"Energy for a Greenhouse Planet"
Stabilizing climate is an energy problem. To set
ourselves on a course towards climate stabilization will require a build-up
within the coming decades of new primary energy sources that do not emit
carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, in addition to efforts to reduce end-use
energy demand. Mid-century CO2-emissions-free primary power requirements
could be several times what we now derive from fossil fuels (~10 TW), even
with improvements in energy efficiency. Here we survey possible future
energy sources, evaluated for both their capability to supply the massive
amounts of carbon-emissions-free energy required and their potential for
large-scale commercialization. Possible candidates for primary energy sources
include terrestrial solar, wind, solar power satellites, biomass, nuclear
fission, nuclear fusion, fission-fusion hybrids, and fossil fuels from
which carbon has been sequestered. Non-primary-power technologies that
could contribute to climate stabilization include conservation, efficiency
improvements, hydrogen production, storage and transport, superconducting
global electric grids, and geoengineering.