5 ms·
> But solar/wind wont meet unbounded energy demands. Solar: 23,000 TW-years/year, every year until cosmological time passes and the sun's luminosity noticably
by ben_w 1y ago
> But solar/wind wont meet unbounded energy demands.
Solar: 23,000 TW-years/year, every year until cosmological time passes and the sun's luminosity noticably changes
Fossil: 900 coal + 240 petroleum + 215 natural gas = 1,355 TW-years total, and then it's gone forever
https://www.iea-shc.org/data/sites/1/publications/2015-11-A-Fundamental-Look-at-Supply-Side-Energy-Reserves-for-the-Planet.pdf https://www.iea-shc.org/data/sites/1/publications/2015-11-A-...
The only source that could ever beat a genuinely unbounded demand, is if we somehow figure out how to tap the dark energy which is causing the universe to expand.
In the meantime however, photovoltaics would get us all of the way to a Kardashev type three civilisation; humanity is currently 0.73 on that scale, it's an exponential scale with a factor of 1e10 between each integer.
> It doesnt meet current energy demands.
Tomorrow is not today.