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Is solar power a good alternative?

Well, given that Australia is for the most part empty and sunny, I think solar power would be a good alternative here.
 
there are no fusion power plants in existence.

I think you're mistaken.

I see it almost every day.

recsun.jpg
 
Well, given that Australia is for the most part empty and sunny, I think solar power would be a good alternative here.

From what I heard from guys who mine out here and out there is that a lot of the little towns in the center of the country no one ever visits are mining orientated towns. So Solar plants could really help people out there if a mining boom ends or something like that.


*The law is that you can't be in a underground mine in if it is over 150 in the mine so a lot of guys head to Australia in the summer since there is no work. Nevada has nearly all of it's population in 2 big metro areas while the rest of the towns are mining at large scale low profit crop *farms.

*Barley, Tritical, Hey, Squash. Things like that.
 
um... the sun is Nuclear fusion but not a power plant
 
A power plant is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power
 
Thanks, wiki.

:)

The sun works like any other power plant. It takes potential energy and converts it into something that we can use. The implementation is up to us... but it's really not much different from any other power plant, except we don't have to pay for the fuel.
 
Quite a good deal eh?
 
the operative word is "yet"
 
Nothing we have is that efficient.

Most of our "conventional" fuel is nothing but a glorified water-boiling scheme. We don't use half the energy we're liberating anyway.
 
Most of our "conventional" fuel is nothing but a glorified water-boiling scheme. .

This has always amused me. Nuclear power...'harnessing the atom' is nothing but a fancy way to boil water.
 
The un-necessary word in that sentence is "likely."

There's no question we'll need to see a lot more reactors springing up. Fortunately, the world seems to have figured that out and we're headed in that direction, if slowly.
 
There are already solar power plants in existence, or are now obsolute, so you can get a better idea of how feasible (or infeasible) they actually are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_plants_in_the_Mojave_Desert

This was the first solar power plant to become operational in the 80s:

Solar_two.jpg


There are currently 6 in operation around the world, and there are 16 under construction with a number that have been announced:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_thermal_power_stations

It makes perfect sense in arid locations relatively near the equator to have at least some of your power generated this way. I'm not so sure it is the be all to end all that Gore usually suggests it is, though.

Wave-action and temperature-differential power plants make just as much sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=9069

http://antioxexpress.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/electricity_from_wave_power/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_Power

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_thermal_energy_conversion

The best strategy is probably a combination of all these methods until we can figure out how to build fusion power plants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power
 
A diverse approach is very good but solar power will do quite well in the combination
 
Please stop giving wiki links to things we already know. It's useless at best and insulting at worst.
 
The sun works like any other power plant. It takes potential energy and converts it into something that we can use. The implementation is up to us... but it's really not much different from any other power plant, except we don't have to pay for the fuel.
We have to pay to construct the solar power plants. Generally solar panels take a huge amount of fossil fuel to construct & rare Earth minerals from all over the globe. We're also necessarily taking that sun away from other life that wants it (of course we're already doing this via roofs so a few solar panels won't hurt things much more).

Solar power is a good alternative.

Solar power is not a suitable source for the majority of power, it is not efficient enough.
This is true. Solar is notoriously inefficient unfortunately.

the operative word is "yet"
We're always hearing about "the next breakthru in efficiency right around the corner!!1!" but I'll believe it when I see it.

Nothing we have is that efficient.
Are you kidding? Oil is amazingly efficient. It's been a true gift (and a curse) & there's no other fuel that comes close in terms of efficiency & versitility.

Most of our "conventional" fuel is nothing but a glorified water-boiling scheme. We don't use half the energy we're liberating anyway.
We don't?
 
Obviously it would be nice to go without using as much power... but realistically, it just isn't going to happen.

The world is pretty thirsty for power, and if we can't take it from what the sun is giving us, our grandchildren are probably going to be quite literally in the dark.

We have to pay to construct the solar power plants. Generally solar panels take a huge amount of fossil fuel to construct & rare Earth minerals from all over the globe. We're also necessarily taking that sun away from other life that wants it (of course we're already doing this via roofs so a few solar panels won't hurt things much more).

Well, we're getting better at the solar thing; much like anything worthwhile, it's just going to take a lot of work and study before we're awesome at it.

And putting some panels on every roof of every building isn't stealing that sun... if anything, it's probably better than plain dark roofs that cause cities to be hotter than the surrounding area.

We're always hearing about "the next breakthru in efficiency right around the corner!!1!" but I'll believe it when I see it.

The problem with that is that most increases in efficiency are small things. They add up, but it's slow. If there were something that magically gave us an extra 25% efficiency or something crazy like that, we probably would have at least figured out how to get it if not how to put it into practice.

Instead we're looking at power plant designs that will get us another percent.

Are you kidding? Oil is amazingly efficient. It's been a true gift (and a curse) & there's no other fuel that comes close in terms of efficiency & versitility.

No, I'm not kidding. We're horribly inefficient.

We don't make a lot of our electricity from oil. And 50% efficiency would be a dream for a fossil plant. Nuclear plants are even less efficient (but as I said, their operating costs are so much cheaper that we're okay with 35% being really good for the time being).

Sure, oil is versatile... but we're limited in what we can do to get more energy and more power. The laws of thermodynamics and material properties are cruel twin mistresses.

We don't?

Not even close.

And that's something I like about solar: the sun shines on everyone for free, so you don't need to worry so much about the fuel economics.
 
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