Nuclear, Wind, and Solar replacing oil

Factual Questions
21

Improved energy storage and transmission grids can substantially increase the amount of wind and solar that can be used for base load electricity. There is a lot of work to be done on the storage side, both to address the generation/demand mismatch and for electric vehicles. Improved grids can be built now, if there is the will to do so.

We haven’t come close to maxing out geothermal - the limit you discuss is for near-surface geothermal. There are approaches to using deep geothermal energy, but they have not been seriously put on the table for further development and demonstration. Whether they can actually do the job or not remains to be seen, but at least conceptually, there is nothing about deep geothermal that we are not technically able to do now.

Nuclear is not the only carbon-free alternative. I think it will be needed, but it will not be straightforward to build the number of plants that are needed. For nuclear and other alternatives to coal and oil, there are some serious infrastructure issues that need to be addressed, including the number of adequately trained operators, welders, and others needed to build and operate the units; the capacity to fabricate the major components such as reactor vessels and so on at the rate they are needed; and access to enough water for cooling. Even this assumes that the NIMBY attitudes are turned around, which is doubtful.

22

Too late on my edit…

The peak US power demand in 2006 was 760 GW. At an average surface insolation of 250 W/m2 (world average - there are definitely places in the US where that would be higher), that would require a solar farm of 1175 sq mi, or a square of about 34 mi on a side. If you build 10 of these, then you account for the 10% efficiency level. That doesn’t seem to me to be a “terrible use of the land”. It’s more likely that there would be 1000 of smaller farms of around 3.5 mi on a side, but in either case, it’s not like the entire landscape would be covered with solar panels.

23

Nuclear, Wind ,solar and electric cars do not have to necessarily replace autos or fossil fuels. They can just cut into the usage as the developments keep improving . It would be a huge benefit if we could cut back oil usage by a tenth, then a quarter, then a third ,until finally oil will be a small problem. The bar of eliminating oil is far in the future. We have to embrace the future and do all we can.