> Nuclear and various fossil fuels create heat that boils water to generate steam that turns a turbine to generate power. This adds cost and complexity that you

> Nuclear and various fossil fuels create heat that boils water to generate steam that turns a turbine to generate power. This adds cost and complexity that you can never get away from. Back here in reality, nuclear is much cheaper than solar, once you ignore the subsidies and the US-specific legal overhead More importantly, it's base load, meaning you don't need the batteries that are riotously more expensive than water boilers . > I actually think solar is and will be the most important method of power generation in the coming centuries Wind and solar are older than the grid, and have never been able to contribute Energiewende failed Humanity has no realistic non-nuclear future, and people should be required to look at the economic numbers before discussing this . > that will culminate in space-based solar power collectors. Found the person who grew up on SimCity "Boiling water adds too much complexity so let's build an infrastructure in orbit" . > Creating methanol is essentially a way of storing excess energy One of many. There are much better ones. We generally don't use methanol as a chemical battery, even though it can be, because we have such radically better options. Methanol is almost solely consumed as a fuel or as an intermediate product from fuels Besides, the great thing about base load is that when you have it, you don't need to store excess energy. You just create the amount you need You're solving problems that don't need to exist, while calling the normal way "too complicated"