Fusion and Large Scale Solar

Fusion:

Someone brought this up. The Nova special I saw did not deal with Fusion
except to comment (IIRC) that it isn't there yet and they don't know if it
will be soon. And that it is (sadly) covered in the same blanket hysteria
(only somewhat justified) that surrounds various other styles of current day
nuclear reactors. That public PR problem will have to be overcome first as
well as the technical one. And as esteemed Nyrath points out.... "It's fifty
years away.... It's still fifty years away....No, no, really, it's
coming..." - Fusion seems to be rather elusive.

But, from a justifier point of view, we do seem to have FGPs in the
Tuffleyverse, and that is a good point. It just makes these high tech
powerplants a key to how Earth of the period must look energy wise in order to
be habitable and have power. I think we can figure much of Earth is powered by
this sort of power, but the interesting question might be what date this
invention occurred... it has a transforming effect (I'm sure) and it would be
interesting to know how bad things got before this power supply becomes
available.

Large Scale Solar:

At present, it still costs more in energy to produce a solar panel than is
returned over the mean lifespan of the panel (as I understand it). Ergo unless
this energy gap can be bridged, large scale solar projects will be unlikely.
Plus then the next point becomes how to return this power to the
surface - large microwave beams dropping TerraWatts of power to Earth?
What if they get hit by a stray piece of space junk?

"And in other new, the government has released a statement that the runaway
powerSat that baked Denver last monday causing 300,000 casualties was NOT in
fact a terrorist incident, but an accident. Opposition parties are calling it
a coverup..."

This still isn't the solution, though it may form part of the multifold
approach to solving energy issues.

Large Scale Population Growth:

Beth points out an across the board growth won't reflect subareas. This I
understood, I was merely suggesting some place (Canada) will take to growth
easier (physical resource wise, not necessarily culturally) than other areas
of the world. Cultural perceptions of personal space and personal liberties
and personal transport will need to change to grow. This could spur (push)
some more colonists to pick up shop and go starward.