While many of us have grave reservations about the expanding use of coal and fossil fuels to provide the power required to maintain a functioning modern economy, there remain serious and possibly unsolvable problems in coming up with green alternatives to their continued use and expansion (particularly nuclear power).
More over the fold.....
This week's 'Straight Dope' column deals directly with the question of why alternative energy sources to fossil fuels or nuclear power are now and for the foreseeable future will remain untenable as a source for even a plurality share of our energy needs.
Why Alternative Energy Can Not Satisfy All Energy Needs
The detailed scientific data is contained in the following article - linked here and with the PDF of the entire available at this site:
Nocera Study and Data
Some highlights from the work:
The projection that world population is going to stabilize is based on the observation that, as people become more urbanized and at least a little more prosperous, they have smaller families. That’s a worldwide trend. In Japan and much of Europe, in fact, the population is actually declining. The flip side is that if people remain impoverished villagers, they continue having big families and total world population keeps going up. In other words, a stable future is predicated on a modicum of global urban affluence. To the extent the world stays rural and poor, eventually much of it starves.
snip...
Nocera conservatively pegs annual global energy usage circa 2050 at between 28 terawatts — which assumes average consumption at the same rate as in present-day Poland — and 35 terawatts, roughly the rate now seen in Samoa. You may say: Samoa sounds like a lifestyle I could get used to. That’s sporting of you, but it still means we'll need about 15 to 20 more terawatts of energy than we're consuming right now.
snip......
In other words, if we squeeze out every available watt of alternative energy on the planet, and build nukes at an impossibly aggressive rate, we'll barely keep up with the energy needed to support even a modest standard of living for the world's people.
So - the alternatives seen clear:
1. Expand alternative energy sources as much as possible, but realize that for the foreseeable future, coal, oil, and nuclear are going to be the mainstays of power production for decades to come.
2. Continue work on both fusion energy production (the ultimate solution but, sadly, the most unlikely to be perfected any time soon alternative) and attempt to come up with a financially viable solar alternative obtainable to the average person (again, decades in the future).
3. Lower personal energy requirements and cut back on unnecessary power usage on a daily basis. (Again, a band-aid solution to a compound fracture problem.)
If anybody sees a rational and workable alternative, feel free to weigh in!