**Sigh** How severe will the advent of peak oil be?

[Arwon]

I just thought of another theoretically lovely but currently non-existent tech solution- orbital solar/microwave thingies.

 

[Monsterzuma]

Problem is only that it won't be here for the next 30 to 40 years - at least.

Most estimates I've read about were more optimistic than that. A lot of the technology the process would depend on has already been demonstrated to work. This is nowhere near as far-fetched as nuclear fusion. In the presentation in the link below the claim is made that if politicians hadn't been pushing for the more militarily potent variants of nuclear fission (the kind that enables making bombs) in the 60s, LFTR style thorium breeding would now already have been the status quo. Also concerns like AGW and peak oil are going to generate massive amounts of financial- and political support for this program as awareness of them rises.

Moar links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtPvSMQH5VI&feature=channel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LFTR
http://energyfromthorium.com/
On mass producing LFTRs :
http://nucleargreen.blogspot.com/2008/04/benefits-of-lftrs.html