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Unlimited energy is a concept of having free access to unlimited quantities of physical or electrical energy. This does not refer to spiritual, muscular, or emotional energy. The concept is a long-standing one in works of science fiction and among futurists. In realistic terms, there are various sources of energy and general agreement as to whether each of these sources offer the opportunity for unlimited energy.

Note: Renewable does not usually mean unlimited. Unlimited refers to the ability to access as much energy as required at any given time.

[edit] Implications

The implications of unlimited energy are complex.

For many industries, the cost of energy is not the most important consideration. For instance, in mining, unlimited energy would not mean much. Most of the costs involved in mining are not the energy to drive the equipment, the power to run the pumps and fans, or the explosives to fracture the material for extraction. Rather, the costs are the capital costs of building the equipment, the human costs to run the equipment, and the cost-benefit analysis of open-market-price versus production cost.

However, there are some industries that would be drastically affected. Electrical generation, petrochemical production, etc.

The geopolitical implications could be severe in countries with a lot of money coming in from oil revenues. Their citizens could be quite upset that they had lost that revenue, and therefore could become both poor and angry. However, if the oil revenues that keep many political regimes afloat ceased, those societies might have other opportunities to change towards more responsive forms of government.

However, since many parts of the world that have oil have very limited water supplies, unlimited energy could turn their deserts green with desalinated water from nearby oceans.

Authors that have most famously covered this material include:

• Isaac Asimov
• David Brin
• Greg Bear
• Larry Niven

Method / Material	Arguments In Favor	Arguments Against
Fossil fuels (Petroleum,Natural gas, Oil shale, tar sands, coal:	Vast infrastructure currently exists for manufacture and distribution of fossil fuels; A high percentage of transportation modes/devices, as well as electrical energy generation capacity, is based on consumption of fossil fuels; Energy density (the amount of energy stored per cubic centimeter or per kilogram) of fossil fuels is relatively high.	Fossil fuel sources are controlled by a relatively small set of nations (see also: OPEC) Supply is non-renewable; derived from solar energy stored in biomass accumulated over millions of years. Large current usage is probably causing global warming due to increasing global CO2 concentrations.
geothermal energy	Earth's core has a very, very large amount of stored heat No conceivable plan to extract heat from the core would even begin to remotely affect the temperature of the core (the supply is way too big by large orders of magnitude).	Currently available only where the crust is thin, near current volcanic activity; Energy requirements to dig down to a hot spot are significant (thus return-on-investment suffers); the efficiency of heat transfer through the rock might mean that just by getting heat out we cool down that spot and thus cannot extract more heat; there are lots of unknown factors that may affect the viability of this process outside of current locations (hotspots); Releases more radioactivity than fission;
solar power including biomass, solar cells, and solar thermal energy	Supply of sunlight is nearly unlimited (for definition of 'nearly', see dyson sphere). Electrical power is directly produced and requires no steam turbines or complex machinery	Supply from Sun limited (on earth) by weather, daytime, land area to collect power. Manufacturing solar cells requires energy itself; Some solar cells use gallium and arsenic (gallium arsenide, two heavy metals, manufacture of which is dangerous; electrical power is direct current, not alternating current, so to use it most people need an inverter, which is up to half the cost of a functioning solar electric setup These limits do not apply in space; Most of these power supplies are intermittent, and would require uneconomical methods of power storage; Not economical without government subsidies;
Nuclear fission	Large supplies of uranium exist worldwide, containing vast amounts of energy	Pollution is probable depending on type of fission, and pollution effects must be included in cost equation.
Nuclear fusion	Supply of hydrogen is vast (water is H20) Supply of Deuterium is vast (seawater is small percentage D2O)	Various kinds of fusion power produce hot (energetic) neutrons which turn non-radioactive things into radioactive things; Various methods of creating fusion use more energy than they produce, for example, Inertial electrostatic confinement; Gamma and neutron radiation from the reaction can be significant (except in the harder-to-generate Lithium reaction cycle); Feasibility questionable;