The World Should Be 100% Powered By Renewable Energy Before Nuclear Fusion Is Commercially Competitive

The U.S. Department of Energy announced some big nuclear fusion news this week. It is truly gigantic scientific news, and I don’t intend to downplay the breakthrough at all here. I’m amazed and thrilled U.S. scientists were able to produce net-positive energy for a brief moment in a laser-based nuclear fusion ignition. Though, I think it’s also important to provide some broader clean energy context.

I haven’t seen anyone claim that this will lead to commercially viable nuclear fusion in the coming few years. It appears that the goal is to do so within a few decades. With that being the case, as cool as this is, nuclear fusion isn’t the — or even— solution to global warming. On the electricity generation side of things, the world should be 100% powered by clean, renewable energy by the time laser-based nuclear fusion is on the market.

Wind and solar power are already the cheapest options for new electricity generation capacity in most of the world, and new solar and wind power capacity has become more competitive than electricity generation fromcoal or natural gas power plants in a few markets. In other words, even operating some established fossil power plants is more expensive than building new wind and solar power plants in some places.

We’ve written about plans for a 100% renewable-powered world for several years — actually, for more than a decade! If you have not read those pieces, here are a few top choices to explore how the world could clean up its electricity act long before nuclear fusion is on the table:

Certainly in two decades the build out of clean sources will be complete

Practical Fusion has a way of always remaining 50 years in the future (at a minimum). Meanwhile, subsidies on solar and wind did exactly as intended; both are robust and economic now without subsidies.

Great, and when fusion does arrive we will have an even better option than solar and wind that have a relatively short life span.

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Energy Department announces nuclear fusion milestone: ‘Clean energy source that could revolutionize the world’In an experiment, using a process called inertial confinement fusion, researchers at the lab in Livermore, Calif., were able to produce more energy than they put into the laser, the first time this has ever been achieved. 'This is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.' Officials say that nuclear fusion could provide electricity that produces no greenhouse gases, nor the radioactive waste generated by existing nuclear reactors. This scares me. There is risk in this type of energy.
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Energy Department announces nuclear fusion milestone: 'Clean energy source that could revolutionize the world'
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US scientists announce fusion energy breakthrough that could be climate and energy game-changerEnergy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced a “major scientific breakthrough” Tuesday in the decades-long quest to harness fusion, the energy that powers the sun and stars. hey, ElonMusk, help invest in nuclear fusion research and move us to clean energy and i dont care what your political views are….we are all in this together….
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Daily on Energy: Fusion energy CEO discusses endgame for nuclearSubscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what's going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!
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Jim Cramer says Constellation Energy and Sempra Energy are dependable utility stocksJim Cramer advised investors to consider adding shares of “steady-eddy” utility companies to their portfolios for their dependability. RIP those names So sell. dump your shares
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