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Ucinorn
Ucinorn
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I'm looking for a plausible way that humanity could have discovered, developed and then adopted renewable energy + storage instead of fossil fuels as the catalyst for industrialisation.

To be clear the world is the same, fossil fuels still exist: I'm looking for a breakthrough technology, circumstances or event that would cause the world to pursue renewables en-masse instead of relying on coal and then oil for energy and heat production. What would need to happen for humanity to ignore the incredibly high energy density and convenience that fossil fuels provide?

In my world, I'm envisioning a society built on a network of renewables + storage: large scale wind, solar and hydro, plus some kind of storage to solve the intermittency issue. Its also assumed that transport uses electric motors + battery. Essentially what we are working towards now in decarbonising our current economy.

My issue is that while this tech could all have been developed quite early in history, the temptation to use and pursue fossil fuels seems too great for humanity to ignore. I need a set of circumstances where widescale adoption of renewables is as good or better than fossil fuels.

I'm looking for a plausible way that humanity could have discovered, developed and then adopted renewable energy + storage instead of fossil fuels as the catalyst for industrialisation.

To be clear the world is the same, fossil fuels still exist: I'm looking for a breakthrough technology, circumstances or event that would cause the world to pursue renewables en-masse instead of relying on coal and then oil for energy and heat production. What would need to happen for humanity to ignore the incredibly high energy density and convenience that fossil fuels provide?

I'm looking for a plausible way that humanity could have discovered, developed and then adopted renewable energy + storage instead of fossil fuels as the catalyst for industrialisation.

To be clear the world is the same, fossil fuels still exist: I'm looking for a breakthrough technology, circumstances or event that would cause the world to pursue renewables en-masse instead of relying on coal and then oil for energy and heat production. What would need to happen for humanity to ignore the incredibly high energy density and convenience that fossil fuels provide?

In my world, I'm envisioning a society built on a network of renewables + storage: large scale wind, solar and hydro, plus some kind of storage to solve the intermittency issue. Its also assumed that transport uses electric motors + battery. Essentially what we are working towards now in decarbonising our current economy.

My issue is that while this tech could all have been developed quite early in history, the temptation to use and pursue fossil fuels seems too great for humanity to ignore. I need a set of circumstances where widescale adoption of renewables is as good or better than fossil fuels.

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Ucinorn
Ucinorn
  • 496
  • 4
  • 9

What would it have taken for the world to skip fossil fuels?

I'm looking for a plausible way that humanity could have discovered, developed and then adopted renewable energy + storage instead of fossil fuels as the catalyst for industrialisation.

To be clear the world is the same, fossil fuels still exist: I'm looking for a breakthrough technology, circumstances or event that would cause the world to pursue renewables en-masse instead of relying on coal and then oil for energy and heat production. What would need to happen for humanity to ignore the incredibly high energy density and convenience that fossil fuels provide?