Are We Finally Actually Ten Years Away From Fusion Energy?

[The Rogue Wolf]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/20/climate/nuclear-fusion-energy-breakthrough-replicate-climate/index.html

After an initial run of a system of 200+ lasers pointed at a diamond capsule used 2 kJ of energy to release 3.15 kJ (which might not seem like much, but getting a fusion reaction to have a net energy gain is a monumental achievement), the National Ignition Facility has managed the trick two more times. They say it's now primarily a matter of improving the technology and scaling the system up for useful amounts of power generation while reducing costs.

I'll reserve my excitement for when we actually get a fusion power plant online and pumping energy into my microwave oven, but this is at least a promising development.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I'll reserve my excitement for when we actually get a fusion power plant online

Very wise.

 

[gorfias]

In a related topic,

I'll have to review further but there's reason to think we'll have many ways to obtain the energy we need to maintain functioning societies.

 

[Thaluikhain]

View attachment 10366

No emissions except for water vapour, sure. Hydrogen can be made from renewable energy, sure. That doesn't mean that the national grid that you're using to make hydrogen is based off renewable energy.

 

[gorfias]

No emissions except for water vapour, sure. Hydrogen can be made from renewable energy, sure. That doesn't mean that the national grid that you're using to make hydrogen is based off renewable energy.

Could it be like pulling yourself up by your boot laces? If you need 1X to make 3X, can you then put 1 of the 3 back into production so that you do have a sort of loop that uses only hydrogen after the initial kickoff?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Could it be like pulling yourself up by your boot laces? If you need 1X to make 3X, can you then put 1 of the 3 back into production so that you do have a sort of loop that uses only hydrogen after the initial kickoff?

Er, not sure what you mean. If you mean using hydrogen to get power to make hydrogen to get power, then no. Hydrogen fueled cars are like using rechargeable batteries to get your car to run off the national grid without being plugged in, just instead of batteries you make hydrogen somewhere and burn it in the car. You get hydrogen (generally) by electrolysis, burning it again for power only gets you a fraction of the power it took to get the hydrogen.

Mind you, electrolysing water is one of those things you don't have to be doing all the time. If you had a solar plant for the power, you can just not make hydrogen when it's dark or overcast, which immediately fixes one problem with solar.

(There's talk of making electric roads which powers cars, in Germany they have some highways that have lanes with overhead wires that can power hybrid trucks, and recharge their batteries while travelling. Like tramlines where the trams can go off their lines for a time.)

 

[Gergar12]

Well, the Navy wants to put them on carriers, and maybe destroyers so it will always see funding.

 

[Satinavian]

Could it be like pulling yourself up by your boot laces? If you need 1X to make 3X, can you then put 1 of the 3 back into production so that you do have a sort of loop that uses only hydrogen after the initial kickoff?

No, that goes against physics. You can't make energy out of nothing.
You always need more energy to make hydrogen than you get by burning hydrogen in cars or whatever.

I is still not completely useless because hydrogen can be a way to store energy and is way lighter than batteries. But battery alternative is basically its only role in green energy.
So basically a hydrogen car is just another electric car with another type of battery. Can be green if you manage to produce the electricy in a green way.


You could make hydrogen out of natural gas as well but that gives you as much CO2 as burning the gas and is thus a stupid idea. But it is a reason for many natural gas companies to suddenly lobby for hydrogen and produce demand that they hope ends up only being able to be met with their help.

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But the thread was about fusion.

I am fairly optimistic about fusion. But it will take too long to solve the climate crisis We should pursue it anyway.