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Re:Cornell wants to drill 2-4mi underground for enhanced geo... by randyrand on Monday September 19, 2016 @06:23PM (#12535267)
It's interesting even "renewable" energy can be a problem at some scale too.

For instance, at some scale solar would need to be placed over plants, ergo CO2 problems again.

And at some scale (hugeeeee scale), even wind energy disturbs nature's air currents and would likely cause pretty big problems there too.

Re:Cornell wants to drill 2-4mi underground for enhanced geo... by hutzlibu on Monday September 19, 2016 @07:24PM (#12535608)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Fullneed...

You see the size of the red squares compared to the size of the dessert?

Re:Cornell wants to drill 2-4mi underground for enhanced geo... by randyrand on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @03:34PM (#12542584)
"At some scale" does not imply "at our current scale." Our current energy use is a fraction of the energy we will be using 500 years from now, which really is not that far off in terms of human history.

I would imagine we will be using ~500x in 2516, a doubling every 55 years. All of earths deserts and more would need to be covered, even at 100% solar cell efficiency.

edit: global energy use has actually doubled every 20 years recently https://gailtheactuary.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/world-ene...

Re:Cornell wants to drill 2-4mi underground for enhanced geo... by wcoenen on Monday September 19, 2016 @07:55PM (#12535763)
There would be trouble even with magical free energy.

Before the oil shocks in the seventies, oil production and use was more than doubling every decade. [1] If that kind of energy growth resumed unabated, then in about 200 years we'd be producing about as much power as the Earth receives from the sun. We'd cook in our own waste heat, no CO2 required.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry#/media/File...

Re:Cornell wants to drill 2-4mi underground for enhanced geo... by randyrand on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @03:39PM (#12542623)
That's interesting. I wonder how well we can shoot our waste heat into space?

E = mc^2, so convert the energy into mass and shoot it into space?

Re:Cornell wants to drill 2-4mi underground for enhanced geo... by wcoenen on Wednesday September 21, 2016 @06:13PM (#12552749)
In principle heat can be gotten rid of with radiators, like the EATCS[1] on the International Space Station.

To maximize the heat radiated away, you'd need radiators with as much surface area as possible with an unobstructed view of the sky (no cloud cover). They'd also need to be as hot as possible, because thermal radiation power rises with the 4th power of absolute temperature

There have been attempts to detect such thermal radiation from alien civilizations[2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_Active_Thermal_Contro...

[2] https://arxiv.org/abs/1408.1134