[ExI] How slow is capitalism?

[Eugen Leitl]

On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 10:51:02AM +0200, Jones Murphy wrote:

> For some odd reason you left out the cheapest form of power generation
> known yet, geothermal. Known reserves are already sufficient to power

Deep geothermal is the cheapest renewable only in some select locations,
and its total potential is limited. Ditto wind.

> humanity for thousands of years at wildly optimistic growth rates.

That would be solar, and there's not enough doubling steps for
more than a couple hundred years (guesstimate) in the entire 
solar system.

> Alas, grass-roots support for subsidizing oil and gas over geothermal
> among right winger voters(including right-wing Democrats) remains
> extremely strong.

Solar photovoltaics will be the cheapest power shortly, and the only
renewable candidate. No amount of subsidies can distort physical
realities: we're facing a number of nonrenewable peaks in a short
succession.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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