This is the one thing I like about Tesla and SpaceX: they solve problems with today's tech.
When I imagined reusable spacecraft, I was dreaming about anti-gravity drives, which just furthered my believe of it being impossible. SpaceX did it on a kerosene rocket, same physics that the Saturn V used decades ago.
We don't need to wait for some Sci-Fi physics to solve this issue. We can go really far with we already have today.
I always hear that abstract argument but do we have the math right on this?
What would it take to provide enough power in the US with only those solutions (+ hydro and other non nuclear non fossil fuel solutions)?
Do we have an idea of the amount of material and pollution that would be generated by building (and then recycling) all those panels and batteries?
I would like to live in a world where we don't need nuclear but I am not convinced we can realistically do without (assuming the same standard of living).
A little more than the area of West Virginia [1] if you're only going for solar power using conventional panels.
[1] https://www.axionpower.com/knowledge/power-world-with-solar/
You just don't chuck out a field of solar panels and ignore them.
Modern reactor designs - you do basically ignore them once they are initially set up.
1) electric cars acting as buffers. Particularly rarely-used vehicles could earn some side money for being used in a smart grid.
2) battery storage like Tesla constructed in Australia
3) hydro pumped storage
In particular, base load could also be generated by permanent renewable energy (e.g. geothermal or running-water hydro power aka dams) to ease the requirement for energy storage.
Bidirectional V2G systems only exist as demonstration projects now, and we'll need a bunch of time to ramp that up. It requires a lot of EVs, lots of grid updates all over the place, and for people to willingly participate at a meaningful scale. This won't be cheap and the grid we have now can't handle it.
Not likely to be a widely useful storage mechanism except in very specific geography.
Look at Canada, their program is advancing reactors. They are targeting before 2030.
if governemnt actually cared and invested the way they did in renwables these reactors would exist already.
The tech was proven in the 60/70, its just investment that is needed. But reactor companies have a really hard time with that.
We need solutions now, and we already have them in mass production: solar panels, wind power generation and battery storage.