If someone was to invent/discover a technique that would allow free, unlimited, environmentally clean energy (let’s say something like cold fusion from hydrogen, but the technology isn’t so important), and everyone in the world could access it easily (let’s assume the knowledge behind the technology is simple enough to pass around and doesn’t require any rare materials to produce it) - what do you think the impact would be on the world? How would it change economically, politically, environmentally, culturally?
Major powers would stop caring about the middle east. I don’t know what long term effects that would have there. Maybe there would be more civil war there and the western friendly monarchies would be overthrown. The governments there would lose their income, which would make it hard to pay their armies. I’m guessing the whole area would start turning into Somalia without oil and gas revenue.
Africa, hopefully would develop faster.
Climate change would largely be mitigated. But the pollution from agriculture would still be there.
In the west it wouldn’t make much difference. However everyone would have a few hundred dollars a month in extra spending money due to not having to pay gas or electric bills, at least after the transition was done. Plus cars would still be on fossil fuels for a while. But over the long run, the average western household would see their after tax income increase by about 10% or so since they wouldn’t have to pay for energy after the transition (no more bills for electricity, natural gas, gasoline, kerosene, etc).
Russia’s geopolitical influence would decline without fossil fuels as a form of income and leverage.
Mass employment changes as millions of jobs in the energy sector disappear.
Well, it’ll make a difference to those in poverty in the US that are not homeless. Heating cost can take up large chunk of income in the winter (at least in rural areas where people are living in crap trailers with poor/no insulation that are poorly sealed and using heat pumps). Though there will still be a myriad of other issues (earlier this week was reading again on the lack of adequate septic/sewer in the black belt), it could make a substantial difference there. Though, of course, I acknowledge that’s not the majority of people in the west.
More interestingly, word wide there’s the change in health. Like you said, there’s still pollution from agriculture, but the pollution from vehicles (or burning coal for warmth in some areas) will likely decrease fairly rapidly, so air pollution will go down and that will have an effect on urban health. Though that would be a long-term change in less polluted areas, but in more polluted areas, the effect would be been much sooner.
Oh, definitely.
We should probably make list of what countries are most dependent on fossil fuel or supporting industries in terms of employment, GDP, etc. Not necessarily those that sell the most, but the ones where it makes up the largest segment.
Don’t know much about recycling, so don’t know if it’d get cheaper.
Lots more light pollution, probably. Increasing popularity in thermostats like those in hotel rooms that trigger both heating and cooling. Okay, so that’s not exactly world changing in an of itself.
Forgot to mention: If it’s easily accessible to everyone, does that mean it can be done onsite instead of through a power company (I was thinking so) - that would have major impact in Africa, but really in any rural area (part of Alaska, Alabama, other rural states). People could have their own, and not have the cost of running lines, etc. Much lower infrastructure cost. Though of course it introduces more points of failure, and there’s maintenance cost to consider. And possibly jobs at the electric company going away in the very long term.
There’s no such thing as free anything. It would still cost money to transmit for use and to build the infrastructure necessary for it.
Well, it won’t be free. Power is fine but the delivery and generation infrastructure has to be built and funded.
There would be major upticks in food production and resource extraction thanks to reduced energy costs.
TNSTAAFL is my take as well. So, if energy becomes noticeably cheaper what happens?
We went thru this with food. The percentage of our resources that go to finding/growing/processing/etc. food has dropped dramatically. Some obvious changes. Went from almost all people living on farms to not that many within 50+ years.
Lots of changes from that. But we didn’t really have a major upheaval. No civil war or anything.
We just do other work and spend more money on things other than food.
It’ll be the same with cheaper energy. You just need a crystal ball to figure out what the new stuff will be.
Not necessarily. It depends on the technology. If it is a “Mr. Fusion” type device that you pick up at Home Depot for a few hundred bucks and then install in your utility closet, there would be no distribution infrastructure necessary.
There is a way for every question to add to Depression.
Unlimited cheap energy via Solar Power, which should increase World Energy Consumption at least 100 times and start a new Industrial Revolution is on the way. That will coincide with Robotic Revolution and self-driving cars.
Sadly it will take at least until 2050 for the changes to begin. I am 47 now.
Many of us will not see the new Society of Affluence.
Solar Power based new Industrial Revolution. Improved living standard for all people in the World. Global Well-Being.
Unfortunately it will take decades.
Definitely. Sahara nations will become major energy-exporting regions. Every nation in Africa has considerable territorial resources for Solar Power.
And the capitalists behind this magical technology would slap some software, monitoring, and metering on it anyway. Or design it to break 20 days after the warranty runs out. The days of lifetime free anything are over. At worst there would be some type of laws rammed through at the state level requiring an annual inspection “for your protection” against a catastrophic one in ten billion failure. Plus the inevitable firmware upgrades for a fee to keep it from being hacked. Yet the hackers use the OEM access port to do the hacking.
On the bright side (streets at night, even in rural areas) heating coils could be mounted under roadbeds to help thaw the snow and prevent ice formation.
Life would basically become like it is now in the USA, where energy is now cheap enough that the average household doesn’t really take energy into account in its day to day budget. AC costs a thousand dollars a year, gas for the car another thousand, no biggie. Less than 5% of income… Reducing those costs to zero would not impact the household budget of very many people, and even the poor would just buy a bigger screen TV or order more pizzas.
Everyone is happy for a while, then they realize that madmen have unlimited energy resources also.
We’ll figure out a way to screw it up.
Why would it increase global energy consumption by a factor of 100?
I thought developed nations only saw their energy consumption go up 1% a year. Developed nations were maybe closer to 3% (no idea if that figure is right).
Energy efficiency keeps going up all over the world. Homes are better insulated, appliances are more efficient, cars get better mileage, etc. The amount of energy you need in the west to live a decent lifestyle keeps going down which cuts how much energy we need. Even though we have bigger houses and more cars, they are more efficient.
What would cause energy demand to go up 100 fold? I know we are in the early stages of a machine intelligence revolution that will change the world but will that really cause energy demands to go up that much?
I’m late 30s, I accept that I’ll be an old man before the machine intelligence revolution really starts to pick up steam. Sucks.
Not really. If Energy Production increases 100 fold, Industrial Production increases 50 fold, and World GNP increases 30 times. The poorest nation will be as rich as USA is today. In 2018, the poorest nation is about as rich as Holland or England in 1800.
It would be a great time. But it will take many decades.
Energy Consumption is limited by Energy Availability. Solar Power can produce about 100 times more energy then fossil fuels.
I’m not paying another dime for insulation. I’m never turning the heat down again. I can think of a lot more ways to waste energy, and so can everyone else.
I’m putting bigger Webbers on my BMW!