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[Akura]

The problem with hydroelectric dams is that actually building the dam tends to screw the local environment pretty royally. And the initial construction cost and time for a dam is probably much higher than other types of power. You'd still need to find a very good site for one(namely, a big river).

[Nadaka]

The problem with hydroelectric dams is that actually building the dam tends to screw the local environment pretty royally. And the initial construction cost and time for a dam is probably much higher than other types of power. You'd still need to find a very good site for one(namely, a big river).

Plus, even with the fish ladders every known migratory fresh water fish (salmon, sturgeon, etc) is going extinct due to damming.

[Il Palazzo]

Look, it's funny: when asked about it, most people are concerned about having some areas being used for storing spent nuclear fuel, because it'll make these areas probably rather unfit for e.g.building your house there, or planting some crops without fear of them going all Day of the Triffids on you.
But they are all for having the same(or rather more than that) area submerged under water, which will certainly make it unusable for most such purposes.

[Max White]

Couldn't we just build colonys in close-ish orbit of the sun, live there, and use solar flairs to power everything? 

[Nadaka]

electricity stuff...

Electricity doesn't quite work that way.

All the electricity flowing between the clouds, grid power and earth goes in a circular closed cycle.

So earth is pretty close to being actually neutrally charged.

[Scood]

what about gathering energy from the worlds biggest natural solar panel, the ocean?

[Akura]

I wonder why nobody has ever tried to harness lightning as a power source. From what I've read, a single lightning bolt contains a helluvalot of electricity.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It would be very impractical. Lightning isn't exactly the most trackable phenomenon, and besides, I have no idea how you'd harness the energy. The only thing I can think of is a lighting rod connected to a capacitor, but I don't know if that would even work. It wouldn't be very useful at all.

[ECrownofFire]

I think that a lightning bolt, in addition to lots of power, would definitely be of some fucking huge voltage. You're having that massive amount of electricity passing through that single point in a matter of milliseconds, not exactly something that'd be easy to harness. There might be alternative ways of using it, but trying it directly wouldn't work very well.

[Chaoswizkid]

electricity stuff...

Electricity doesn't quite work that way.

All the electricity flowing between the clouds, grid power and earth goes in a circular closed cycle.

So earth is pretty close to being actually neutrally charged.

While I understand that it operates in a cycle, I'm not really sure how the Earth contributes back towards the kinetic friction of the atoms and molecules in the atmosphere that generate static charge/electricity. Gravity can obviously play a factor, but that's more like indirect influence than a direct contribution from my point of view. On top of that, the Earth is gaining more mass over time, what with space dust and all. I think that would help contribute to some irregularity in charge, which is really all I need.

I know it's not logistically possible in our lifetimes, so it's arguing a somewhat moot point, but I would like to know a few of the specifics why the idea wouldn't work. Would be useful to just learn some of the fundamentals that prevent me from coming up with possible future head-to-desk-worthy ideas.

[hemmingjay]

I would like to see magnetic generators reclaiming some of the energy lost by locomotion, be by car or train.

[Max White]

I would like to see magnetic generators reclaiming some of the energy lost by locomotion, be by car or train.

Wouldn't that cause the vehicles in question to require more energy to accelerate, and there for you wouldn't have a net gain?

[Chaoswizkid]

If you're talking about that:

Some research is being conducted into converting waste heat from power plants and factories into electricity via a reverse application of the same tech that allows you to heat your coffee up in your car by hooking up a warming device to the cigarette lighter power outlet. From what I've heard of it, it sounds like it's in the prototyping/increasing efficiency stage.

[Eagleon]

I like that every time nuclear energy is discussed, recycling nuclear "waste" is glossed over or dismissed, or outright ignored as an option. Hell, it even contains medical isotopes that we can use for preventative medicine. It's like we're lighting campfires to light our cigarettes, and then walking away arguing about how we're going to avoid freezing while the fire slowly dies.

The technology is available now, and is in use in France - as far as I understand, we aren't using it because of political reasons, proliferation concerns which are rapidly becoming irrelevant in the face of much more powerful and now much cheaper biological weapons. It just bothers me. There's so much misinformation out there, even proponents get tripped up on propaganda sometimes.

[PTTG??]

From what I've read, reclaiming nuclear fuel is more expensive than refining new.