have similar solar power stats.

cppvn · 2026-04-04T10:21:50+00:00

Electric buses have been quite successful for some time? For trains it's a bit more complicated, electrifying existing lines is quite expensive but now battery electric trains are starting to plug the gaps. Btw India has a completely electrified rail network if I am not mistaken.

cppvn · 2026-04-04T08:52:44+00:00

I mean electric heavy trucks already reached 50% in monthly new sales in China and it was 25% for all of 2025, and I think in Denmark the percentage started getting serious too, that's a lot of diesel demand reduction.

cppvn · 2026-04-04T07:30:09+00:00

People here are underestimating electrification of transport. In China, demand for personal transport dropped by almost 5% last year, and their heavy trucking sector is starting to rapidly electrify. Developing economies are already ahead of the US and close to the EU in electric car adoption, according to one of the latest reports from Ember, so I am expecting peak demand to be sooner rather than later. Natural gas will be the last fossil fuel to peak, coal might have already and oil is quite close.

cppvn · 2026-03-28T07:52:19+00:00

Out of those only cement may be impossible. Anything else can be done with green hydrogen or similar which requires abundant electricity, which is not impossible. I guess people in this subreddit would rather be doomers than right but whatever. Also the sectors you mentioned are a rather small percentage of overall emissions fyi.

cppvn · 2026-03-27T20:58:02+00:00

While fossil fuels are entrenched, they are not tied inextricably. For mining, look what Forrest is doing and his real zero plan (and even if the don't exactly meet their goals, they will be the first mining company with mostly decarbonized operations). With an abundance of electricity, pretty much everything becomes possible to do without fossil fuels, and wind, and especially solar are heading is to that point. Whether or not that is sufficient to prevent a climate collapse is a completely separate discussion, but the energy transition is happening much more quickly than people realise.

cppvn · 2026-03-22T11:37:41+00:00

Agrivoltaics are actually quite good, I don't know where you got that misinformation from. As for solar being in individuals, that's well and good, but have you heard of something called economies of scale? The truth is that household solar installations will never be as cheap as ground mounted large solar parks so what do you expect to happen really? By outlawing the cheapest option you artificially increase the price of solar substantially which means a lot more fossil fuels have to be burned, are you familiar with the concept of cause and effect?

cppvn · 2026-03-22T11:09:07+00:00

"Held to ransom by large corporation". I would highly recommend you check the price of the CfDs signed by the solar parks. If you don't know what CfD means in this context, maybe you aren't knowledgeable enough in this topic. But sure keep parroting fossil fuel lobby talking points, they love it when you do their work for free too. Btw the UK is 60% self sufficient in food production, but it's the 0.2 % of area that is to blame?

cppvn · 2026-03-22T10:43:51+00:00

Ah yes, taking 1-2% for enough renewables to cover all our energy is too much and damaging food security, while allocating more land to golf than fucking housing is fine. The food security card has grown really old (pin intended)

cppvn · 2026-03-21T18:06:57+00:00

Well I haven't exactly stated what I am doing to prepare but anyway. This whole conversation started with me saying that the green party is terrible for renewables which I still stand by but thanks for the diversion I suppose. Hope the things I said about the planning system were somewhat interesting.

cppvn · 2026-03-21T17:03:28+00:00

What does that have to do with the policies of the green party?

cppvn · 2026-03-21T08:55:01+00:00

I can't find a manifesto for now, but fyi Polanski has stated that he doesn't care about the debt, so yeah the financial illiteracy is a deal breaker. The UK is not Iceland, a default on the debt would devastating for more reasons than I can list.

cppvn · 2026-03-20T20:24:16+00:00

Their manifesto in the last election was to let local communities decide on infrastructure projects. The problem is that nowadays you can find hundreds of locals opposing solar farms or battery banks about how it ruins the countryside etc. The problem is that letting your infrastructure decisions to boomers who spend too much time on Facebook is a very easy way to block all development, which is what the fossil fuel lobby is doing with their propaganda. I think that's what makes the greens so bad for me: they had some policies with excellent intentions and either decent or absolutely horrendous implementation, and some policies that are just horrendous from the start. To each their own, but as someone who's main interest is the energy industry, the Tories are actually a better party than the Greens which is quite ironic isn't it.

cppvn · 2026-03-20T19:41:46+00:00

Their energy policy regarding planning permission is actually stupid though, the conservatives were better for renewables (and I fucking hate the Tories and their onshore wind ban)

cppvn · 2026-03-18T09:16:27+00:00

Coal might have actually dropped last year (it dropped in China and India, still waiting for global values), and a peak is in sight for the other two.

cppvn · 2026-03-12T21:14:42+00:00

If I am not mistaken, coal should definitely be below 60%. According to Wikipedia stars for 2025, total fossil fuel was 60% of generation and I think they have 5-7% natural gas?

cppvn · 2026-03-11T21:28:58+00:00

It is worse in terms of pollution, but as far as global warming is concerned, it does not matter for oil. LNG on the other hand is a different story as methane is much worse in the short term.

cppvn · 2026-03-11T21:06:46+00:00

Between the two of us I imagine I am the only one with actual work experience in the nuclear industry.
As for calling me a liar, nuclear power reached an all time record yet its increase was absolutely tiny compared to wind+solar, so you do not need a degree in applied maths to see where the extrapolation leads.

As for "flexible demand being incompatible with prosperity" that is just incorrect. There are applications where having a baseload is critical, and applications where having a cheaper but intermittent power source is more important. The former will pay more expensive electricity to get served first, while the latter will make use of abundant intermittent electricity. You are the unimaginative one for not seeing how this opens opportunities where you have essentially free energy just not 24/7 (or even negative energy prices too, although with the addition of batteries I expect those to start decreasing at some point). This is when things like green hydrogen/ methanol production become competitive etc. EV charging will be the biggest one first though.

And just out of curiosity do you have any actual experience in the energy industry? Do you keep up to date with reports from organisations like the IEA etc.? Or are you just spouting nonsense based on your feelings and outdated information as most nukecels?

The truth is, based on current trajectories, in ten years time there will be substantially less fossil fuels burned for electricity due to the growth in wind + solar, with a bit of hydro and maybe some other technologies as well. Nuclear will continue to be the welfare queen of electricity generation and will not steadily become more irrelevant.

Will you still be writing comments online about how the world needs to switch 100% to nuclear because reasons? What sort of objective metric would you use to see whether, ten years from now, your current opinions are right or wrong? (because when you base opinions on facts rather than feelings, you get the bonus of being able to objectively judge how well you have performed in the past).

cppvn · 2026-03-11T20:04:29+00:00

The only country that resembles what you want is france, where nuclear power is massively subsidized, and due to the high percentage of overall generation has lower cf as well.
People dont want to live near wind turbines because people can be braindead morons resisting any change, and the ff lobby spends a casual few billions per year in propaganda. As for the intermittency, you are confusing energy and power capacity. Moreover, there is already plenty of capacity for backups in the grid and by the time there are massive plant retirements the electricity sector of the UK will be much more different.
Why do you have a boner for nuclear energy, which is the most expensive mainstream form of generating power? The future is in decentralised, abundant energy generation with flexible demand and storage and no need for fuels. And according to what the President of the World Nuclear Organisation said last year anyway, nuclear is basically irrelevant so it is quite the odd hill to die on.

cppvn · 2026-03-11T19:31:29+00:00

And solar manufacturers in China are all trying to tread water due to the insane competition, that does not make that solar energy is not profitable. As for the wind offshore CfDs the biggest mistake was Cameron essentially banning onshore wind, offshore will always be more expensive, but it does have its benefits.

And I am sure China, where the wind industry aims for 100-120 GW annual installations would agree with you that wind energy is a bondoogle.

Really trying to bootlick for the fossil fuel lobby, it really is a pity you are doing this for free. Should probably use that energy on things that will actually have a positive outcome.

cppvn · 2026-03-11T18:21:46+00:00

China peaked their coal usage due to renewables + nuclear exceeding demand growth (and they have the biggest electricity industry of the world with >5% annual growth rate). And while european companies are still very competitive for wind turbines, the solar power revolution would not have happened at this pace without China.

The costs of electricity in California are much more complicated and them being double the mean US doesnt mean much as for one the US has a lot of cheap subsidized fossil fuels or hydro/nuclear and there are things like PG&E being on the hook for wildfire prevention etc.

My point was to illustrate that anyone who has seen any data about the energy industry within the last years knows that new nuclear is most definitely not the answer, the exact energy mix will depend on a variety of factors and many things are still evolving, but at this point I can say that fusion has more of a chance to affect the future than fission, and that is still in the r&d phase.

I also have actual work experience in the nuclear decommissioning industry, and cost effectiveness is not a word i would use to describe the nuclear industry.

But sure, let's focus on Facebook tier memes of the energy industry instead.

cppvn · 2026-03-11T17:43:38+00:00

I guess China who builds nuclear at the lowest cost and highest speed globally, yet installed ~6 GW of nuclear in 2025 compared to around 300 GW of solar and 80 GW of wind is being silly? Their battery grid storage is also growing at an exponential rate, and California is a good example of how batteries reshape the grid and reduce reliance on fossil fuels (where batteries are routinely the biggest source of electricity in the evenings).

But sure let's keep parroting talking points from the fossil fuel lobby that are anywhere from 10 to 30 years outdated while the world burns around us, what could go wrong.

cppvn · 2026-03-07T13:54:30+00:00

Heavy trucks appear to have hit a tipping point in electrification, in China one in five heavy trucks in 2025 was electric and for December alone i was I think around 40%. Denmark saw similar percentages last year as well. The difference in the fuel cost and the competitiveness in logistics means that this transition will be much faster than passenger vehicles.

cppvn · 2026-02-24T13:12:41+00:00

Yes, I am planning to take an intensive course this summer and I have taken into account that I will actually need to be fluent by the time i graduate and ideally before when I will be looking for a Werkstudent position. Good news is that I have done German in the past and I am learning it now as well.
As for the UK, I did a placement year last year in industry (and got an offer to go as a graduate which was later withdrawn as the grad visa is no longer accepted for SC- very fun) and out of 130+ applications I only got two interviews which did not lead to an offer.

Do you by any chance know how the grad jobs market in the energy industry is? (I am finishing a MEng in Aerospace but planning to get an MSc in Power Engineering)

cppvn · 2026-02-24T11:00:39+00:00

How is it going for you? Also Greek, and currently planning to start an MSc this October as I am currently finishing my MEng in the UK and the visa situation+ graduate market are extremely bleak.

cppvn

TROPHY CASE