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What is the energy of the future (50 years)

What will be energy source 50 yrs from now?

  • Oil

    Votes: 1 2.9%

  • Natural Gas

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • Coal

    Votes: 1 2.9%

  • Mix of fossil fuels

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • Biomass / ethanol / grown

    Votes: 3 8.8%

  • Solar

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • Wind

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Nuclear

    Votes: 9 26.5%

  • Nuclear Fusion

    Votes: 8 23.5%

  • Chuck Norris slowly eating a banana

    Votes: 6 17.6%
  • Total voters
    34
Peter Grimm

Peter Grimm

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I'm curious what you think the primary energy source of the future will be. I'm going to list a few, I'm not going to give you an option of "all" or "both" or "a mix" because that's a cop out.... make a decision and support it.

50 years from today, what do you think will be the primary source of energy around the world? Will it be oil? Natural gas? Coal? A mix of fossil fuels? Biomass? Solar? Wind? Nuclear? Nuclear fusion? Some as-of-yet uninvented technology?

Let's hear your thoughts. There's no wrong answer unless you want to check back 50 years from now.
 
The one answer I forgot to list is that we return to the earth and live in hippie communes. It could go that way too.
 
I am going to go with a mix despite your cop out answer because I don't think that one source would be accurate. I think that the majority of our power will come from a mix of wind/solar energy.
 
Solar and wind depending on region for home energy needs; mostly solar. I have a gut feeling about hydrogen power for transportation and industry, which could simultaneously address drought/water shortage concerns as hydrogen energy's only byproduct (exhaust for lack of a better word) is distilled quality pure water.

BTW: On one of the educational cable channels I saw a program on solar energy that said the research is just one breakthrough away from discovering how to harvest a spectrum of sunlight the current technology cannot see that will improve solar electric production 500%. Once discovered, a small rooftop solar system will be more than adequate to full power homes.

I also think we could see more subterranean population centers in cold climates. If you go down deep enough underground, heating and air-conditioning becomes obsolete as the temperature is around 70 degrees all the time.

Underground city - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Welcome | Underground Atlanta

Add more stores, restaurants and even housing and the energy needs drop big time.
 
If we are just talking about just homes I will say a mixture of some type of renewable energy ( Wind, Solar ) Mixed with Natural Gas. We have an awful lot of that stuff and they are always finding more. I doubt we will be completely away from Hydro or Nuclear but I see Coal being phased out by then.

If we are talking cars as well, I would say it will be a mixture of Biodiesel, Hydrogen, Natural Gas and Electric. I do not believe we will ever have it down to just one type of fuel.
 
Peter Grimm said:
I'm curious what you think the primary energy source of the future will be. I'm going to list a few, I'm not going to give you an option of "all" or "both" or "a mix" because that's a cop out.... make a decision and support it.

50 years from today, what do you think will be the primary source of energy around the world? Will it be oil? Natural gas? Coal? A mix of fossil fuels? Biomass? Solar? Wind? Nuclear? Nuclear fusion? Some as-of-yet uninvented technology?

Let's hear your thoughts. There's no wrong answer unless you want to check back 50 years from now.
Click to expand...

The answer is that we will have which ever form is actually viable and then pays off enough politicians to ensure it's use and survival while those same politicians suppress the rise of different competing forms.
 
What is the energy of the future (50 years)
Click to expand...

near term : transition from coal to NG and wind, assuming renewables are still subsidized. possibly traditional nuclear.

longer term : hydroelectric (mostly harnessing the power of the waves,) wind / solar, and thorium.

long term : possibly fusion. that would not only change the game, but it would also flip the game on its side and spin it like a quarter. i don't expect to see this during my lifetime, but it would be awesome.
 
Peter Grimm said:
I'm curious what you think the primary energy source of the future will be. I'm going to list a few, I'm not going to give you an option of "all" or "both" or "a mix" because that's a cop out.... make a decision and support it.

50 years from today, what do you think will be the primary source of energy around the world? Will it be oil? Natural gas? Coal? A mix of fossil fuels? Biomass? Solar? Wind? Nuclear? Nuclear fusion? Some as-of-yet uninvented technology?

Let's hear your thoughts. There's no wrong answer unless you want to check back 50 years from now.
Click to expand...


Maybe it's mixed in within some of the choices, but Hydrogen/Hydrogen Fuel cell will most certainly be the primary source of energy in the future.
 
Fusion is the holy grail, after that, everything changes in the energy arena for the better and for humans in general. But that is decades off, so for the near future we have to focus on honing our solar and wind power technology. I'd imagine the idea is to decrease our consumption of fossil fuels greatly instead of just quit it cold turkey.
 
Nuclear or nuclear fusion will be the future, and hopefully by then coal will have been dead for a very long time.
 
Peter Grimm said:
I'm curious what you think the primary energy source of the future will be. I'm going to list a few, I'm not going to give you an option of "all" or "both" or "a mix" because that's a cop out.... make a decision and support it.

50 years from today, what do you think will be the primary source of energy around the world? Will it be oil? Natural gas? Coal? A mix of fossil fuels? Biomass? Solar? Wind? Nuclear? Nuclear fusion? Some as-of-yet uninvented technology?

Let's hear your thoughts. There's no wrong answer unless you want to check back 50 years from now.
Click to expand...




I would like to check back 50-years from now but, since I'm 70-years old, I don't believe that I'll be around to do that.

I believe that solar energy will be a big factor, but wind, tidal energy and others will also fill part of mankind's energy needs.

A lot will depend on what is available in the area.
 
Peter Grimm said:
I'm curious what you think the primary energy source of the future will be. I'm going to list a few, I'm not going to give you an option of "all" or "both" or "a mix" because that's a cop out.... make a decision and support it.

50 years from today, what do you think will be the primary source of energy around the world? Will it be oil? Natural gas? Coal? A mix of fossil fuels? Biomass? Solar? Wind? Nuclear? Nuclear fusion? Some as-of-yet uninvented technology?

Let's hear your thoughts. There's no wrong answer unless you want to check back 50 years from now.
Click to expand...

In the near term there's been an obvious big turn towards Natural Gas, for many good reasons. It's abundant, cleaner than petrol/coal and efficient. Probably electric/magnetic for transportation.

Fifty years from now there could be the same mix of options, with one or two dominating, like nuclear and solar but more than likely some chemical reaction formula like hydrogen + will be developed. Nuclear fusion could be made much more efficient and possible.
 
Primarily thorium, with a little bit of wind.
 
Helix said:
long term : possibly fusion. that would not only change the game, but it would also flip the game on its side and spin it like a quarter. i don't expect to see this during my lifetime, but it would be awesome.
Click to expand...

We can dream, man, we can dream.
 
Something we as yet have no concept of.
 
shrubnose said:
I would like to check back 50-years from now but, since I'm 70-years old, I don't believe that I'll be around to do that.

I believe that solar energy will be a big factor, but wind, tidal energy and others will also fill part of mankind's energy needs.

A lot will depend on what is available in the area.
Click to expand...

No, but Keith Richards I'm sure will still be here.
 
Fusion if they can get it to work correctly - combined with solar for the extra daytime loads. Wind and hydro will have their place as well but I doubt they'll ever be the primary source of power generation.


In the interim:
Thorium is a good option to replace coal and oil. Natural gas will be used for heavy transportation and probably aircraft, though new advances in aviation fuel production from water and air might work out better in the long run.
 
in the next 50 years we will see the rise of Nuclear Energy again.
 
Peter Grimm said:
I'm curious what you think the primary energy source of the future will be. I'm going to list a few, I'm not going to give you an option of "all" or "both" or "a mix" because that's a cop out.... make a decision and support it.

50 years from today, what do you think will be the primary source of energy around the world? Will it be oil? Natural gas? Coal? A mix of fossil fuels? Biomass? Solar? Wind? Nuclear? Nuclear fusion? Some as-of-yet uninvented technology?

Let's hear your thoughts. There's no wrong answer unless you want to check back 50 years from now.
Click to expand...

I think it will be a mixture of natural gas, coal, and hydro with regards to electricity generation. I think it is plausible that there will be revolutionary advances in battery technology (among other things) that would make solar more popular but it will take time. I also think the global nuclear load will increase but not by as much as some would hope, half because of irrational nuclear fear and half because of low cost coal/gas by comparison. I'm optimistic that by the 2060's (50 years hence) we will have vastly advanced our understanding of nuclear fusion and we may even be so advanced as to be at the stage of limited commercialization but I suspect it will take longer to bring from the prototype to the mass energy market. I'm going to commit the classic human error of projecting based on what already exists today because imagining what isn't there is difficult.
 
50 years from now it will be 2064.

In the year 2050, it is estimated, even with decreasing population change rates, we will have added to the planet from 2010 to 2050 the combined 2010 populations of India and China, which we will have done because the population change rate, even though decreasing somewhat, never reaches a negative number, according to estimates of likely scenarios.

So, by 2064, we will again have added roughly the 2050 population of India to the planet, because people just can't stop f***ing around when they're impoverished and bored.

Thus, clearly, the fuel of choice in 2064 will be human waste.

Is that what was meant by "biomass" in the poll?
 
Ontologuy said:
50 years from now it will be 2064.

In the year 2050, it is estimated, even with decreasing population change rates, we will have added to the planet from 2010 to 2050 the combined 2010 populations of India and China, which we will have done because the population change rate, even though decreasing somewhat, never reaches a negative number, according to estimates of likely scenarios.

So, by 2064, we will again have added roughly the 2050 population of India to the planet, because people just can't stop f***ing around when they're impoverished and bored.

Thus, clearly, the fuel of choice in 2064 will be human waste.

Is that what was meant by "biomass" in the poll?
Click to expand...
Based on the tech of today, perhaps.

Who knows what we'll develop over the next half-century.
 
I'm hoping nuclear, modern nuke technology is cleaner and safer and more efficient than ever before, I believe supplementary energy will come from solar and wind on individual buildings though. Hydrogen fuel tech will hopefully overtake petroleum as the basis for transport.
 
Probably coal.
 
spud_meister said:
I'm hoping nuclear, modern nuke technology is cleaner and safer and more efficient than ever before, I believe supplementary energy will come from solar and wind on individual buildings though. Hydrogen fuel tech will hopefully overtake petroleum as the basis for transport.
Click to expand...
I'm hoping nuclear is in the next 10-25 years.

In 50 years I'm hoping something better shows up.
 
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