There are multiple layers of confusion in our communication, Jed. To clarify a few things:
- 5 mill <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_(currency)> is 0.005 USD, not 0.005 cents. I am assuming that all energy, except that destined for human food consumption, is from cold fusion electricity at 0.005USD/kWh = 0.5cents/kWh -- a lower bound on the cost per kWh established by the capital cost of the cold fusion energy generator being on the order of $200/kW installed. Are you projecting $2/kW installed or even lower? If so, it doesn't really change my argument that much since the food consumption energy still has to go through photosynthesis which means you still have photobioreactors. - Agricultural feedstocks are not for energy unless you mean food calories. If you mean food calories are "annoying and expensive to harvest" you didn't explain why people will throw away food in the form of aquaponic outputs of fresh fruits, vegetables and an array of seafood including not only algae grazers such as tilapia and sockeye salmon, but predator fish such as bluefin tuna and invertebrates such as lobster, shrimp and clams. I did purchase your book and read it but I don't recall anything that would substitute for demand for these end products from agriculture or bypass the necessary foodchain/nutrient cycles in the aquaponics systems. The book is not immediately available as I had a disk crash and lost it. - There will, of course, be a small minority of people who will reject tropical beachfront paradise lifestyle as their primary residence and instead choose to live in forests chopping wood, etc. I myself expect to be among that number but I am about 6 sigma out in a number of ways. Your average wife will look at the urban amenities, spacious condo, high income, intense social life, abundant food and beach front tropical lifestyle and simply leave her husband if he insists on "Green Acres". On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 1:08 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote: > James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: > > Even if cold fusion brings the cost per kWh to 5 mil, it will still make >> sense to locate floating photobioreactors producing agricultural feedstocks >> in the tropical doldrums protected by artificial floating atolls supporting >> beachfront real estate enjoying enormous amounts of electrical energy per >> capita. >> > > I think 5 mill = 0.005 cents. Anyway, no this does not make sense. This is > like saying that even though we now have 2 terabyte disks that cost $100, > it makes sense to use a 10 MB disk that cost me $20,000 in 1978. > > "Photobioreactors producing agricultural feedstocks" may be useful for the > feedstocks they produce, but the energy will far more expensive than cold > fusion, and it will be annoying and expensive to harvest, so people will > throw it away. > > People in rural areas who own ~20 acres of forested land can easily cut > enough firewood to heat their houses. I know people who do that. It is > cheaper than heating with natural gas or electricity. You only have to pay > for the fuel for the buzz saw and log splitter, which consume much less > energy than the logs they produce. However, cutting and splitting wood is a > lot of work. You would not do it to save money if the alternative was cold > fusion space heating that cost you $0.0000001 per year in fuel. People will > still need to cut up fallen trees to maintain a healthy forest, but they > will have no economic use for the firewood. > > (Granted, saving money is not the only reason people burn wood. Some > people do it out out of nostalgia, or because they enjoy seeing a fire. > Some cut wood for exercise. Some might burn it just to get it out of the > way.) > > - Jed > >
