Lessons from Other Energy Technologies
What can fusion, offshore wind, solar and nuclear teach space solar power?
Chapter summary
four lessons.
Key takeaways
- 1
Solar and offshore wind show that costs can fall by 80–90% once deployment reaches many gigawatts and manufacturing scales, but only after long periods of subsidised early deployment.
- 2
Nuclear shows that first-of-a-kind plants overrun budgets and that standardised designs built repeatedly are cheaper than bespoke ones.
- 3
Fusion shows that technologies promising abundant clean power can remain decades away as costs and complexity grow.
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