Fussion power station ?

[Oldgreybeard]

It will be years away, but always has been. One thing that attracted me to science was reading about ZETA at Harwell as a small boy, and that was attempting fusion in the late 1950's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZETA_(fusion_reactor)

[Marcus]

Greenwashing: i suspect govts will hapily spend £bn on this research in order to appear to be doing something about climate change, whilst not upsetting the fossil fuel interests anytime soon - or ever - by undercutting them by producing clean, cheap energy from wind and solar.

It's still decades away, and i can't imagine it ever being cheaper than wind and solar. The only logical use for it is in things like nuclear subs where renewable energy isn't viable

[Mart]

Greenwashing: i suspect govts will hapily spend £bn on this research in order to appear to be doing something about climate change, whilst not upsetting the fossil fuel interests anytime soon - or ever - by undercutting them by producing clean, cheap energy from wind and solar.

It's still decades away, and i can't imagine it ever being cheaper than wind and solar. The only logical use for it is in things like nuclear subs where renewable energy isn't viable

And therein lies the rub. And my main concern too, will it act accidentally, or deliberately as a way to slow down the transition away from FF's.

Just like Thorium, SMR's, CCS ('clean coal'), H2 for road transport or space heating, and all the other great hyped hopes, it could be used to delay moving to the already clean and cheaper solutions. But hopefully not ......... who am I kidding!

[Oldgreybeard]

[rant_mode]

What is truly sensible in terms of protecting our planet and treading as lightly upon its ecosystem as we can, so ensuring the continued survival of our progeny?

We have evolved to the stage we are at now through being clever apes that have adapted and invented technology.

Should we stop doing this and revert back to being primitive primates, fighting with each other for resources? Or, should we use our knowledge and skills, learned over millennia to try and ensure the continued existence of our species?

My personal view is that we must learn to not be profligate when using/wasting the resources of our planet. We must not rape our lands and forests to provide energy we do not need. We must not despoil the land, sea and the air we breathe in order to accelerate the destruction of "our" planet.

Most of all, WE MUST NOT BE SELFISH, neither should we be so bloody arrogant as to assume that we are the only species on this planet that has the right to exist and prosper.

[/rant_mode]

[sensible_mode]

What is this forum REALLY about?

• Is it about treading lightly on the ecosystem of this planet?

• Is it about who can profit the most by exploiting others better than anyone else, irrespective of the consequences for the future or the lives of others?

• Is it about sharing our collective knowledge in good faith, and with acceptance and tolerance, and appreciating that we all have a slightly different view as to what might be best for our environment?

• Or, is this place really just so unfocussed as to its objectives that none of the above are relevant?

[/sensible_mode]

I am serious about the above though, I think it really matters, so much so that I would very much like whoever owns/runs/controls this place to perhaps consider some sort of "mission statement" (I personally hate that term but cannot think of an alternative) and make that clear to all that visit here so we know exactly where we stand.

Here endeth the rant, and please accept my humble apologies if I have unintentionally offended anyone here, that was absolutely not my intent at all. I would like to encourage some serious thought about all of the above points though, if that is considered to be acceptable here.

[Tinbum]

What i don't understand is surely this is also going to heat the world up.

[spread-tee]

What i don't understand is surely this is also going to heat the world up.

All the energy we could ever liberate is a tiny fraction of the incoming solar radiation, it would almost certainly be immeasurable.

Desp

[spread-tee]

OGB,

I would have thought "renewable energy and sustainability discussions" is not bad ??

Desp

[Marcus]

[rant_mode]

What is truly sensible in terms of protecting our planet and treading as lightly upon its ecosystem as we can, so ensuring the continued survival of our progeny?

We have evolved to the stage we are at now through being clever apes that have adapted and invented technology.

Should we stop doing this and revert back to being primitive primates, fighting with each other for resources? Or, should we use our knowledge and skills, learned over millennia to try and ensure the continued existence of our species?

My personal view is that we must learn to not be profligate when using/wasting the resources of our planet. We must not rape our lands and forests to provide energy we do not need. We must not despoil the land, sea and the air we breathe in order to accelerate the destruction of "our" planet.

Most of all, WE MUST NOT BE SELFISH, neither should we be so bloody arrogant as to assume that we are the only species on this planet that has the right to exist and prosper.

[/rant_mode]

[sensible_mode]

What is this forum REALLY about?

• Is it about treading lightly on the ecosystem of this planet?

• Is it about who can profit the most by exploiting others better than anyone else, irrespective of the consequences for the future or the lives of others?

• Is it about sharing our collective knowledge in good faith, and with acceptance and tolerance, and appreciating that we all have a slightly different view as to what might be best for our environment?

• Or, is this place really just so unfocussed as to its objectives that none of the above are relevant?

[/sensible_mode]

I am serious about the above though, I think it really matters, so much so that I would very much like whoever owns/runs/controls this place to perhaps consider some sort of "mission statement" (I personally hate that term but cannot think of an alternative) and make that clear to all that visit here so we know exactly where we stand.

Here endeth the rant, and please accept my humble apologies if I have unintentionally offended anyone here, that was absolutely not my intent at all. I would like to encourage some serious thought about all of the above points though, if that is considered to be acceptable here.

Urr... it's a bit off topic, but my 2p worth:-

I Don't think you can really define what a forum is about.

Most sucessful (active) forums attract a range of types with a broad range of motivations; if you try to pare it down to a particular ideal you will likely end up with a moribund forum. I do think this forum (& it's predecessor) have a significant number of 'economic' RE owners - i.e those who bought PV on the FIt system for financial reasons, but then became interested in maximising their utilisation of their free energy, so became 'accidental environmentalists'.

But due to the fact that there are different types with different motivations (and folks with more money than me who are willing to take a punt on an idea and see if it works), there's lots of really useful info here for folks like me who want to save the planet but don't want to start from scratch when deciding where best to spend my limited budget.

I started down this path for environmental (save the planet) reasons and bought my 1st pv panels back in the 90's - i still remember paying over £300 for a 32w panel! (It still works).

Hope that makes sense.

[Joeboy]

The forum can be anything you want it to be, including new sub boards if a more specific or hard-core edge is sought.

The of this board is to give an easily found space for people of all knowledge & experience levels to meet, chat and exchange ideas loosely based around RE. The hope is that the board and its members can make change in the real world through these exchanges and having no commercial goals of itself the board can be around for a long time as a reachable RE resource.

That's about as close as there will ever be to a mission statement...

Other than of course 'Insulate, insulate, insulate'.

[AE-NMidlands]

Other than of course 'Insulate, insulate, insulate'.

... after draught-proofing!
A