Question: how big would we have to make a particle accelerator for it to power the world if it can

Rachel Edwards answered on 18 Dec 2024:

So if you made one about the size of the earth, there are some calculations that suggest you would reach incredibly high energies at the collision point. BUT you’d have to supply a huge amount of energy to all the magnets to bend the paths of the particles, to the systems that get them moving quickly enough, so many things… I think they are always likely to be a drain on energy rather than providing power 🙂

People are working on different options though. We are getting more efficient solar panels, which may be the best option (assuming we can get enough of the right materials for building them). There are also people looking at fusion power, which looks really promising, but is really incredibly hard to do.