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Yeah. Perhaps add in some cheap battery technology to the mix of solar power and superconductor, and energy production could become co2 neutral. The creation o
by ant6n 3y ago
Yeah. Perhaps add in some cheap battery technology to the mix of solar power and superconductor, and energy production could become co2 neutral.
The creation of a global electricity network perhaps also has some effect on global cooperation.
Now we just need reduce the use of fossil fuels (cars, aviation, heating, industry).
- moffkalast 3y agoWell we'd need cheaper panels for that. Currently they last like what, 30 years and take 3 years to pay off the energy it took to make them? That gives them a roughly a 9x return on investment. You need at least 30-40x to maintain our civilization as-is. Crude oil provides about 100x return. Luckily offshore wind is almost over 30x.
- htrp 3y agoDoesn't matter if you can cover all of the Sahara with panels and get near lossless transmission. Economies of scale do apply.
- moffkalast 3y agoThey apply to some degree, but it still takes X amount of materials to make each panel, you don't magically get more because you're making a continent worth of them. Even if you magically reduce the overhead 50% somehow, that's still only 18x which is not even close. Plus the fixed cost of making a laughably absurd amount of superconductor, and the monumenal logistics of deploying and maintaining all of it likely puts the project into net negative for a decade or two. Saharan dust will also cover those panels in like a day. Probably makes more sense to float them on some body of water instead, with automatic washing and cooling?