[ExI] Serious topic

[Keith Henson]

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 5:00 AM,  David Lubkin <lubkin at unreasonable.com> wrote:
>
> Spike wrote:
>
>>If we look around us, everywhere I see astonishing energy waste, just
>>because energy is cheap and plentiful.  Oil is still so cheap it strangles
>>out most alternative energy sources.
>
> And there's a lot of known energy, e.g., nuclear, coal, and natural
> gas, that can be readily tapped without much technical fuss. We may
> balk at one or other but someone else won't, and energy is fungible.

Of course, I have analyzed the chemistry and energy physics here:
http://htyp.org/dollar_a_gallon_gasoline

The problem is liquid transportation fuel.  Even if we had penny a kWh
electric power, building the plants to make liquid fuel takes
time--decades of time.  And we don't have the low cost power.

> Aside, any idea how fast we could build gigawatt reactors in a real
> crunch? (That is, in a WW II grade focus, bypassing all current hurdles.)

Even bypassing the current hurdles, big engineering construction
projects take time.  It's not entirely clear that we will be able to
make power plants by the time they are seen as the appropriate
response.

Keith