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p.t.b.d wrote:

NilsFG wrote:

alien pimp wrote:

2manynoobs wrote:what difference does it make? as long as it's cheap and electricity

one is available since decades and one is in research

Both still in research.

If you want to replace all current powerplants with solar power plants we're gonna need some heavy duty solar panels.

to power the earth apparently you need about the size of englands worth of solar panels or some other ridiculous amount

how's that a problem for 6 billion people that will become careless for many things once having more energy available?

and that's the tech we know about, old as fuck

i suggest they start to do some research to invent some new sort of analog format like vinyl because they are running out of the shit it is made of.

Sadly, nuclear fusion has been "on the horizon" for years. 10 years ago, they said it would be ready in 2010. There's a surprisingly large amount of money being poured into it which hardly ever gets mentioned compared to every other power generation initiative out there. If it does work out, we'll have enough to last us a while, but it would probably be more effective at some point to harvest the required isotopes from space.

As for solar cells, the new generation going into production now is considerably more efficient than what's currently available. They're now working on solar cell paint, where the paint on your home's exterior walls will literally convert solar energy into electricity. This would solve any issues with surface area requirement.

Probably the best way to harvest the sun's power would be through massive solar sails in space, and then to beam this down to power stations. This way you don't have to worry about clouds, weather, night time, etc interrupting the supply. In fact, the technology already exists to do this. The only problem is the will to do it, and of course having satellites beaming high intensity energy down to the earth is potentially dangerous.

The Russians also tested out space mirrors in the 80s to light up regions at night. It worked.

Space really is the answer. Many issues would be solved/curtailed by moving industry and power generation into space.

kay wrote:Sadly, nuclear fusion has been "on the horizon" for years. 10 years ago, they said it would be ready in 2010. There's a surprisingly large amount of money being poured into it which hardly ever gets mentioned compared to every other power generation initiative out there. If it does work out, we'll have enough to last us a while, but it would probably be more effective at some point to harvest the required isotopes from space.

As for solar cells, the new generation going into production now is considerably more efficient than what's currently available. They're now working on solar cell paint, where the paint on your home's exterior walls will literally convert solar energy into electricity. This would solve any issues with surface area requirement.

Probably the best way to harvest the sun's power would be through massive solar sails in space, and then to beam this down to power stations. This way you don't have to worry about clouds, weather, night time, etc interrupting the supply. In fact, the technology already exists to do this. The only problem is the will to do it, and of course having satellites beaming high intensity energy down to the earth is potentially dangerous.

The Russians also tested out space mirrors in the 80s to light up regions at night. It worked.

Space really is the answer. Many issues would be solved/curtailed by moving industry and power generation into space.

i don't know what's the best solution now, but all i know kinda points to the fact that energy problem could've been solved long time ago if any real will for it

kay wrote:Space really is the answer. Many issues would be solved/curtailed by moving industry and power generation into space.

Entirely agreed. Man needs to become comfortable with the fact that space is a usable environment and commodity... there's nobody else laying claim to it as far as we can tell, either.

alien pimp wrote:i don't know what's the best solution now, but all i know kinda points to the fact that energy problem could've been solved long time ago if any real will for it

Totally agree. The world became so incredibly comfortable with fossil fuels that nobody even thought about dealing with them running out until it was far too late... big money lobbies from oil companies don't help, either. There are a lot of influences from people that don't have mankind's interest at heart.

Of course, most of the venture capitalists in new forms of energy have profit motives too... profit's a good driver for ingenuity and hard work, but the governments of modern countries need to make it as difficult as possible to be an oil supplier and as easy as possible to be a "progressive" company. Sadly, they don't really have the bollocks to achieve it when faced with the pressure put on them by the existing energy industry and, also quite importantly, car drivers. We see protests almost annually in the UK these days about petrol taxes... yet the people, on the whole, also support moving towards "clean energy".

Conclusion: People are mental. We might be fucked.

i eat a big bowl of beans and i generate plenty of power.

bass hertz wrote:i eat a big bowl of beans and i generate plenty of power.

good contribution there

magma wrote:Conclusion: People are mental. We might be fucked.

there's a few things in this world even the two of us agree on!

Geothermal power, wind power, solar power, wave energy for starters. This stuff is already happening and if humanity harnessed it properly we wouldn't have to worry about energy for a very long time, if ever again. No need for nuclear anything, but it's a way easier market to control and make a profit from.

alien pimp wrote:i don't know what's the best solution now, but all i know kinda points to the fact that energy problem could've been solved long time ago if any real will for it

Yup, totally agree.

Shit, a lot of the world's problems would be solved by now if there were any real will for it.

Heck, if everyone who used this forum had the will for it, it'd be solved.

Solar power isn't very good. it's just not efficient with production cost to power output. Especially in shitty northern hemisphere countries like the UK.

The fusion power really is the way I reckon, we just need to nail it, on the ones they've done didn't they say like the 1 second they managed to keep it active could have powered the USA for 48 hours or something ridiculous.

DRTY wrote:Solar power isn't very good. it's just not efficient with production cost to power output. Especially in shitty northern hemisphere countries like the UK.

The fusion power really is the way I reckon, we just need to nail it, on the ones they've done didn't they say like the 1 second they managed to keep it active could have powered the USA for 48 hours or something ridiculous.

i have the feeling your worries have been more or less answered in the previous posts in this thread

kay wrote:

alien pimp wrote:i don't know what's the best solution now, but all i know kinda points to the fact that energy problem could've been solved long time ago if any real will for it

Yup, totally agree.

Shit, a lot of the world's problems would be solved by now if there were any real will for it.

Heck, if everyone who used this forum had the will for it, it'd be solved.

i feel 2010 is a year when the need will create some of the will
maybe it's just the usual optimism at the beginning of each year, but i think a lot of stuff it's getting ripe this year

alien pimp wrote:i feel 2010 is a year when the need will create some of the will
maybe it's just the usual optimism at the beginning of each year, but i think a lot of stuff it's getting ripe this year

I hope so! I hope to see a lot of it happening firsthand, as I'll be (hopefully) travelling to a lot of scientific conventions and conferences this year!

kay wrote:

alien pimp wrote:i feel 2010 is a year when the need will create some of the will
maybe it's just the usual optimism at the beginning of each year, but i think a lot of stuff it's getting ripe this year

I hope so! I hope to see a lot of it happening firsthand, as I'll be (hopefully) travelling to a lot of scientific conventions and conferences this year!

people who travel a lot are smarter