Originally Posted by
Gunfighter
Production is only a portion of energy cost. Transmission and distribution make up the balance. By some estimates production may be as little as 1/2 to 1/3 of the end user cost for a kWh of electricity. If you are paying 12 cents per kWh, "free" fusion energy drops the user price to 6-9 cents per kWh.
WRT abandoning fossil fuels, there is good progress on the energy replacement front, but less progress on non energy uses. Plastics, steel, asphalt and lubricants are just a few products that come to mind. IMHO, the forced conversion to clean energy isn't purely about energy, it's about control. I don't like it.
What I love to see are the VPP initiatives in Texas. We need to find a way to capture excess energy from wind and solar and store it for when it's needed in the most efficient way possible. Some near zero loss solutions I've heard are repurposing old mines to turn them into giant mechanical batteries and the same concept using hydro. There's no reason why every house shouldn't have solar panels on the roof.