It seems that for both desalination and sanitation (as discussed in the article) of water is now an energy issue.
What are some other basic problems (food, water, temperature management, etc.) we're facing that are primarily energy-bottlenecked?
What are some other basic problems (food, water, temperature management, etc.) we're facing that are primarily energy-bottlenecked?
These become much cheaper:
- Transport: synthesise fuel from CO2 + seawater. Or charge a battery. - Water: electrolysis of seawater. - Food grown anywhere: Light + water + fertiliser can be made from commonly available materials. Soil is a bit trickier, but I think you could bootstrap up with composting. - Global warming: pull CO2 out of the air. - Raw materials (concrete, metals): all cheaper to extract with free energy. - producing medicine
Still really hard: - making new treatments - inflation of housing prices - escaping earth's gravity (need bounce per ounce) - world peace - writing books - politics
When building the desalination plant, we can build a solar farm right next door.
The problems are political. Nobody is willing to go out and spend the money.
My hope is that when automation starts taking peoples jobs, governments will employ and train people to build these big infrastructure projects. Desalination, Green Energy, Reforestation, better Agriculture and Land Management.
Add to that the fact that, once these developments have happened, they tend to improve a lot, quickly. That means anything you build will, soon, be outdated and stop producing as much yield. Hence, you don't want to invest too much.