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

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[-] ptz@dubvee.org 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 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.

[-] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 2 points 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?

[-] BandoCalrissian@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

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

[-] ptz@dubvee.org 1 points 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.

[-] Chefdano3@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

How does wind energy fit then?

Or hydro electric dams?

[-] ptz@dubvee.org 1 points 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.

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this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2023
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