> the problem of producing ammonia has already received the attention of several generations of the greatest minds humanity has.
Sure but they were working with the constraints of the times. Renewable electricity generation doesn’t have the same level of maturity and it’s already surpassing fossil options with tons of room to scale.
> that will never be more cost effective than doing it with natural gas.
We have an effectively infinite supply of electricity but a finite supply of natural gas. The trends are clear. Electricity is going to continue to get cheaper essentially forever and fossil fuels will continue to become more scarce and thus expensive until it's not economical to use them.
You just have to draw the timeline long enough and electricity becomes the cheaper option for ammonium production and renewable electricity becomes the cheapest electricity source.
> Fucking with the global food supply is the last thing anybody should be doing.
Ammonia prices don’t have to go up if demand goes up. Price increases are only one possible outcome of an increase in demand. The other option is an increase in supply. With sufficiently cheap electricity everything becomes affordable. When we deplete natural gas supplies ammonia will get more expensive.
Food will also cost a lot more when farmland gets too hot to be productive.
The last thing anyone should be doing is betting the food supply on scarce fossil fuel sources.
Sure but they were working with the constraints of the times. Renewable electricity generation doesn’t have the same level of maturity and it’s already surpassing fossil options with tons of room to scale.
> that will never be more cost effective than doing it with natural gas.
We have an effectively infinite supply of electricity but a finite supply of natural gas. The trends are clear. Electricity is going to continue to get cheaper essentially forever and fossil fuels will continue to become more scarce and thus expensive until it's not economical to use them.
You just have to draw the timeline long enough and electricity becomes the cheaper option for ammonium production and renewable electricity becomes the cheapest electricity source.
> Fucking with the global food supply is the last thing anybody should be doing.
Ammonia prices don’t have to go up if demand goes up. Price increases are only one possible outcome of an increase in demand. The other option is an increase in supply. With sufficiently cheap electricity everything becomes affordable. When we deplete natural gas supplies ammonia will get more expensive.
Food will also cost a lot more when farmland gets too hot to be productive.
The last thing anyone should be doing is betting the food supply on scarce fossil fuel sources.