[ahje]

That's indeed a big if, but even if it ends up being cheaper to use solar for most applications I can imagine fusion power would be a nice thing to have locally around major production centres where the power demand is much higher.

Solar is great for decentralized grids where one's neighbour basically buys excess power from you, but transferring gigawatts of power from a large amount of solar panels to something like a major industrial area /might/ be trickier.

[pfdietz]

Cost of ITER: $100/W(e) (assuming its gross fusion power was converted to electric power at 40% efficiency)

Installed cost of utility scale solar: about $1/W and falling

The cost of fusion (or fission) is so grossly uncompetitive that any use seems unlikely.

[throwaway122379]

There used to be a time when it was cheaper to pay people to perform calculations by hand than to build computers to do so ...

[pfdietz]

There is no reason to think such cost decline will apply to fusion reactors. Many of the parts in the system are mature (like, all the non nuclear parts like turbines.)

[ahje]

I'm hopeful that the research might bear fruit at some point, so I am glad to see it continue. We definitely shouldn't put all eggs in one basket, though.

We don't have a finished design yet, so who knows what parts are needed (yeah, a turbine is a given, but still...)?

[pfdietz]

Hope is not a plan, especially when that hope has proved illusory so many times in the past.