What Would it Take for a Yottawatt Civilization
Here are the units prefix definitions from wikipedia.
10^3 W kW kilowatt 10^6 W MW megawatt 10^9 W GW gigawatt (current large hydro have 1 to 20 gigwatts. Nuclear and coal plants can have 1-2 gigawatts ) 10^12 W TW terawatt (The total power used by humans worldwide (about 16 TW in 2006) is commonly measured in this unit.) 10^15 W PW petawatt (the total energy flow of sunlight striking Earth's atmosphere is estimated at 174 PW) 10^18 W EW exawatt 10^21 W ZW zettawatt 10^24 W YW yottawatt (the Sun outputs approximately 386 Yottawatts)
A yottawatt civilization would be roughly equivalent to a Kardashev 1.75 civilization. Kardashev level One is able to access and use all of the energy of the sun that strikes the earth. Kardashev Level Two is able to use all of the energy of the sun.
Power Sources Super Solar, Fusion and Deep Burn Fission
Previously this site has discussed deep burn nuclear fission and using Uranium from the Ocean. Deep burn would mean using nuclear fuel about 100 times more efficiently than we do now. Burning all of the Uranium, Plutonium or thorium completely. There would only be waste material that has half life of less than 30 years left.
With deep burn and maximum mining of uranium and thorium we could get 1 million times more nuclear fission power than we do now. 100 times more efficiency and 10,000 times more material. 600 million tons per year.
So scaling up from about 400 gigawatts up to 400 petawatts. This rate of usage would go through the uranium in the ocean in about 6 years and would be going through the uranium and thorium in the crust at very good clip.
So it would take about 267,000 years to go through all of the uranium and thorium at the 400 petawatt rate.
There is an estimated of 600 trillion tons or 12 times the amount in the earth’s crust for Uranium not in the Sun in the solar system.
So going up to 1 zettawatt would use up the fissionable nuclear material in about 1000 years. Going up to 1 yottawatt would use it up in one year.
If the ratio of thorium to uranium held in the solar system as it does for the crust then there would be about 4 years of yottawatt power using all of the thorium and uranium that is not in the sun.
Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear fusion appears to be on the verge of a breakthrough
About 1 in 6500 hydrogen atoms in seawater is deuterium. Deuterium abundance on Jupiter is about 2.25×10^−5 (roughly 22 atoms in a million, or 15% of the terrestrial deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio.
There is enough water in the ocean to provide energy for 3 X 10^11 years at the current rate of energy consumption. The availability of Lithium on land is sufficient for at least 1000 if not 30000 years, and the cost per kWh would be even smaller than that of Deuterium. If the oceans is included it is estimated that there is enough fuel for 3 X 10^7 years.
16 Terawatts X 3 X 10^11 years OR
16 Petawatts X 3 X 10^8 years OR
16 Exawatts X 3 X 10^5 years OR
16 Zettawatts X 300 years OR 1 Zettawatt for 4800 years OR
1 Yottawatt for 4.8 years
This is only using the ocean. Using Jupiter for nuclear fusion fuel would enable billions of years of yottawatt energy.
Super solar Energy
As noted by the definitions, capturing and using 0.3% of the energy from the sun enables a yottawatt civilization.
