[FRIAM] bigger plans, bigger little mistakes

[Marcus G. Daniels]

phil henshaw wrote:
> The consensus response to global warming relies on reducing the 
> impacts of economic growth by improving the efficiency of economic 
> growth!
So we need a lot more clean power, and we need it fast.   Time to spend 
some money on figuring out how to do it!
Without efficiency gains, it's estimated 10 TW are needed globally by 
2025. [1] 
The ITER/DEMO fusion reactor only promises net 1.5 GW by 2045 [2], and 
the largest hydroelectric facilities (Three Gorges Dam in China) are at 
about 22 GW [3].   There's not enough high-grade silicon for dozens of 
square miles of conventional photovoltaic solar [4]. Meanwhile, China 
builds a new coal fired planed every week [5] and apparently can keep 
doing that for 100 years [6].  

Seems to me any cost imbalance of solar, etc. is easily fixable by 
taxing the hell out of CO2 energy emissions while subsidizing the 
development of new solar, fusion, carbon sequestration technology (etc). 

[1] http://t8web.lanl.gov/people/rajan/Gupta_energy_for_all_2007.pdf
[2]  http://fire.pppl.gov/isfnt7_maisonnier.pdf
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam
[4] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e50784ea-78cb-11db-8743-0000779e2340.html
[5] http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1223/p01s04-sten.html
[6] http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=17963