SRSrocco just posted a great article on the importance of energy to the world's economy, decrying amongst other things the depletion of the world's fossil fuel reserves. Given the drive to zero out carbon fuels to stop global warming the question becomes what do we replace it with.
Nuclear is not the answer, it manufactures more problems than it solves.
Wind has limits and problems that ordinary folks don't see such as high maintenance, and enormous costs associated with giant windmill blades that have to be replaced more frequently than most would think and they cannot be recycled - only landfilled at significant cost.
Nobody likes dams, but they also serve double duty for water distribution as well as electric power production.
Solar is getting better but still relies on battery storage.
Thermal gradient to generate power from differences in temperature. This is done by using a working substance such as helium to spin a turbine and generate power from warmer gas and condense it with with cold in a continuous cycle. This is theoretically done with either the sea where cold water is deep an warm is shallow, or the earth where the deeper you go the warmer it gets and cooling is done near the surface. Still the technology while well understood has not advanced beyond primitive pilot plants.
Fusion power despite huge investments in research is still 30 years in the future. Just where it has been for the last 60 years.
Energy efficiency is improving but has diminishing returns.
Bio-fuels can be an answer to providing jet fuel (the Navy has successfully tested jet fuel derived from oil seed) but will need a major shift in agricultural production. Much greater than we do for ethanol now.
In the meantime we'll have a huge gap to fill as energy demands increase as population grows and becomes more prosperous. At some point demand will surpass the ability to supply without a major technological advance. Crunch time is coming.
This message was edited by jpdell33 on 1-20-20 @ 12:53 PM
jpdell33
01-20-2020 @ 12:52 PM