Possible solutions to energy crisis

Through the last decades, the problem related to energy production has reached very concerning levels. The progressive depletion of coal reserves requires the development of further sources of energy production. Nowadays, the main alternatives that have been identified are:

• Nuclear Power;
• Wind;
• Solar thermal;
• Solar photovoltaic;
• Geothermal;
• Hydroelectric.

The problem is that none of them could compete with fossil fuel, because of their low efficiency and expensiveness. The only plausible solution at the moment seems to be nuclear power.

Energy produced by nuclear fission can be indeed considered the most efficient form of energy at the moment, but only if we do not consider long term cost. Nuclear waste need long periods of secure storage to avoid any environmental risk. Their hazard leads to a raise of costs related to the production of this kind of energy, that will eventually make this energy source inconvenient.

Even though on short-term its efficiency is the highest, it necessarily decreases with time because of the storing of nuclear waste. Nuclear debt has resulted to be a great problem, bothering the financial budget of several countries.

Another problem is related to the supply of uranium. Like coal, also uranium is a fossil fuel, and this means that it wont last forever. In this field many theories have been proposed: someone says it's going to last for 40 years, someone else for 400 years and so on, but this is not the main matter. Uranium has limited supply, and this means that it cannot be a definitive solution.

However, recently another possible form of energy has been proposed, and it's the one that allows the sun to shine. We are talking about Thermonuclear Fusion.