Power for the future

[CMircea]

Fusion is still very experimental. He-3 isn't enough. Hydrogen is hard to extract from water, and there's no point as you need more energy to electrify the water than you get by burning Hydrogen (which fuses with Oxygen to make water again). You can get Hydrogen from acids as well (drop some metal in the acid), but still...

[hertogjan]

Burning it makes little sense indeed. But you would rather consume it in a fuel cell, for electricity. Energy in the form of electricity is more useful than energy in the form of heat.
The reason why you would use hydrogen as a carrier of energy is that it is (relatively) portable. You cannot put electricity in a box and carry it with you. With hydrogen, you can. But since some energy is lost in the conversion of electricity to hydrogen and vice versa, hydrogen should only be used as a carrier for energy in mobile applications (such as cars).

[flake]

The pictures of The DESERTEC Concept are really sexy. (the one with the red squares)
I totally forgot renewable power sources like wind and solar in my post back in the ottd thread. Well i am narrow minded

I haven't red the desertec studies jet, but i fear the cost (also meaning energy cost) and time to build solar thermal power plants that cover areas as big as my country (austria) will be quite immense. I personally just out of the blue estimate that we will not see it happen before the next century. (pls proove me wrong, or just tell me to read first then post ) To late to replace all our current energy sources.
Also the sexy picture just shows CURRENT ELECTRICITY. We still burn A LOT more energy away in other forms. And imagine what would happen if in the future India's and Shina's population would like to use as much as the US (for example ) does ? (worldmap

So what i am trying to say ? nothing. damn lets build those cool (actually quite hot) solar power plants !
If the depletion of resources is not enough motivation (for those who hold the world in their breathtaking grip ^^) then maybe the coolness factor will do. (Coolness is the reason why we austrians ordered 24 euro fighter jets, and now they rust in their hangers )

No seriously now, like Washu said, use less energy! You don't lose much quality of life but save A LOT. You can even gain quality of life by using the bike instead of the car when possible That way we have more time to switch to solutions already well explained by others (Rakalen, michael blunck)

about the discussion of shooting nuclear waste into the sun... *headshaking* don't let the thread take that turn again...