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from the my-solar-panels-are-covered-in-soot dept.
Ken_g6 writes:
Wired today reports on continued coal use around the world and efforts to promote carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Today coal produces more than 40 percent of the world's electricity, a foundation of modern life. And that percentage is going up: In the past decade, coal added more to the global energy supply than any other source. Nowhere is the pre-eminence of coal more apparent than in the planet's fastest-growing, most populous region: Asia, especially China.
Many energy and climate researchers believe that CCS is vital to avoiding a climate catastrophe. Because it could allow the globe to keep burning its most abundant fuel source while drastically reducing carbon dioxide and soot, it may be more important - though much less publicized - than any renewable-energy technology for decades to come. No less than Steven Chu, the Nobel-winning physicist who was US secretary of energy until last year, has declared CCS essential. "I don't see how we go forward without it," he says.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs projects that solar power will be cost-competitive with other electricity sources in the US by 2033. So will we build more coal plants or tear them down?
(Score: 2) by geb on Thursday March 27 2014, @01:30PM
"The maths I've seen from several sources on opposing sides agree that nuclear and renewables cannot power everything without burning through all the known and proven exploitable nuclear fuel in a few decades."
You make it sound as though renewables are fundamentally useless without nuclear to back them up.
If we chose to build enough infrastructure to capture it, there's enough sunlight and wind to meet our current energy needs thousands of times over. We're not going to run out of places to put solar panels or turbines.
It's not a question of whether renewable energy is available, it's a matter of how much to spend in capturing it for use.