Charlie Stross on Nostr: c) Cold winter nights in the far north. Most folks think solar power is great—it ...

c) Cold winter nights in the far north. Most folks think solar power is great—it peaks during daytime in summer, when you want air conditioning! But that's less useful if you need heat to avoid freezing on a winter night.

d) Space travel beyond roughly Jupiter orbit (not much sunlight that far out).

e) Speculatively: fusion reactors as a controlled source of neutrons for destroying existing radioactive waste stockpiles through transmutation.

Of these, (a) and (b) are critical.

/end