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U.S. and China Join Fusion Project

Posted by michael on from the real-soon-now dept.

Garp writes "According to the BBC News website, the U.S. has finally decided to join the international Fusion project, Iter, along with China, with the aim of building the worlds first commercially viable Fusion reactor. Fusion is one of the cleanest forms of energy conversion, excluding renewable natural sources, like wind farms, tidal generators, and solar cells."

1 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Solar cells are clean? by RobKow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The hideously low efficiency of solar cells makes them a waste of -other- natural resources to manufacture, transport, purchase, install, and maintain.

    That is, you burn more fossil fuel energy deploying photovoltaic arrays than you regain during their (short) usable lifetime. That doesn't make them any less-convenient for remote off-grid applications, but they're not going to replace other power sources anytime soon.

    Solar energy is still viable for heating (obvious) as well as power generation using mirror concentrators.