“with wind the single-biggest contributor… Power production costs have declined “by almost half” … And the clean energy sector has created 50,000 new jobs… Ask me what was the impact on the electricity sector in Uruguay after this tragic war in Europe — zero.”

    • thesorehead@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The reference to waste heat could include the heat from burning fossil fuels that isn’t turned directly into work. Which is a lot.

      So you’re right, there will still be some waste heat and the reduction in production needs won’t be that drastic. But it’s still a significant chunk of the total!

      • cucumber_sandwich@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yes of course, but a lot of energy is currently also used for heating things in cooking steel, chemical industry, concrete, etc. Those processes need energy as heat and directly produce waste heat. I agree it’s probably still significant. It’s just wrong to reduce energy consumption to “making things move”.

      • masterofn001@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Converting energy to power will always produce at least one of heat or light (also radiant heat) in the process.

        There is no 100% efficient power.

        But, electric is the closest you could get. Especially compared to any petroleum products

    • Virulent@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      No but electric motors and heat pumps are much more efficient so electfication helps reduce waste heat

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Changing your energy generation from burning something to turning a turbine with wind power, hydropower or geothermal power. Or just using solar, means that you have no waste heat for electrical generation.

      Waste heat is only created when you burn a fuel to boil the water.