Farm Wagon

Farm Wagon

What is the alternative to carbon based fuels?

serious question

The anti-nuke crowd won't let us build nuclear power stations. Plus the waste is arguably worse than Co2.
There is not enough wind in my region for a wind farm.
Solar cells are fine for calculators. Not so good for appliances that consume more than a watt of energy.
Cold fusion is still just a pipe dream.
SBSP is just a pipe dream as well.

Offer a practical alternative, and we would flock to it. I am no fan of the brown sunrise in my city. But I am also not a fan of scrapping my truck for a horse and wagon.

Short-medium term would be nuclear power, renewables & gas.

David MacKay demonstrates in 'Without Hot Air' ( http://www.withouthotair.com ) potential methods of providing our energy supply.

My preferred method in the short term is average pollution limits from power stations (like mileage standards in cars I guess), then let the market work out the cheapest solution.

I imagine that it would (in the UK) look something like 40% nuclear, 20% wind, 10% hydro/biomass/tidal/marine/solar and 30% gas and carbon capture coal.

As time goes on, prices will come down and solar (for example) can be expanded. Installing solar panels on our roofs would provide about 25% of UK electricity (more if more efficient panels are cheaper, or in sunnier places).

Solar is getting very close to breaking through - maybe just another decade. China already has plans for a 2GW solar farm, for example.