Originally Posted By: Kuato
Overkill, a simple look at a map will tell you that there are the deserts of the American Southwest and the Australian Outback. Couple those with the Sahara and you have 24/7 coverage.
Which would involve running cables, what, across the Atlantic? Trans-continental power cables? Think about it, that's unrealistic.
Originally Posted By: Kuato
There are also batteries.
Which create fantastic amounts of pollution to manufacture and also have a limited life expectancy.
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Solar panels are still in their (relative) infancy, and the manufacturing processes and durability will only improve.
Which is why we should not be hinging entire power grids on them, and wind turbines, as some sort of silver bullet for our lust for energy.
And while the manufacturing processes may improve, it still creates pollution in and of itself, there is no "free lunch" here.
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Garak, I said "one" example. Why run a power cable from Africa to the US when you can run it from Arizona. I'm not against nuclear power, but: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Because you won't have sun in Arizona 24/7, so if your expectation was to milk solar 24/7, you'd have to find some method of transcontinental delivery or rely on dirty storage methods.
And regarding your examples of Nuclear failures, Chernobyl was a Soviet catastrophe and doesn't represent the current state of the Nuclear industry. TMI, while scary, never amounted to anything. Fukushima is a good example however of what happens when you have a combination of issues such as antiquated reactor design, proximity to a source of potential environmental disaster, and actual control failures.
How many CANDU reactors have ever melted down? Zero. We also have the most powerful Nuclear plant in the world up here (Bruce). Ontario is a shining example of a healthy Nuclear power industry with the majority of our power coming from the Bruce and Darlington sites.
There is nothing that currently competes on a MW per acre footprint with Nuclear. Until that changes it will, IMHO, continue to be the "best" source of reliable energy.