By Selwyn Duke
When hearing the term “fusion” today, many people may first think of Asian restaurants. Yet this is only because fusion power technology — which holds the promise of delivering clean, abundant energy forever — is ignored amid continual talk about wind and solar. This is a shame because while the latter two technologies are wholly unworkable, fusion’s practicality has a basis in science and, claim some, is fairly close to no longer being science fiction.
Aside from the fact that the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun ever shine (not to mention cloudy regions), a major problem with wind and solar is that they’re extreme low-intensity energy sources; meaning, they don’t produce many watts per square meter of land devoted to the technology. As an example, meeting the United States’ energy needs with wind would require an area three times the size of California.
This makes it not only unrealistic, but also environmentally perilous.
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