Reply To: T-shirt designers unite and take over

[Brian H]

Breakable wrote:

Solar is inherently big and diffuse and periodic and unreliable; that’s just the way sunlight falls to Earth. Orbiting solar with MW downlink may have a large scale future, though.

As for the $50-$60, there’s just nothing there which could vary the cost much. And it’s SO large a gap that nibbling at the edges, even for 10 years, won’t change the verdict.

It remains to be seen what would be the verdict for solar, wind and other renewables.
I still stand by my opinion that they will remain a viable alternative until a “home usable zero-maintenance idiot-proof fusion reactor” will be designed and mass produced for a while. That could take some time. I would say another 30-50 years unless singularity happens? Even ITER should be finished by then :D.
Is that enough time to recap on current investments?

Regarding price margins for services provided I have a nice example:
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/13/sms-costs-hubble

PS:I am sorry but my thought process likes to jump over some of the reasoning, and that makes it harder to understand.

“home usable”?? How did that get in the mix? What possible generation capability would an apartment dweller use? That requirement is simply suburban nonsense. “Individual generation” is an elitist luxury.

As for evil utilities taking a 95% profit margin on delivered power, it is to laugh. 😆 If you think industrial users would put up with that for 5 minutes, you’re dreaming. Any region/area that priced power fairly would have a huge “comparative advantage”. Not to mention the lynch parties ratepayers would form if any such rakeoff were attempted. At the very worst, neighborhoods could pool resources and put up a unit and contract out maintenance.