Thread by @cityatlas

A '600k' solar farm is less than 1/1000 the size* of a single 250MW solar piece in #PlayEnergetic, and in the game you have to stick pieces all over upstate New York (and Long Island) to power NYC.

https://twitter.com/atrembath/status/1301550016574545920

* Actually this disputed 600k farm is 1/1250 our size. And, we give you batteries. Each of our Solar pieces represents 750MW of panels, delivering 250MW of stable power. At 4 Solar pieces per GW, and 16GW to power NYC zero carbon, you'd need 64 pieces up by 2035 to win...

...though an 'all solar' plan for NYC is unlikely. Four gigawatts of solar (16 of our pieces) is much more plausible for an all RE plan, though -- with the remaining 12GW from offshore wind and out-of-state transmission.

A useful metric based on this story: if each 600k represents an 'argument,' the ratio is 5000 arguments per gigawatt. To get a real 4 GW of solar power for NYC represents 20,000 arguments that have to be initiated and resolved over the next decade. @PeteSikora1 @aldatweets

Offshore Wind (8 GW) and Out-of-State Transmission (4 GW) each potentially represent dozens of larger scale, multiyear arguments per gigawatt. Like this:
27east.com/east-hampton-p…

Building the required seasonal energy storage will also represent dozens of big arguments and/or hundreds of smaller ones. Here's an 18 year argument about pumped hydro.
nynjtc.org/news/revisitin…

1 - We could really use pumped hydro for a good shot at 1.5C.
2 - Reading the 18 year saga of Storm King, in the tweet above, it's extremely unlikely.
3 - Here's a handy map of pumped hydro locations.

https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/1112490502895685638?s=20