• iridaniotter [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    As long as you're still allowing charcoal, modernish civilization could probably develop and you would still be able to make steel. In the modern era, iron ore could be reduced with hydrogen instead of coal. Then you would only need coal (or charcoal hopefully cause otherwise IDK what you would do in this scenario) to make the steel in an electric arc furnace. You could also of course just recycle steel. Another way to reach high temperatures for metallurgy is with solar furnaces. Parabolic mirrors focus light onto a single point, reaching up to 3,500°C. Concentrated solar power is a similar concept. Mirrors or lenses focus sunlight on to a single point and the heat drives a steam turbine for mechanical or electrical power. Molten salts can be used as a working fluid instead to store energy better through the night.

    There are, of course, issues with solar power. CSP requires a fair amount of water and yet the best regions in the world for solar power tend not to have much water. So perhaps you would have equatorial civilizations being industrial powerhouses with tons of solar industry that embark on huge hydrological projects that provide water for industry, agriculture, and hydroelectricity. Materials could be an issue. I believe glass is usually used, but silver and aluminum are being investigated. I can't tell you which is best, but keep in mind that aluminum was notoriously expensive because a way to process the most common aluminum-bearing ore had not been discovered. Silver could have interesting geopolitical consequences as silver played a role in European colonialism in both the east and west, although I have no idea if the technology for silver-lined mirrors would be available at this time.

    Eventually photovoltaics would be invented. In real life, I believe the first photovoltaic panels were invented around a century ago but have only recently been competitive with other energy sources. Concentrated solar power, meanwhile, is much more expensive (China is still investing in it though :some-controversy:). However, in this hypothetical world, CSP would have had a head start so we would end up in the opposite situation I imagine! There is also the hypothetical "solar updraft tower" and "energy tower" that you may want to look at.

    Next of course we have hydro power. Before steam engines, factories first used water power. Factories based on flowing water and big solar concentrators cannot be moved easily, so perhaps this would be advantageous to the proletariat as the capitalist would have a harder time doing a capital strike. BTW I think the Islamic world and China both had highly developed hydro infrastructure, so perhaps they would industrialize first.

    If we are allowing charcoal, it could be used in steam engines instead of coal. I don't really know how that would affect class struggle, but if you are interested then you would want to compare the two industries. There's also the issue of deforestation. Charcoal can be made sustainable with coppicing, but capitalists are not sustainable. Coal was much more plentiful in England and drove industrialization. So if the steam engine was to be relied upon, capitalists would probably just deforest the country in a decade.

    As for trains, steam locomotives are definitely still a possibility, even without using biofuels! "Fireless locomotives" pick up and store steam rather than creating it in the locomotive itself. A bit of an aside, but I always thought it would be hilarious to use the steam generated by a nuclear power plant for a fireless locomotive. Definitely way less effective than using the plant's electricity, but way funnier.

    Another important energy source would be wind power. And then finally there is biofuel. There are a lot of problems with biofuel, but do keep in mind that corn and sugar cane ethanol farmed in gigantic plantations are not the only way it could be produced. I've been writing and researching for a while now so I'm gonna end it here and let someone else elaborate on these if they'd like.