Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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All renewable energy is fusion energy with a really round about way of collecting it (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/showerthoughts

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Fossil fuel would I guess be chemically stored fusion energy from a long time ago

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I could be wrong, but I think geothermal may be the (sole?) exception to that. That heat is from the formation of the planet and radioactive decay (fission). That heat/energy would have coalesced during the accretion process regardless of whether the sun was adding energy. Again, I think. If I'm wrong, please enlighten as this is an interesting topic.

Edit: I was thinking I might be technically wrong since we can't really "renew" geothermal energy, but Wikipedia does have it classified as renewable:

Geothermal power is considered to be a sustainable, renewable source of energy because the heat extraction is small compared with the Earth's heat content.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Radioactive elements were formed in the last moments of a collapsing star, so even those were formed during fusion.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That is true. I guess it depends on how much of the heat is generated via fission processes and how much is just stored from planetary accretion. I don't have any numbers for that at this moment, but I will certainly concede that geothermal is fusion-assisted lol.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe tidal energy would also be an exception? It's from the motion of the moon, which is the result of ancient planetary collisions?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ooh, yeah. Didn't even think of tidal energy. I don't think we get any significant amounts from it currently, but it's being actively developed.

I guess if we want to get super pedantic about it, it would also be fusion-assisted since without the sun's energy keeping the oceans in a liquid state, it would be frozen and unable to generate any power.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

How does wind energy fit then?

Or hydro electric dams?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Wind: The sun (a giant fusion reactor) heats the atmosphere which generates the wind (highly simplified).

Hydro: Driven by the water cycle where the sun plays a key role in the "evaporation, condensation, precipitation" process.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Wind is due to the asemetric effects of heating different parts of the globe different amounts. Hydro is from rain and snow which is evaporated with the sun

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I guess, if you're taking into account the formation of all matter with the beginning of the universe.

[–] moeggz 1 points 1 year ago

Geothermal energy comes from the heat of making the earth and is not related to fusion energy.

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