Re: Wind Solar unreliable compared to Gas Coal Nuclear

"Jim Wilkins" <[email protected]> Mon, 8 Jan 2024 18:59:42 -0500
Newsgroups talk.politics.guns,sci.energy,alt.energy.homepower
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <[email protected]>
"Just Wondering"  wrote in message news:[email protected]...

If you want to be pedantic, all power is ultimately gravity power.
I was going to say all power is ultimately solar, but even the
fusion that powers stars (and creates the radioactive metals used
in nuclear power) is the result of gravity compressing the star's
contents.  But that's not what anybody normally means when talking
about solar.

----------------------

Not so.
https://phys.libretexts.org/Courses/HACC_Central_Pennsylvania%27s_Community_College/Astronomy_103%3A_Introduction_to_Planetary_Astronomy/13%3A_The_Sun/13.04%3A_Nuclear_Fusion

Gravity is an enabler to overcome electrostatic repulsion, but not a sine 
qua non for fusion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_confinement_fusion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermonuclear_weapon

Iron and nickel are the end products of fusion, beyond them it becomes 
endothermic. The heavier elements are formed by neutron capture in 
supernovae, neutron stars and nuclear reactors.
https://www.astronomy.com/science/ask-astro-how-do-stars-make-elements-heavier-than-iron/