Recently retired SaskEnergy CEO has a thing or two to say about energy transition

11 Replies to “Recently retired SaskEnergy CEO has a thing or two to say about energy transition”

1. Like so many politicians, he only finds the truth AFTER he leaves or can do anything about anything.

   Canadian Cottage Cowards are the new black.

2. I read that a number of federal politicians are excited about the brief experiment in Fusion demonstrated in California this past week. One said that it will be available in 2 to 3 decades. If I live as long as my mother, I will be dead in 15 years and will still need to keep the lights on and the furnace going in winter during those 15 years.
   Politicians can be so disingenuous!

   1. The brief experiment which got 1.2 to 1.5 times more energy out of the pellet than the amount of laser energy pumped in…

      Unfortunately, lasers aren’t that efficient, and seems these ones run at about 1% efficiency. So the actual output was considerably smaller than the total power input, which no headline writer would want to touch

3. When a politician says that they have a plan, but are unable to tell you the details of the plan, OR that the plan depends on a non-existent technology, they have NO PLAN except disaster and are therefore lying. Any politician that lies, even once, needs to be dismissed as the loser that they are.

   1. One Lie? None of them would be elected in the first place.

      Maybe allow them three lies just like the three strike law.

4. Yes, fusion is an unproven but man’s ingenuity is likely to solve the problem.

   What we do know for sure is that windmills and solar panels don’t solve the problem without energy storage. A major breakthrough in battery technology is less likely than solving the fusion challenge.

   Bjorn Lomborg has it right. Rather than spending huge amounts on technologies that don’t work, let’s put the money in R & D.

   1. I wouldn’t bet on that. Creating a fusion reaction, sustaining it, and harnessing energy from it safely is an engineering challenge akin to finding the Holy Grail.

   2. We’ve know how to make a fusion reaction since 1952….

      The problem is containment and getting useful power out of it.

5. Fusion technology was supposed to be a thing back in the late 80’s. Pretty sure this is another nothing burger. While we wait, stock up on gas and diesel and solid fuels.

6. There are a number of exceptionally ignorant people running the country. Unfortunately, it is a small little clique and they simply reinforce their own ignorance. They are driven by misguided ideology and no light gets in. The country is not in good hands.

7. “Reliable fusion energy is only a decade away- and always will be.” – author unknown.