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You had me until fusion. As nice as fusion is on paper, there is so much cheap coal in the ground that it is economically unfeasible.
by ta12121 14y ago
You had me until fusion. As nice as fusion is on paper, there is so much cheap coal in the ground that it is economically unfeasible.
- wes-exp 14y agoYou know what's economically unfeasible? An unstable climate created by forever burning coal.
- ta12121 14y agoExternalities 50 or 100 years down the road tend to have little influence on economics. Parent strongly predicted commercial fusion in 30 years. That will not happen.
- confluence 14y agoSee here http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER
- schiffern 14y agoA vacuum chamber containing 150,000,000 K plasma surrounded by molten lithium blankets surrounded by liquid-helium cooled superconductors. Yeah, that sounds cheap. Solar, anyone? Somehow I don't see $73/watt 7 years from now competing with $19/watt right now (of which about $5 is the panels) and falling fast. I'm assuming 13% capacity factor for solar here, which is pessimistic (Northeast US).
- ta12121 14y agoI am aware of iter. The proposed claim to be defended is "commercial fusion power by 2040", not "there exists an international experimental project to figure out how to create a fusion reactor with a positive energy balance and an economic durability, neither of which we know how to do yet."