Generating sustainable energy is the biggest environmental issue that we face.827
I’m much less of a climate alarmist than people might think. But we’re running this climate experiment, which we know is pointless because eventually we will run out of coal, oil, and gas. This experiment is not going to last forever. We have to transition to something that is long term because we will run out of hydrocarbons to burn. Let’s just not run the experiment.828
Long term, most of civilization’s energy is going to come from solar. Obviously the sun only shines during the day and sometimes it’s cloudy, so we need batteries. Solar will be the main way that civilization is powered long term.
As long as the sun is shining we’ll be fine.
If humanity had to get all of its energy from the sun, it could.
Sometimes people say, “What about clouds?” Here is my response, “Do plants grow?” They grow through a solar-powered chemical reaction. If plants grow, you have solar power.829
But between now and then we need to maintain nuclear power. I can’t emphasize enough, please do not shut down the nuclear power plants and please reopen the ones that have been shut down. It is total madness to shut them down. Total madness.830
I’m in favor of nuclear power in any place not subject to extreme natural disasters. Nuclear power is a great way to generate electricity. Obviously we should not be starting up coal plants and shutting down nuclear plants. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Coal plants are a hundred to a thousand times worse for our health than nuclear power plants.831
How many people have actually died from nuclear accidents? Practically none. How many people have died from coal plants? It’s a very big number.832
It’s a national security risk to shut these things down. It’s not only bad for the climate; it is a national security risk as well. People don’t understand that coal power plant emissions cause many deaths every year. They are far more dangerous than nuclear power plants.833
The future of energy will be primarily solar with wind. We absolutely need stationary storage batteries because of the intermittency of both solar and wind. There will also be hydroelectric, geothermal, and nuclear—these are all good. Battery cell production is the fundamental rate-limiter slowing down a sustainable-energy future. Very important problem.834
We want to move as quickly as we can to a solar electric economy. The faster we get there, the better it is for the world.835
We could probably have a civilization that is a hundred times as energy intensive as we currently have it.836