5 ms·

Once we harnessed fusion, all these energy intensive tasks like desalination, electrolysis, Co2 capture will be easy, isn't it?

defrost 4y ago
Solar is Fusion .. and already available in direct light, indirect wind, and totals some 173,000 terawatts continuously reaching earth, or some 10,000x current total energy use. Usable Earth based Fusion is still quite some time away, meanwhile the immediate issue of mitigating fossil fuel byproducts is pressing.
Retric 4y ago
Economics is more complicated than is X possible. We can make and store antimatter, but all those sci-fi applications that need significant quantities are still dozens of orders of magnitude outside our reach.
alex_duf 4y ago
It's not fusion we need, it's cheap non polluting energy. Fusion _might_ become that cheap non polluting source, but right now we don't know. What we do know is: renewables are cheap right now. Now applied to hydrogen, we can even say that hydrogen production can perfectly adapt to the intermittency of renewables. But I'm of the opinion that we need to decarbonate our grids further before we start looking into using renewables for h2 production.
- ben_w 4y ago
  I think we should start looking at hydrogen before we strictly need it, because it's best to get all of this ready ASAP, and parallel is better than serial for that.
gl-prod 4y ago
We don't want to just hang everything on "Once we harness fusion". We gotta act now, not in 100 years.
- danw1979 4y ago
  120 years.
Gwypaas 4y ago
How are you going to turn that fusion based heat into electricity? Coal and nuclear are uncompetitive simply from the cost of the steam side. Today you can just about give a steam plant free energy and it still makes a loss. Solar or wind does not have this limitation. CCGT gas plants gets around it by having a turbine giving raw mechanical power and then utilizing the same awful steam side to get the last percentage points of efficiency at a much smaller required scale. Unless you can step around the steam turbine I am not so positive on fusions future outside of incredibly small niches.

defrost 4y ago

Solar is Fusion .. and already available in direct light, indirect wind, and totals some 173,000 terawatts continuously reaching earth, or some 10,000x current total energy use. Usable Earth based Fusion is still quite some time away, meanwhile the immediate issue of mitigating fossil fuel byproducts is pressing.

Retric 4y ago

Economics is more complicated than is X possible. We can make and store antimatter, but all those sci-fi applications that need significant quantities are still dozens of orders of magnitude outside our reach.

alex_duf 4y ago

It's not fusion we need, it's cheap non polluting energy. Fusion _might_ become that cheap non polluting source, but right now we don't know. What we do know is: renewables are cheap right now. Now applied to hydrogen, we can even say that hydrogen production can perfectly adapt to the intermittency of renewables. But I'm of the opinion that we need to decarbonate our grids further before we start looking into using renewables for h2 production.

ben_w 4y ago
I think we should start looking at hydrogen before we strictly need it, because it's best to get all of this ready ASAP, and parallel is better than serial for that.

gl-prod 4y ago

We don't want to just hang everything on "Once we harness fusion". We gotta act now, not in 100 years.

danw1979 4y ago
120 years.

Gwypaas 4y ago

How are you going to turn that fusion based heat into electricity? Coal and nuclear are uncompetitive simply from the cost of the steam side. Today you can just about give a steam plant free energy and it still makes a loss. Solar or wind does not have this limitation. CCGT gas plants gets around it by having a turbine giving raw mechanical power and then utilizing the same awful steam side to get the last percentage points of efficiency at a much smaller required scale. Unless you can step around the steam turbine I am not so positive on fusions future outside of incredibly small niches.