Geology Beats Technology: Shell Shuts Down Oil Shale Pilot Project
Kurt Cobb | Sep 30, 2013 02:09AM ET
The belief that technology can always overcome natural limits just took a big hit this week when International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) , say that fusion will perhaps be ready for commercial use by mid-century.
To be fair, the challenges for fusion researchers are daunting. For example, they must build and run a device that operates at interior temperatures of 150 million degrees centigrade--which is 10 times hotter than the core of the sun. And, they must do it safely and in a way that produces more energy than the device consumes.
But, because the challenges are so daunting, it may turn out that fusion will always remain the energy of the future. We already know how to fuse two atoms. And, we know how to process oil shale to produce synthetic oil.
But, we don't know how to do either of these things at an energy or financial profit sufficient enough to make them practical for widespread deployment. There is a strong possibility that we may not learn how to succeed with either in a time frame that matters to anyone living today.
That means we must get on with other technologies, energy projects and energy policies that have a more realistic possibility of addressing our energy needs and the climate change caused by our current energy regime.
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