Wind Energy- a viable alternative to fossil fuels now?

[SvennoJ]

Mnementh said:

SvennoJ said:

 

Yeah it's taking a long time. Looks like South Korea is going to take the next step.
http://www.nature.com/news/south-korea-makes-billion-dollar-bet-on-fusion-power-1.12251
They hope to start delivering 1 giga watt of fusion generated power to the net in the 2030's

I really had big hopes in fusion energy 10 years ago. That has pretty much crashed, as I got confronted with the reality. 1 GW at 2030 would be a good achievement for fusion power, but to set it into relation: at the moment sourh korea builds an offshore-windpark that is planned to produce 2.5 GW of energy: http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/south-korea-off-shore-wind-farm/

A project costing 8.3 billion to place 500 wind turbines in a hard to reach place where the elements are harshest on the materials involved.
1 billion for an experiment doesn't seem so bad then.
My hopes are for a future with unlimited cheap energy where electricity can be used to replace fossil fuels. Wind energy is not going to be able to provide that. In the mean time at least wind energy is better then building more coal fired plants.
2.5 GW is about 4 average sized coal fired plants. It costs about 5 billion less to build 2.5GW from coal, it will be a while before wind turbines make up the difference.