What is the future of energy?

[AchillesWrathfulLove]

Do you think we have discovered all that there is to discover in terms of energy sources? Can we now only improve on these discovered energy sources like wind, solar, nuclear etc

Is nuclear energy still a young thing where there is lots of room to improve? What about dark energy, can we harness that?

It was once a high school dream of mine to work on this topic so it still lingers in my head and makes me wonder about it...

What are your thoughts? Do you have any ideas of your own that could improve current energy harnessing technology or maybe something "brand new" that could be discovered or harnessed etc...

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

 

[berkeman]

Renewable energy and energy storage will be big parts of the development going forward. But an integral part of that is how the Grid will be changed / optimized for the new flows of energy. @anorlunda has written several Insights articles about those Grid considerations that you will probably find useful. Here is a good place to start:

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/renewable-energy-meets-power-grid-operations/

 

[russ_watters]

Do you think we have discovered all that there is to discover in terms of energy sources? Can we now only improve on these discovered energy sources like wind, solar, nuclear etc

Well, we haven't been able to master fusion power yet. But other than that, I don't think there is much new out there. Nothing I can think of that we use today is less than 50 years old and even most of the newer ones (like nuclear fission) include elements of technology a century or many centuries old.

Is nuclear energy still a young thing where there is lots of room to improve?

There is some room to improve, but not much; mostly in terms of safety and cost.

What about dark energy, can we harness that?

No.