[tirsales]

Originally Posted by moz

I don't think anyone has ever suggested getting all our energy, or even all our electricity from wind power.

Yeah, well, they did I can remember some political suggestions along those lines.

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.

To the best of my knowledge it is currently unknown whether we are able to provide said conditions or not: We might not be able to do so ATM, but perhaps next year? Or in ten years? Or in fifty?
Let me phrase it differently: Whats the alternative? We do NOT know whether it will work - so lets just find out.

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.

Yes! Thanks!
We do not know what will be the breakthrough. Maybe tomorrow someone finds the cure - well, fine. But we dont know what will be the breakthrough - so we just have to go on (and on and on).
Simply focusing on a "simple" solution is never right.

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...

Depends. There are some political problems with (efficient) photovoltaic or -thermic (just look at the map - which countries would be the leaders in energy production. Can you spell Africa big enough?)
There are some approaches / theories using satellite systems (hey, they do produce lots of energy. Problem is: Who will catch all those batteries raining from heaven?), but they are (again: AFAIK and ATM) far from being feasible.