Quote:
Originally Posted by tirsales
but the production of *all* of our energy out of wind power plants. ... I just believe it very, very short sighted (of most political systems) to disobey fusion (or solar) research.
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I don't think anyone has ever suggested getting all our energy, or even all our electricity from wind power. Personally I think it's currently a useful way to generate electricity in terms of both financial and environmental cost but it's got real limits that won't go away.
Fusion research is IMO a bit of a joke right now - we know what's required to make hot fusion go and we know that we can't provide those conditions. So the useful research is really indirect, stuff like better magnets and fundamental physics that might lead to sidestepping many of the current problems altogether. Which is why it's important to fund weird stuff as well as the current fixation with "a theory of everything" and straight commercial science.
I suspect that we'll never get very good efficiency from photovoltaic systems, but if we can make something cheap and back it with thermal generation (solar thermal, that is) I think we'll have the worst of the problem solved. Again, cheap both financially and environmentally. Cheaper than trees, anyway. Coz we already have trees...