Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, we can certainly use more skepticism of kooks and frauds, like the cold fusion folks discussed in the article. Perhaps you are misunderstanding my complaint? What I'm talking about is the dismissal of mainstream plasma physicists, many of whom are rightly skeptical of these get-rich-quick schemes. (editted out needless antagonism)
Indeed, I had a hard time understanding your complaint.
Betting on fusion
11–13 of 13 posts
Re: Betting on fusion
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rossi is a crank, not arguing about that. But have you ever calculated how expensive is to get any amount of heat-generated electricity into the grid? Even if one had a completely free source of heat, any generator that is not at least on the tens of MW isn't economicaly viable. And for tens of MW, one needs tens of millions of dollars.
Rossi has sold 1MW heat plants.
But with the caveat: This is of course not verified scientific data, but it’s about as good as we are going to get until the test is concluded and data published, and it might help paint something of a picture of how things are going with the plant.
Any plant that generates 1MW net power can earn $54,000 a month in revenue. A bit more than 1/2 million dollars a year. If it costs less than that per year to run, then he just has to wait for it to generate enough cash to build a second one, and then a third one. At which point he will become exponentially rich without anyone's help.
Except that isn't the way its working out. I wish him the best of luck but he seems to have this century's version of the Moeller Air Car.
Re: Betting on fusion
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rossi has sold 1MW heat plants.
Actually he has a plant "under test", he is self reporting it here: http://www.e-catworld.com/rossis-1mw-plant-performance-updat... But with the caveat: This is of course not verified scientific data, but it’s about as good as we are going to get until the test is concluded and data published, and it might help paint something of a picture of how things are going with the plant. Any plant that generates 1MW net power…