Over in the Mastodon-network (a silo of its own), people keep doing the self-introduction thing. I find this idea rather befuddling, esp. when it comes to sharing personal info which we learnt we shouldn't do on the web.
I think you can learn more about a person when you listen to her tone of voice, her manners, and only to some extent via her interests. With regard to the latter, an annotated list of my tags may suffice.
#batteries (although in the context of infrastructure, energy, climate, less as hardware or essential building blocks but as objects on which people put their misguided hopes on)
#counterculture (I went along with it for many years, now I primarily think about its negative impacts; historical interest)
#ecocolonialism (from the perspective of how Greens and Progressives offset environmental costs on poor nations when trying to jump-start their green economies)
#energy (broad category, includes "renewables", "nuclear", often "infrasturcture")
#federation (how its technical aspects create the conversations-based foundation of the Fediverse)
#fediverse (history as well as present and future developments of something that is more than the Mastodon-network)
I expect the service life of the three German #nuclear power plants to be extended significantly and the other three nuclear power plants that were taken from the grid at the end of 2021 to be recommissioned. The reason is simple: Due to the reduced natural gas supply, to back-up the base-load of the national grid and to compensate for the volatility of #renewables, Germany restarted its reserve coal power plants. But due to the #drought and low water at major rivers, the Rhine in particular, inland waterway vessels can only transport a fraction of their usual cargo load. That means that companies and power plants won't get enough coal to generate enough / sufficient electricity.
The war in the Ukraine and the heatwave over Europe will most probably ring in the end of the "Energiewende" ("energy transition") and the rebirth of nuclear power in Germany.
California's Governor Newsom makes cautious step toward meeting the state's water needs. https://nu.federati.net/url/287349 [www latimes com]
It is a tiny step, but #California is never going to catch up with its demand with these baby steps. There needs to be a massive statewide effort to meet 100% of projected water requirements for the next fifty years via #desalination. That includes residential, agricultural, industrial, plus supplementing natural rainfall to preserve forests and replenish ground water, and some extra water which can be made available for neighboring states' needs.
I feel like these #pollies are so busy trying not to displease entrenched interests that they are missing a historic opportunity to lead the way in responding to a 22 year drought that currently affects a giant chunk of the US from California to Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and beyond. See https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ and https://www.drought.gov/
The desalination of seawater on nuclear powered vessels could perhaps be combined with the "harvesting" of lithium and the production of hydrogen and chlorine gas via specific sets of membranes.
« [T]hese plants are considered among the most expensive ways of creating drinking water- as they pump large volumes across membranes at high pressure, which is an extremely energy intensive process.
One radical solution could be using floating vessels equipped with desalination systems.
Powered by nuclear reactors, these vessels could travel to islands, or coastlines, struck by drought, bringing with them both clean drinking water and power. [...]
It may sound far-fetched but the US Navy has provided desalination services during disasters in the past, with the help of its nuclear-powered ships, while Russia already has a floating nuclear power station designed to potentially power desalination facilities. »