Reliable energy requires base load generation such as nuclear, coal, hydrelectric or gas turbines and others. Solar and wind are intermittent sources of energy and are unreliable and when they don’t work at night or with no wind, base load generation must be brought on line anyway to prevent power outages. Current policy is excessively focused on solar and wind which will lead to a very unreliable grid resulting in 3rd world style power outages. Refocus our power generation development on coal, nuclear, hydroelectric and other base load generation that works 24/7.
Hydro is mostly developed.
Need to add nuclear and geothermal.
In particular, we need
- Fast fission reactors to burn up the current ‘spent fuel’.
- Fusion reactors will be coming before 2030 from 2+ companies (both Helion and Zap energy appear to be making things work).
- Geothermal is perhaps the most undeveloped, but has some of the greatest potential.
In particular, North America has 6 SUPER VOLCANOES, though 2 are in Alaska. But 3 are in USA and 1 in Mexico. 2 of these really should be used: Yellowstone and Longs valley, in California. These are ideal for pulling thermal energy from. With Yellowstone, if we take from the edges, then, we can pull all sorts of energy without harming the park or geysers. With longs valley, we should be able to tap anywhere in there and pull great amount of heat.
And with geothermal, we can use it to pull up minerals and elements.
Likewise, with the fast fission reactors, if we put these along sea and lakes, we can use these to pull CO2 from the water FOR FREE which is in higher concentration than in the atmosphere.
Wind and PV still need to be further developed, with up to 1/3 of our energy from the 2. However, PV really needs to be on rooftops and over parking lots to make a huge impact on AGW. Putting utility scale in farmers fields is one of the worse ideas going. With rooftops, it will mean providing energy in emergency and disaster regardless of the grid. With utility scale, you lose major advantages for AGW, but also lose energy if grid goes down.