Speculation: From which source can the most energy be extracted?

Question

Fission? Fusion? Antimatter? Monopoles? Mini-Black hole? Dimensional tap? Anything else?

Answer 1

Zero-point energy (vacuum energy). It's a form of energy that exists in empty space, even in your room or in the farthest reaches of space, in other words EVERYWHERE!!! If we could store this form of energy on a large scale and convert it into other forms of energy like electricity or heat we would have a source of perpetual energy. We could also use this form of energy for interstellar travel, because unlike these propulsion systems that we have today which have to carry their own fuel,
a zero-point energy propelled spacecraft doesn't have to carry fuel because this form of energy is everywhere.

Answer 2

Okay, to start with energy cannot escape a black hole, so that's out (and I want to ignore Hawking radiation because I can produce more energy by rubbing my hands together). I think the dimensional tap you talk about is nothing more than science fiction (although string theory does say that graviational energy can leak through the branes to other dimentions). Magnetic monopoles can not exist. Maxwell's equations prohibit them and Maxwell's equations still hold true for both quantum mechanics and relativity. Therefore, we are left with three sources: Fission, fusion and antimatter.

Fission produces a lot of energy (look at the sun, that's one big fission reactor) but does not actually produce more energy that fussion. The only advantage of fission over fussion is that the fuels used are safe and pleantiful and that there are no dangerous biproducts. Fusion is great and we are using that right now very successfully.

Antimatter, in principal, would be the best out of all those you have listed except that it takes a huge amount of energy to create an anti-atom in a lab at the moment. Whilst anti-matter is all around us (positrons etc exist in nature and we use them for PET scans in hospitals etc) harvesting antimatter is a problem.

It might be possible in the future to harvest antimatter for use in a tokomak but the source of the antimatter is the issue here. I think that when the tokomak is online, fission will be the way forwards.

Answer 3

Right now, of all the things you mentioned, only nuclear fission is a working means of energy production. The only working fusion reactor is our Sun, which produces about a kilowatt per square meter at the surface of the Earth.

Research continues on making a working fusion reactor because there is a plentiful supply of deuterium fuel in the water of the oceans, enough to last essentially forever. The problem is confinement of the fusing nuclei at the correct temperature and pressure for the proper length of time to extract useful energy, say ten to a thousand times more energy than is used to initiate the fusion reaction.

Don't sell your oil and coal stocks just yet though; its a difficult problem.

Antimatter, monopoles, mini black holes and dimensional taps are best regarded as speculative fiction, not serious contenders to replace our reliance on oil and coal for energy.

Answer 4

from sun(solar energy)

Answer 5

EVIL