3 ms·
At some point it will dawn on us that the resources needed to build solar/wind is defined by the energy density available in these resources. Nuclear is basical
by lokimedes 7y ago
At some point it will dawn on us that the resources needed to build solar/wind is defined by the energy density available in these resources. Nuclear is basically invoking a deeper level of reality, one where energy is measured in MeV rather than paltry eV of chemical binding energy. Solar and wind are even less dense.
It may be an old Physicist’s ramblings, but we have backed away from Prometheus’ fire way too soon to save ourselves.
- epistasis 7y agoWith wind and solar we are capturing leftover energy from the sun's fusion; the internal amount of storage is not relevant. With fossil fuels, we are simply using the stored energy from past fusion. It's likely that we will start creating synthetic fuels from the electricity that comes from wind and solar, if you want a dense storage mechanism for keeping fuel close by for mobile applications or isolated sites. There's nothing magical about nuclear, it's just a heat source. Unfortunately it's difficult to transmit heat long distances.