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Silly question but say fusion works and we use massive amounts of it. Wouldn’t that increase global temps?
by Havoc 2y ago
Silly question but say fusion works and we use massive amounts of it. Wouldn’t that increase global temps?
- wffurr 2y agoNo. Whatever amount of waste heat is released into the atmosphere would be so small compared to insolation that it would be impossible to measure. If it displaced all remaining coal and natural gas burning, temperatures would stabilize.
- ranger207 2y agoNo. Assuming it's using steam generators like most powerplants (gas, nuclear, and coal), then the only heat released to the atmosphere would be the inevitable entropic losses. This is the same amount of heat lost by nuclear powerplants (although you could argue nuke plants release decay heat that fusion plants wouldn't but that's negligible). Gas and coal plants release that heat as well, but then also release greenhouse gases that heat things up further
- fellowmartian 2y agoThe author wasn’t asking about production entropic losses, but whether using massive amount of energy will heat up the planet, and it definitely will. This is why it’s a technosignature. Heat dissipation is the ultimate limit on growth on a planet, but we’re talking about trillions of people living in luxury.
- fsh 2y agoYes, but the direct heating effect is quite small compared to the effect of greenhouse gases. The world primary energy consumption is around 19 TW, whereas radiative forcing (difference to pre-industrial values) is estimated to be around 1 PW.