[hedora]

We’ve already emitted so much CO2 that we have to capture a lot of what is currently in the atmosphere. Also, decarbonizing the grid with solar, wind, tides, nuclear, and even geothermal is going to involve generating massive amounts of waste electricity.

On top of that, some energy generation technologies (like solar) are ramping faster than Moore’s law used to. That means that non-peak energy production will no longer be scarce, so thermodynamic efficiency is a second-order effect.

In all likelihood, the most economic path forward probably involves simultaneously drawing down CO2 and also generating 5-10% of the energy we use from fossil fuels, 90-95% from renewables, and an additional 10-100% on carbon capture.