Originally Posted by
Excargodog
All the more reason for US to develop its own fossil fuel resources. And to produce modern mini nuclear reactors. I don’t care if you believe in e-vehicles or not, you are going to need DISTRIBUTED electricity generated to charge them because the grid simply won’t support massive transfers fron one region to another and - for the immediate future - that’s going to have to be gas or oil fueled production. Eventually fusion power is the way to go - and generated locally, because the inverse square law really bites at a range of 93 million miles.sts. For those who have never been there, it’s a massive 19.3 MILLION acre area that gets visited by less than 2000 people a year.
Agree with SMR's in principle, although there are some questions about the economics. Probably need more development and larger-scale implementation experience to know for sure.
Worth noting that the grid (past, present, or future) will never support significant transfer of power over great distances... that's EE 101, too much resistance loss. A 1 Gigawatt plant in PHX could power a 100W light bulb in Maine. Unless you use superconductors, but then you'd need cryogenic plants to cool and distribute liquid helium every 1/2 mile
Yes, fusion eventually, but the timeline to commercially viable fusion is of course still uncertain.