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There's of course not only the question if fusion works, but also how expensive it will be. A not unlikely outcome would be that at some point humanity is able
by hannob 7y ago
There's of course not only the question if fusion works, but also how expensive it will be.
A not unlikely outcome would be that at some point humanity is able to build fusion plants, but almost nobody will do, because they're just too expensive. Given the extremely declining price of wind and solar which shows no sign of stopping this seems rather plausible.
- zaarn 7y agoThe thing is, the fuel for fusion energy is available everywhere. The energy demand of a small town could be covered by only a few liters of deuterium a year, if you can do it with hydrogen then the fuel cost of a fusion reactor is essentially 0 per kWh produced. The energy produced by a fusion reactor could be plentiful enough that we can build more fusion reactors at lower cost than before using that extra energy to save money (either by selling it or by using it to use more energy costly but faster and cheaper processes).
- 0xffff2 7y agoWind and solar could be free and we would still have currently unsolved problems of either storage or clean peaking capacity.
- gwbas1c 7y agoThere's a lot of variables that I suspect makes "the one true energy source" a silly argument. (The joke is that nuclear fission power was going to be "too cheap to meter.") I suspect that solar will become dirt-cheap for anyone who has enough roof space in full sunlight that it's essentially free energy. However, this doesn't account for people who live in apartment buildings, or activities that need to consume a HUGE amount of energy. Case in point: the cost of getting electricity from point A to point B is a big part of many of our bills. "Free" solar and wind power still needs a well-maintained electric grid.