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30 (38%)

2050?

13 (16.5%)

No, 2100.

5 (6.3%)

Never, you god damn cretin, Antarctica is an icy hellhole.

31 (39.2%)

Total Members Voted: 78

[HavingPhun]

Well, first of all, as everybody here probably knows, both solar and wind energy aren't clean. (And depending on location, also not profitable). In order to make things worse, the most high tech variants rely on so called rare Earth's , on which there's currently a supply crisis*. In fact, several green plans for complete conversion to green power by 2030-40 would fail because of this, as there simply isn't enough material being produced**

If we also add the other costs, like transportation and such, I'm pretty sure that over the lifetime of the plant Nuclear power*** comes out better than wind, which is then way better than solar.
And, Nuclear power has the advantage of being really stable and predictable, whereas all green power needs large, often expensive and polluting battery installations. And, in case there is a supply shortage, blackouts would be much worse. (Power shortage causes ampere to drop IIRC. Now generators can be damaged because of that, so they shut down automatically. The smaller the power generation unit, the easier it's damaged and the smaller the margin. It's also rather hard to restart all green power generators at the same time)/

The main advantage of nuclear lies there, in that it doesn't require significant changes and investements in infrastruce, whereas renewable requires significant investements to be made.

Oh, and about the geothermal thing. A core tap kindaish is exists, in Iceland. There's a giant mantelplume there, allowing large amounts of geothermal to be produced and exported.

*Which is not expected to improve for the first 15 years.
**Sure, alternatives exist, but these are expensive.
***We're talking about High tech 3th-4th generation plants though.

Here's a federal grant for homeowners (has been extended to 2016). I think there's also several grants to solar panels business. Plus some states grants. And most developed countries also grant electricity companies to buy solar electricity as an higher price than the real one.

The subsidies for oil and gas are multiple times that of renewables in the US. But here's the thing: once renewables get good enough that support isn't needed, they'll stay that way. Fossil fuels are only ever going to need more propping up.

I'm thinking more along the way of nuclear taking over fuels (as much as possible seeing technical issues). But yes, coal and oil should (hopefully) decreases. Which is why it's really dumb to close a nuclear plant to open 2 coal ones.

Unfortunately, due to fuel/ energy prices. It's unlikely you can replace nuclear by anything else but coal without driving up the price. Coal is the only other resource cheap enough.

To add to the future tech stuff. If we had inexpensive and fast ways to get into space and to other planets in our solar system. That an 'average' person could afford. Then we could possible get loads of rare earth metals from space. Plus other riches and hydrogen fuel from the gas giants. I hope that if this happens that average people could afford this. Otherwise only the corporations could afford them and just become even more rich. Or the governments could tax them more so they are not richer than them.

[10ebbor10]

Well, rare elements found in space are mostly limit to certain planetoids, if you want them in sufficient quantities. While organisations to mine these are being set up, nobody actually knows who owns the things, and the production is expected to be limited for the time being.

It's unlikely we'll need to gather hydrogen fuel from gasgiants for the next hundred years. There are much larger and accesibler supplies closeby, and He3 and other fusion fuels can be gathered from the moon.

((Oh, and by the point that the common men can afford to set up his own personal space travel system, none of our energy problems actually matter))

[Sheb]

"Rare Earth" are not actually rare at all. They're actually fairly common element on Earth, they're just a pain in the ass to refine because they're spread all around instead of being concentrated in nice, rich deposit.

Also, solar thermal and wind power are fairly low-tech. And solar thermal can also produce electricity 24h a day. If only we could get a continuous current, ultra-high voltage power line across the Mediterranean....

[10ebbor10]

Yup, rare earth's are always mined in the conjunction with other metals. And the problem is that they behave similair to each other, needing a very complex refining process.

Power gains/cost is still fairly low, even for solar thermal. (Oh, and the plants you're speaking of need precision trimmed mirrors and automated computer systems). Also, really good weather, as hail can wreck the entire thing. The reason that a wind power turbine uses rare earths, is that the neodymium magnet allows for a much lighter and more effecient turbine construction. Otherwise, costs would be far higher.

Also, solar thermal and wind power are fairly low-tech. And solar thermal can also produce electricity 24h a day. If only we could get a continuous current, ultra-high voltage power line across the Mediterranean....

Why not install the Gibraltar dam while we're at it.

[Mr Space Cat]

Have you guys heard about the Antarctic-Atlantis conspiracy thingy? Apparently, some people believe that there are remnants of a super advanced civilization from thousands of years ago under that layer of ice, that it's there because of a polar shift or whatever it's called.

Ia Ia Cthulhu fhtagn! Ia Ia Elder things! Ia Ia shoggoths! Ia Ia flying spaghetti monster!...I'll stop with the Lovecraft references now.

[Sheb]

A power line from the Sahara wouldn't be on the same level of complexity.

Power/cost is fairly low for Nuclear power too. All those fancy safety system costs. The only cheap power out there is fossil fuels, and that's because we don't factor the negative externalities from wrecking the climate in the price.

Also, didn't Hitachi managed to make efficient rotor using amorphous iron?

[Flying Dice]

Is it a coincidence that there's an Atlantis-based game in your signature?

There is no such thing as [DATA EXPUNGED]. Please refrain from attempts to deceive anyone into believing that Atlantis exists, as successfully doing so could result in [REDACTED]. In particular, do not complete the ceremony consisting of ██████████████████████ and ████████████, particularly the segments involving the repeated chanting of Ia Ia C██████████████████████████████████████████.

[misko27]

Flying Dice has a case of SCP=1059

[Flying Dice]

Flying Dice has a case of SCP=1059

You fool, you've already read it! Also, the correct filing is in fact SCP-1059-A.

[misko27]

Best part of that article is this comment.

Somewhere in an underground base, the memetics research department is going over the proposed budget for next year and frowning at its small size. One of the most senior researchers stands up. He is not a man of rank or authority, but he is old, and having survived at the Foundation this long brings a certain amount of respect so the others get quiet and turn to listen.
"I remember when we got assigned to work with stuff that had auras. I remember when we could requisition telekill on command. We once had the authority to blind trained combat personnel and give them guns to point in the general direction of a containment area. Now look at us. They've stripped us of our power, cut our paychecks so much that we can hardly buy apple seeds from that fucking vending machine. Our department is going nowhere fast, boys. At this rate they are going to roll us into the cognitohazard branch and eliminate our research altogether. There's only one thing left to do."
He slams his hands on the table and leans forward, "Contain the most ridiculous, mundane shit possible."
"Oh! Oh! How about dancing?"
"Yes, good. Good start. But think bigger, we must secretly contain secrecy itself."

[Scoops Novel]

Link?

[misko27]

Flying Dice has a case of SCP=1059

To the SCP and the greater wiki.

[Scoops Novel]

But the quote isn't there 

[misko27]

But the quote isn't there 

Oh. Comments section.

[Scoops Novel]