Question: Energy is quite limited right now and we have to pay to get it, and making energy also causes global warming. Do you think there is a way to get unlimited energy by using something which is basically unlimited to us for example combining hydrogen to make helium and therefore creating radiant energy (hydrogen fusion)?

Thomas Barrett answered on 17 Mar 2015:

A fantastic question. Electricity would have been totally free is Thomas Edison hadn’t cheated Nikola Tesla out of business in the US during the discovery of electricity so you have the father of the lightbulb to thank for your bills! We would also likely have had electric cars mass produced by now as well! Although there are people doing things about this now (Elon Musk and Tesla motors or the Nissan Leaf for example)

My old housemate used to work at the fusion reactor in Oxford before becoming a PhD student. The technology and understanding is there, but currently it takes more energy in than we get out, but we can do it! We have the proof of concept and now we will make things more efficient.

There are also other big advances in solar and other green technologies (my new housemate works on this) but the uptake on these things is rather slow, because our energy demand is too high for renewables alone which can’t handle the big spikes in use our power grid sees everyday when people all get home and turn on EastEnders at the same time!

But with time that will improve. Personally I think a move from fossil fuel to nuclear and green and finally to fusion (when its working) would be the best course of action. Till then all I can do is wait for the Tesla Motors mass produced car to reach the UK (there is a showroom near my parents in Birmingham but it only has the sportscars)