[0000011111]

I learned from Professor Vaclav Smil that while Wind and Solar are practical energy solutions in the United States population ~340mil. It is not practical in all regions in more populous countries such as China (population ~1.4 Billion).

There are large regions in the country where Solar is not a good solution due to fog. And Wind is not a good solution due to lack of wind.

We have a global climate system. As is such if the goal is to reduce carbon emissions in some areas Nuclear power is the most effective method to achieve this goal. Furthermore, moving China to non-carbon energy sources would have the largest impact globally. They use ~ 22 GigaWatts of electricity per year. Which is 3.6 times as much as the US which is the 2ed largest consumer of energy by country.

http://vaclavsmil.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electrici...

[henryfjordan]

This is surprising to hear. Here's some back of the napkin math that seems to contradict the assertion that there's not enough sunlight to power humanity: https://ag.tennessee.edu/solar/Pages/What%20Is%20Solar%20Ene...

They claim texas recieves >300x the amount of power consumed in the form of sunlight.

Another source claims that the Sun delivers enough power in a single hour to power the earth for a year: https://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-the-potential-of-sol...

I can respect the fact that we cannot capture 100% of that power, but even a fraction should power the earth, no?

[clairity]

it's not even that surprising when you consider that basically all of earth's energy through its lifetime derives from the sun in some form.

the main exceptions--radiative exchange with the rest of the universe and energy from earth's core--are relatively insignificant sources compared to the solar influx of energy.

fossil fuels are just solar energy captured and (inefficiently) transformed over hundreds of millions of years through plant and animal intermediaries. wind and hydro (weather-based energy) are also intermediated forms of solar energy.

the sun is effectively unlimited energy for billions of years, mostly being radiated away right now, so the closer we get to transforming it directly into useful forms, the better off we are.

[novok]

Yes, and anything that helps in reduction helps the overall system. It's not black and white universal solutions, but a combination of them.

[ReptileMan]

You could cover the arabian peninsula and sahara with panels and use UHV lines to connect to china.

[0000011111]

I am all for that.

I just think it is more realistic to first build nuclear power plants within 50km of every city with a population greater than 1mil people in China.

I am not sure a there has ever been a UHV line longer than 3,000km? Efficiency loss only increases the longer a UHV line is.