cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/25441188
If God had wanted us to have nearly unlimited clean energy, He would have placed a fusion reactor into the sky.
cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/25441188
If God had wanted us to have nearly unlimited clean energy, He would have placed a fusion reactor into the sky.
In the past I’ve been bullish on nuclear fission for a similar reason. But we’re at a point where fission is very expensive, and solar is extremely cheap - even including battery cost it’s now the cheapest form of energy production. When fusion is working it’s also going to be very expensive. Fusion isn’t going to fix all of the problems with fission either - fusion also produces radioactive waste, and IIUC Tokamak designs require a steady supply of metal to replenish the blanket. (Although I thank all that is good ITER switched their blanket material from Beryllium to Tungsten.) We should keep up the research to hopefully get to a point where fusion and fission are cheap some decades in the future. But solar is there now, so current production expansion should be solar.
Yes, solar uses a lot of land. But we have a lot of land to use. For example the US has about 30 million acres devoted to growing corn to produce ethanol. Not food - ethanol. Solar produces far more power per acre than ethanol. Here’s an article on a PNAS study with some details, including this quote:
There’s also a detailed Technology Connections video on renewable energy FUD that I recommend.
Stay off trying to debate ev vs ice over this. When all the vehicles are ev, you’re going to need a LOT more solar panels and batteries to keep up. A whole lot more.
As for the creation of nuclear waste from fusion; it doesn’t make radioactive waste like fission, it makes less and what it makes has a much, much, shorter half life.
Plus, imagine re-blanketing the planet in all those solar panels in a 30 year loop as they age out. Solar is great for local stuff and your house. Fusion will be the ultimate energy source, so long as it can be perfected.