Reply To: Okay, Let's Stop The BAKE SALE mentality and get SERIOUS

[jjohnson]

Another interesting perspective in this discussion is Robert Bryce’s book, Power Hungry.

In it he writes about the power industry, its dependence on gas, coal and oil, the problems with “green”power of most kinds, and thinks that the future lies with gas and fusion, but has no real timetable or plan. (Who could, looking at the progress in fusion over the prior 60 years?)

His point is that the power generating system is working near capacity almost all the time now. The problem is not, he says, that people want energy. They want [em]power[/em], and they want enormous amounts of it. Energy is just energy, but what is needed is energy per second —[em] power[/em]. Only fusion is likely to have the energy density to be able to deliver sufficient power to meet the rising demand on electrical power of an increasing population, and he expects gas to increase its lead over the other, dirtier sources for the foreseeable future.

What recourse does our energy industry, in practically every country, have in the event that electric automobiles suddenly go viral and they are sold as fast as factories can increase their production over several years? Right now, none. They are skating on thin ice, as it is. This could swamp the fossil fuel grid, with predictably adverse results. Successful completion of aneutronic fusion’s experimental stage looks right now to be more probable than other fusion experiments. Increasing fossil capacity does not seem likely to be able to rise to the challenge, if one looks at the lending industry and the bonds industry right now in this faltering economy.

The points concerning small, local generators to supply demand at numerous points should resonate with the electric car industry. They know that they have to have convenient outlets almost everywhere. The fewer wires they have to string, the better. Even getting these fusion plants to serve neighborhoods or sectors of a city could allow most re-energizing to be done at home and places convenient to work and recreation areas, as well as in remote areas poorly served by the existing grid. No rights-of-way acquisition problems, no new lines and towers or conduits, etc etc. If this works, its future seems assured, as it solves so many problems at once.

Jim