5 ms·

The fact that fusion is not ready yet might be a good thing. We still don't realize how precious our remaining fossil fuel reserves are, and we'd probably squan

The fact that fusion is not ready yet might be a good thing. We still don't realize how precious our remaining fossil fuel reserves are, and we'd probably squander the energy that fusion provides. I've always said that fusion won't save us from the coming global energy crisis, because it's coming too soon. Maybe that's good; we'll learn to appreciate it when we have it.

Razengan 10y ago
Maybe we can look into exotic sources like lightning, even if it may not be as conventionally usable according to our current understanding. Say, send up baskets of some materials in a balloon into storm clouds, have the immense burst of power in lighting strikes fuse them together into some form of fuel that we can then tap for energy.
- nitrogen 10y ago
  I think you are being downvoted because lightning has very high power but very low total energy, and is way too unpredictable (apart from a few special places) even if it did have enough energy to be useful.
  - Razengan 10y ago
    Yes, that's why I offered that maybe we could think out of the box to harness it in an indirect manner. Considering how it forms fulgurite [1], what if we used to form something that can be "burned" for energy? I find it hard to believe that this awesome force cannot have any applications for man. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite
    - drjesusphd 10y ago
      > I find it hard to believe that this awesome force cannot have any applications for man. The thing is, it's not that awesome, especially compared to the amount of energy consumed by humanity. Lightning is just another manifestation of solar energy. A tiny fraction of it, at that.
    - nitrogen 10y ago
      So the awesomeness comes from the power[0], measured in watts. We like power, as evidenced by our (humanity's) building ever-larger power plants, but what we really need is lots of bulk energy[1]. Energy is the integral of power over time, measured in joules. Think of power as how concentrated energy is into a small amount of time. Lightning bolts may deliver up to 10GW of power, but the total energy is still only ~1GJ (based on a bit of searching[2][3]; I'll note that some "napkin math" estimates by some bloggers drastically overestimate the duration of an average lightning strike). According to [3], "all the lightning in the entire world could only power 8% of US households. At best." You also have to consider how incredibly expensive it would be to build a lightning rod and capacitor bank at every single possible lightning strike site. So even if lightning's awesome power can melt a few rocks, it still can't run our cars or heat our homes, because there's not enough energy. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(physics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(physics) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy [2] http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/lightning2.html http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/lightnin... [3] http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2012/05/could-we-harness-lightning-as-an-energy-source.html http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2012/05/could-we-harnes...
TeMPOraL 10y ago
> I've always said that fusion won't save us from the coming global energy crisis, because it's coming too soon. Maybe that's good; we'll learn to appreciate it when we have it. If we survive it. If the crisis hits so hard the technological civilization collapses, we ain't rebuilding it any time soon. All the easily accessible high-density energy sources are long gone.

Razengan 10y ago

Maybe we can look into exotic sources like lightning, even if it may not be as conventionally usable according to our current understanding. Say, send up baskets of some materials in a balloon into storm clouds, have the immense burst of power in lighting strikes fuse them together into some form of fuel that we can then tap for energy.

nitrogen 10y ago
I think you are being downvoted because lightning has very high power but very low total energy, and is way too unpredictable (apart from a few special places) even if it did have enough energy to be useful.
- Razengan 10y ago
  Yes, that's why I offered that maybe we could think out of the box to harness it in an indirect manner. Considering how it forms fulgurite [1], what if we used to form something that can be "burned" for energy? I find it hard to believe that this awesome force cannot have any applications for man. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite
  - drjesusphd 10y ago
    > I find it hard to believe that this awesome force cannot have any applications for man. The thing is, it's not that awesome, especially compared to the amount of energy consumed by humanity. Lightning is just another manifestation of solar energy. A tiny fraction of it, at that.
  - nitrogen 10y ago
    So the awesomeness comes from the power[0], measured in watts. We like power, as evidenced by our (humanity's) building ever-larger power plants, but what we really need is lots of bulk energy[1]. Energy is the integral of power over time, measured in joules. Think of power as how concentrated energy is into a small amount of time. Lightning bolts may deliver up to 10GW of power, but the total energy is still only ~1GJ (based on a bit of searching[2][3]; I'll note that some "napkin math" estimates by some bloggers drastically overestimate the duration of an average lightning strike). According to [3], "all the lightning in the entire world could only power 8% of US households. At best." You also have to consider how incredibly expensive it would be to build a lightning rod and capacitor bank at every single possible lightning strike site. So even if lightning's awesome power can melt a few rocks, it still can't run our cars or heat our homes, because there's not enough energy. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(physics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(physics) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy [2] http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/lightning2.html http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/lightnin... [3] http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2012/05/could-we-harness-lightning-as-an-energy-source.html http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2012/05/could-we-harnes...

TeMPOraL 10y ago

> I've always said that fusion won't save us from the coming global energy crisis, because it's coming too soon. Maybe that's good; we'll learn to appreciate it when we have it. If we survive it. If the crisis hits so hard the technological civilization collapses, we ain't rebuilding it any time soon. All the easily accessible high-density energy sources are long gone.