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it is used as a precursor in chemical synthesis, plastics and a variety of other products.

you're not going to replace that with solar.



Sure you will, but maybe later. Super cheap energy makes bio-plastics competitive.

Massive solar farms passively making carbon chains when the sun is up. The reason no one is talking about it is that the transportation transition is lower hanging fruit.


There is an interesting line of research into catalysts that use electricity to create stuff like methanol, acetic acid, etc from CO2 and water. Often when you see people comment on this they automatically assume synthetic methanol --> green washed automotive fuel --> yay and I can keep my F150 pickup. But more seriously, pure low weight hydrocarbons --> chemical feed stocks.




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