Fossil fuel would I guess be chemically stored fusion energy from a long time ago

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I could be wrong, but I think geothermal may be the (sole?) exception to that. That heat is from the formation of the planet and radioactive decay (fission). That heat/energy would have coalesced during the accretion process regardless of whether the sun was adding energy. Again, I think. If I’m wrong, please enlighten as this is an interesting topic.

    Edit: I was thinking I might be technically wrong since we can’t really “renew” geothermal energy, but Wikipedia does have it classified as renewable:

    Geothermal power is considered to be a sustainable, renewable source of energy because the heat extraction is small compared with the Earth’s heat content.

    • BandoCalrissian@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Radioactive elements were formed in the last moments of a collapsing star, so even those were formed during fusion.

      • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        That is true. I guess it depends on how much of the heat is generated via fission processes and how much is just stored from planetary accretion. I don’t have any numbers for that at this moment, but I will certainly concede that geothermal is fusion-assisted lol.

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.worksOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Maybe tidal energy would also be an exception? It’s from the motion of the moon, which is the result of ancient planetary collisions?

    • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Wind: The sun (a giant fusion reactor) heats the atmosphere which generates the wind (highly simplified).

      Hydro: Driven by the water cycle where the sun plays a key role in the “evaporation, condensation, precipitation” process.