Other safer fuels are not far behind for applications closer to people.
The energy component of that cost is going to halve or better on a fairly predictable schedule around 2035, so if the cost of the manufacture can be brought down to half or better there's not really any reason to continue with fossil fuels.
So the correct metaphor is a replicator that only makes perishable non refrigeratable foods on public holidays. To be able to eat the rest of the time you'll need to make a lot of soup even though you don't really like soup.
Also worth noting is this particular project is just buzzword soup that absolutely reeks of a pump and dump scam, and is closely tied to y combinator. Please don't dismiss real e fuel projects when they run off with a few billion dollars of investor money in two years. Edit: found their news article where they break down costs a bit, might not he a scam -- the slicm marketing still reeks of solar roadways though.
Batteries solve this somewhat, but are big, heavy, and expensive.
Fuels are small, light, cheap to store, and inefficient.
You're not going to want to store energy for 6 months with batteries even if they hit the $30-60/kWh range.
You're not going to want to store energy as fuel for a few days unless you really need to pick it up and move it.
Solar derived fuels are nearly competitive with nuclear ($130/MWh with maybe $10-20/MWh to burn it according to this claim https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2021-08/12-proton... vs $100 for nuclear).
Other safer fuels are not far behind for applications closer to people.
The energy component of that cost is going to halve or better on a fairly predictable schedule around 2035, so if the cost of the manufacture can be brought down to half or better there's not really any reason to continue with fossil fuels.
So the correct metaphor is a replicator that only makes perishable non refrigeratable foods on public holidays. To be able to eat the rest of the time you'll need to make a lot of soup even though you don't really like soup.
Also worth noting is this particular project is just buzzword soup that absolutely reeks of a pump and dump scam, and is closely tied to y combinator. Please don't dismiss real e fuel projects when they run off with a few billion dollars of investor money in two years. Edit: found their news article where they break down costs a bit, might not he a scam -- the slicm marketing still reeks of solar roadways though.