There could still be a great future in that from stored thermal energy from renewables. I harp on this a lot here; the estimated cost for 600 C heat available with 100% capacity factor is $3-5/GJ, just from resistive PV heat.
A cup of water with salt added doesn't get noticeably warm since there's just not much entropy difference in salt water vs fresh water. These days you can reverse the process at very low electricity cost with reverse osmosis.
That's not fire. We might colloquially call it fire, but that's not what it is.
Sol ("the Sun") is a ball of hydrogen so ludicrously massive that its own gravity compresses it to the point where nuclear fusion occurs. The fusion produces ludicrous amounts of energy and so in some sense the hydrogen is from our point of view very, very hot, however it's not on fire because fire needs Oxygen and there is none.
Yes. They argue Helion screwed up computing the rate of energy flow from fast ions to cool electrons. I have not seen a good rejoinder from Helion, which is a very bad sign.
Given this, and given the apparent failure of Zap's scheme to scale, I don't think fusion has any significant chance of succeeding now.
China just finished building some but it's a dead end technology.
It first lost to PV for daylight generation, then it fell back on storing the heat for use generating after sunset but cheap batteries made that obsolete too.
There could still be a great future in that from stored thermal energy from renewables. I harp on this a lot here; the estimated cost for 600 C heat available with 100% capacity factor is $3-5/GJ, just from resistive PV heat.
Well, if we want more drinking water we might start boiling salt water with electricity.
That's a very obsolete desalination technique.
A cup of water with salt added doesn't get noticeably warm since there's just not much entropy difference in salt water vs fresh water. These days you can reverse the process at very low electricity cost with reverse osmosis.
99+ missed calls from millimeter wave bored geothermal
That's many years from even attempting to make power. They've done what, a couple inches wide hole to 100 feet?
First power hit the grid a few weeks ago
https://spectrum.ieee.org/fervo-cape-station-geothermal
It's still small scale but it's up and running and the site has plenty more capacity that can be added on bit by bit.
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Or as Bill Mckibben observed "for 10's of thousands of years, humanity has burned things to produce energy. The period of fire is coming to an end".
I think fire is still involved in the creation of solar energy though... Just not man-made fire.
That's not fire. We might colloquially call it fire, but that's not what it is.
Sol ("the Sun") is a ball of hydrogen so ludicrously massive that its own gravity compresses it to the point where nuclear fusion occurs. The fusion produces ludicrous amounts of energy and so in some sense the hydrogen is from our point of view very, very hot, however it's not on fire because fire needs Oxygen and there is none.
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That's why I hope Helion Fusion does well. The system they are developing sends power to a device that captures power directly no boiling water.
wasn't there recently papers claiming helion fusion's design is literally incapable of producing energy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwB4hB9QJX8
Yes. They argue Helion screwed up computing the rate of energy flow from fast ions to cool electrons. I have not seen a good rejoinder from Helion, which is a very bad sign.
Given this, and given the apparent failure of Zap's scheme to scale, I don't think fusion has any significant chance of succeeding now.
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Not going to happen.
“How did humanity solve climate change? We taught sand to move electrons with photons.”
Except for solar collection that boils water to generate power.
China just finished building some but it's a dead end technology.
It first lost to PV for daylight generation, then it fell back on storing the heat for use generating after sunset but cheap batteries made that obsolete too.
It's not even competitive to use mirrors to get sunlight to heat water. PV is cheaper for that.