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What you say is false. We are surrounded by far more energy than we need. We just have to continue solving difficult engineering problems in order to harness it
by standardUser 8y ago
What you say is false. We are surrounded by far more energy than we need. We just have to continue solving difficult engineering problems in order to harness it. We are doing an OK job from a technical standpoint (especially in the last 20 years), but a god-awful job from a political standpoint.
You sound like you're quoting from the Limits to Growth or some equally pessimistic mutli-decade-old study.
- JoeAltmaier 8y agoAddress the grid storage issue? There's not enough lithium resources on the planet, for instance, to use lithium batteries to store even a day's worth of USA energy usage?
- standardUser 8y agoYour inability to imagine better energy storage technology is your justification for declaring that civilization as we know it is doomed? What you're talking about is exclusively chemical storage. Check out thermal and mechanical storage. Those are likely the more promising large scale solutions and both are already used in a variety of different ways at industrial scales. I'm particularly partial to the use of heated salt via solar thermal plants as an affordable and scalable solution. Several such plants are already in operation.
- JoeAltmaier 8y agoThe ad hominem attack is not really necessary. I'd need a citation for a grid storage solution at scale? Else its just more wind.
- r00fus 8y agoCorrect, wind power is one part of the future solution.
- travisporter 8y agoIgnoring any future and ongoing discovery of lithium resources, yes, just like there wasn't enough oil to put us where we are now, there isn't enough lithium today for a day's worth of storage of all of US's energy needs. That is not a fair assessment, however.
- baron_harkonnen 8y ago> We just have to continue solving difficult engineering problems in order to harness it. But that requires large amounts of cheap energy to do. The last 200 years haven't been an insane time of innovation just because we, as a species, got magically more brilliant. It's because we had unprecedented accessed to cheap energy.
- goatlover 8y agoThat fuel became available because of the industrial revolution. Further technological advances will make other forms of energy cheaply available. As for intelligence, our civilization certainly has become more capable since technology and science build upon each other.