• Question: if you could only have one way to get energy what would it be?

    Asked by yeah520kaes on 20 Mar 2025.
    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 20 Mar 2025:

      The Sun is the best source of energy… It deposits about 1.5 kW of energy for every square metre of the surface of the Earth. If we could more effectively utilise it then we would have a surplus of energy.

    • Photo: Daniel Friedrich

      Daniel Friedrich answered on 21 Mar 2025:

      I agree that the sun is the most important. It is also nicely regular while there can be a week with almost no wind in the UK.

    • Photo: Pete Webb

      Pete Webb answered on 24 Mar 2025:

      At the moment, my preferred energy solution is geothermal, because it’s clean, extremely reliable and its cost is reasonable. But if it can ever be achieved, it would be nuclear fusion.

    • Photo: John Grasmeder

      John Grasmeder answered on 25 Mar 2025:

      At the moment it would be nuclear energy. The amount of nuclear fuel you would need to create enough energy for all your needs (house, heating, electricity, food, holidays, cars, travel, everything…) you could fit into a Coca Cola can. It’s very efficient and does not make CO2. The waste can be dangerous if it is not handled correctly though. I’m hoping that nuclear fusion will be figured out before long, that will be even more efficient.

    • Photo: Sophie Pain

      Sophie Pain answered on 28 Mar 2025:

      I would say sun – but my job is about solar energy research so maybe I have a bias 😊

      Renewable sources of energy are really important for the UK and the world to reach ‘net zero’. Ultimately it’s likely we will use lots of different sources of renewable energy (wind, wave, geothermal) all at the same time

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