SvennoJ said:
China is making a desert Thorium reactor that doesn't require water.
https://www.mining.com/china-makes-thorium-based-nuclear-energy-breakthrough-using-past-us-work/
But no idea whether Australia has Thorium reserves and how safe that is.
You do have all the room in the world for Solar and Wind, it's just a question of maintenance and energy transport.
Nuclear fusion has been promised since I grew up, although then there was still the hope (and hoax) of cold fusion.
In 1989, scientists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann claimed to have achieved nuclear fusion at room temperature using electrolysis of heavy water with palladium electrodes, a process dubbed "cold fusion".
Not reproduceable and doesn't seem likely. Nuclear fusion did reach a net gain result in 2023 but it's still going to be 2050-2060 before any real reactor can be ready.
Anyway roof tile solar should become standard in building, that would help a lot, but adds a lot of cost. Some scheme where the home owner doesn't pay for installation while the electric company credits you for half the energy made until paid off could work. Solar roadways are also having some promising results.
It just makes more sense to generate electricity right where its needed. |
Something like 1 in 3 homes in Australia has roof top solar.
We have had schemes like Government rebates to subsidize rooftop solar roll-outs... And recently a "Virtual Power Plant" scheme where you get subsidized electricity rates if a power company is allowed to install solar on your roof that feeds directly into the grid, rather than your home.
We have (Like most other minerals like Iron, Copper, Uranium, Rare Earths etc') one of the worlds largest reserves of Thorium.
