Superconductors are themselves expensive, but are the cooling costs really that bad? I actually have another crazy idea for that.
Slowing down the Earth’s rotation is not a good argument against this idea. It would be a rounding error compared to the slowdown the Earth already experiences due to the Moon and tides. The day was 23 hours long at the time of the dinosaurs. Unfortunately, environmentalists might actually use the argument. They seem happy to oppose nuclear for stupid reasons.
Cheap photovoltaics are coming, and they will probably use organic molecules rather than silicon. The problem remains grid scale storage. Photovoltaics only work when the light is on them. Solar can’t be any cheaper than the cost of storage.
Liquid nitrogen costs something like $0.20 per liter, if you produce it at scale. If you buy if from someone else in small amounts it’s naturally more expensive, but probably comparable to the cost of milk.
My question isn’t how much it costs to fill the tank in the first place, but rather how much boils off per unit time. A vacuum flask is a great insulator, so it might not be that much. If superconductors are necessary for enough efficiency to make this work, do we lose all our efficiency gains in cooling costs?
It depends on the scale you are working at. A large body with no internal heat source can be kept cold over time at a lower cost because only the outside needs to be insulated. If cryonics were at the scale of a large cryogenic warehouse, it might be much less expensive.
Superconductors are themselves expensive, but are the cooling costs really that bad? I actually have another crazy idea for that.
Slowing down the Earth’s rotation is not a good argument against this idea. It would be a rounding error compared to the slowdown the Earth already experiences due to the Moon and tides. The day was 23 hours long at the time of the dinosaurs. Unfortunately, environmentalists might actually use the argument. They seem happy to oppose nuclear for stupid reasons.
Cheap photovoltaics are coming, and they will probably use organic molecules rather than silicon. The problem remains grid scale storage. Photovoltaics only work when the light is on them. Solar can’t be any cheaper than the cost of storage.
Cooling cost require liquid nitrogen. It’s expensive. That’s partly why MRI scans are expensive and why storing cyronics bodies is expensive.
Liquid nitrogen costs something like $0.20 per liter, if you produce it at scale. If you buy if from someone else in small amounts it’s naturally more expensive, but probably comparable to the cost of milk.
My question isn’t how much it costs to fill the tank in the first place, but rather how much boils off per unit time. A vacuum flask is a great insulator, so it might not be that much. If superconductors are necessary for enough efficiency to make this work, do we lose all our efficiency gains in cooling costs?
It depends on the scale you are working at. A large body with no internal heat source can be kept cold over time at a lower cost because only the outside needs to be insulated. If cryonics were at the scale of a large cryogenic warehouse, it might be much less expensive.