@shmibs @lain @mithrandir @kravietz
Whatever it is, you want something that scales up to a power station and down to a cell phone. That way you get billions of $ of R&D focused on one problem.
PCs (converted to servers) beat mainframes
PV and Batteries will beat dams.
Pumped reservoirs are the cleanest, easiest power storage we have for large scales, doesn't matter that you can't put it in your phone.
@sapphire @lain @cjd @mithrandir @shmibs
They are, but they have just one problem - they use *massive* amounts of land, require a very specific geology and nobody wants them anywhere close.
When I say "massive" I mean surface power density of 0.14 W/m2 of land used, as compared to 240 W/m2 for nuclear power for example.
So if a nuclear power plant occupies a hectare for some power output, you will need 1714 hectares for equivalent hydro plant.
@sapphire @lain @cjd @mithrandir @shmibs
Living in Europe I don't see many neighbourhoods that would happily get flooded for another pumped storage plant even if promised free boat trips afterwards.
In some low population density countries like Sweden or Chile hydro certainly is a thing, but they've used whatever land was available already in 20th century.
@sapphire @lain @cjd @mithrandir @shmibs
In Germany, France, Norway etc you already got massive opposition to new wind farms which are novelty and fun when there's a few towers here or there, but suddenly become an annoyance when someone tries to put a hundred of them. And you need *a lot* because wind power has also very low surface power density - 1.84 W/m2, and a single tower requires at least 0.6 km2 empty around.
https://www.arctictoday.com/sami-mount-new-challenge-legality-norways-largest-wind-farm/
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