ElI5: Why can’t we use a renewably powered, industrial sized ice machine to replenish and cool the arctic?
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ok, so 2nd law of thermodynamics and can’t destroy/create energy issue aside, let’s do some quick back of the envelope math for this. Google says we’re losing about 1.2 trillion tons of arctic ice per year. That’s 38.6 million kilograms per second. Obviously, that means the ice is above the melting point, but due to salt, that may be closer to -5⁰C or lower. So let’s start there. We’re not looking at cooling the Arctic yet, that would take even colder temperatures and/even more ice. Just to replenish the ice.
Let’s say we’re taking water at 20⁰C about room temp and cooling it by 25 degrees. Water takes about 4.186 kJ per kg per degree to cool. So that’s 4000 gigawatts of power just to cool that much water (assuming 100% efficiency). But we’re still not done, the energy of fusion is also required. That’s another 333 kJ/kg.
That’s a grand total of 16,800 gigawatts or just over 5 Chernobyl reactors dedicated entirely just to replenishing the lost ice of the Arctic. And all assuming no losses. Not to mention, this isn’t a profitable venture, so who’s paying for the engineers to design, construction workers to make, and scientists/engineers/staff to run them?
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