As you may already know, we have a HUGE fusion reactor ( fuses 500 million metric tons of hydrogen each second. [1] ) approximately 149.5 million km away, and it's ready and free* in that sense that we don't have to build it, maintain etc., it's there, it's working 24/7 and will be working for at least 5 billion years without any maintenance.
(you need surface to get it)
All we have to do is to harness the sun energy in the most efficiency and harmless way.
Almost all the energy used on earth comes from the sun. The nuclear*, geothermal and tidal power are more or less exceptions.
* (I'm not against nuclear power and research, as we need that technology to be able to travel in space in smaller spaceships rather than this large one (some may call it earth) we use now. Right now we travel where our sun goes, not where we like to explore.)
In every energy usage the key is the efficiency of the conversion.
Fossil fuel's efficiency is less then 1-2% from the sun due to the efficiency of the photosynthesis [2]. All of the fossil fuels are nothing but stored solar energy with less then 1-2% efficiency. And we don't calculate with waste from the mining refining transportation etc. energy cost.
And for useful energy (work) you have to burn it in a power plant or a car or whatever with maximum 10-50% efficiency [3]. So the overall efficiency is less than 1%.
On the other hand solar cells with 20%+ efficiency are commercial available, wind farms are better and hydro power can be even better. (wind and hydro power are also comes indirect from the sun)
(BTW the low efficiency of the photosynthesis is why the corn based fuels are waste of the solar energy, and land. You could generate the same amount of energy with solar power on less than 1/20th of the land with corn. If you need fossil fuel, algae is a much better alternative, as it's photosynthesis efficiency is higher than corn [4], also does not require valuable land, which can be used for other agriculture purpose (food) )
But, far the largest pro for the solar energy is that it will not run out in the near future (at least 5 billion years, even earth will be destroyed way before the sun run out of fuel), fossil fuels will run out, it does not matter if it's 50, 100 or 1000 years from now, but it will run out. Period. (that's the same problem with current nuclear power technology beside other factors)
So you have an energy that practically will not run out, have better total efficiency about 20-100+ times than fossil fuel (and side effect it's cleaner), * and someone still surprised that this is the future...
(you need surface to get it)
All we have to do is to harness the sun energy in the most efficiency and harmless way.
Almost all the energy used on earth comes from the sun. The nuclear*, geothermal and tidal power are more or less exceptions.
* (I'm not against nuclear power and research, as we need that technology to be able to travel in space in smaller spaceships rather than this large one (some may call it earth) we use now. Right now we travel where our sun goes, not where we like to explore.)
In every energy usage the key is the efficiency of the conversion.
Fossil fuel's efficiency is less then 1-2% from the sun due to the efficiency of the photosynthesis [2]. All of the fossil fuels are nothing but stored solar energy with less then 1-2% efficiency. And we don't calculate with waste from the mining refining transportation etc. energy cost. And for useful energy (work) you have to burn it in a power plant or a car or whatever with maximum 10-50% efficiency [3]. So the overall efficiency is less than 1%.
On the other hand solar cells with 20%+ efficiency are commercial available, wind farms are better and hydro power can be even better. (wind and hydro power are also comes indirect from the sun)
(BTW the low efficiency of the photosynthesis is why the corn based fuels are waste of the solar energy, and land. You could generate the same amount of energy with solar power on less than 1/20th of the land with corn. If you need fossil fuel, algae is a much better alternative, as it's photosynthesis efficiency is higher than corn [4], also does not require valuable land, which can be used for other agriculture purpose (food) )
But, far the largest pro for the solar energy is that it will not run out in the near future (at least 5 billion years, even earth will be destroyed way before the sun run out of fuel), fossil fuels will run out, it does not matter if it's 50, 100 or 1000 years from now, but it will run out. Period. (that's the same problem with current nuclear power technology beside other factors)
So you have an energy that practically will not run out, have better total efficiency about 20-100+ times than fossil fuel (and side effect it's cleaner), * and someone still surprised that this is the future...
** yes, we need to work on energy storage