Despite the Mizuno breakthrough, assuming it is real – the commercial baseline power game has changed drastically in the past few years - all over the World. Who woulda’ thunk it?
This PV story from last year and others like it - predicted the cost of solar panels to drop below 25 cents per watt capacity by 2022 and the cost of electricity to under 2 cents per kilowatt-hr for grid operators. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/05/25/the-path-to-us0-015-kwh-solar-power-and-lower/ Actually – that prediction has already happened - way ahead of schedule and a further drop is ongoing. Solar and wind are the lowest cost power option for the grid now - and coal is deader than N Kelsey’s nuts, as they say … while that despicable zombie - ITER should be even shuttered immediately in a sane world. Why not close ALL of the wasteful hot fusion boondoggles and use the cash to finance a few more Gigafactories instead? Batteries will rule for some time especially if the Tesla/Maxwell hookup bears fruit. Where does this ongoing sea-change in power cost leave LENR? In two words: portable power. This market is not too shabby - even if you can only get low penetration. Automobiles and aerospace look to be the major emerging markets for LENR - and the grid will further embrace wind and solar. Even home space heating will probably move to heat pumps powered by Solar/wind electricity. The price of palladium will skyrocket. These dynamics seem to be locked in place for the next decade. But hey… that reality is far from a bad thing – even for the LENR proponent. Portable power is a trillion dollar market, and even if batteries charged by solar/wind prevail in that market – there many excellent market niche’s for LENR to thrive… … assuming Mizuno is correct.
