We could have been far along on this journey. We could have done so much already.
But we didn't. And that's shameful.
But now it's time. This isn't just an economic issue. It isn't just an environment issue. It isn't just a jobs issue.
It's THE issue.
The decade of 2010 will be remembered for the rest of history as the time America moved off of oil and coal. This will be the most dramatic economic and infrastructure transformation in the nation's history.
And yes, this will change future of the world.
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21 comments:
Oh nooooozz!! The polar bears are drowning because the ice is melting.
Spare a tear for Popo the Polar Bear, Keith.
Dude, you have really shown your true colors as a crazy, thumb-sucking lefty fool.
Do you even bother to read the posts we send you that show clearly that your Obama Messiah is just another stooge for the global elite?
It's not that it can be done, it's that it has to be done.
Renewables already generate 9% of our electricity according to the EIA website. I think most of this is from hydro though. There would be more from hydro if people started building mini and micro hydro stations, from existing unused dams and reservoirs.
And some countries are even more progressive and proactive. A trip through Germany or Denmark demonstrates how far behind this country (US) is in renewables.
We here in the US have to stop our selfish, NIMBY, BANNANS thinking about energy. If you want electricity, you are going to have to be inconvenienced one way or another. If you want electricity you may have to look out a kitchen window and see a wind turbine or pv array.
I love flying into Heathrow from the east, over the offshore windmill farm.
Windmills are beautiful. Windmills in the ocean, even more so.
Drill baby drill? I think not. Spin baby spin.
Screw renewables, too expensive. Lets give more money to Wall Street so they can lend it back to us.
Vanilla Ice,
There is a stream which runs across my property. Got any links to putting in a micr0-hydro system?
Anyone...?
Thanks!
-Mammoth
The beauty of wind and solar is you put it where there's no people, or livable conditions. Drive around the west - Nevada, Arizona, Montana and more. The country is empty. But sure is windy and sunny.
That said, we need an efficient and connected energy grid. That's gonna cost the big bucks up front. But the payoff is tremendous.
Americans need an education on clean energy. Me too. But I think we've all gotten over the hump as to whether we need to move off of oil and coal and gas. Now it's just a matter of how, and how fast.
The collective consciousness has changed, for good.
We've moved on.
And now we need to get moving.
I'm still laughing at how anyone thinks there is "change" coming. In rejecting conservatism, everyone forgot that Bush was not really a conservative. You will see most of his policies continue along with his massive spending. Only now instead of spending it on wars, we'll spend it on freebie handouts for the lazy.
And in the process we get to see an American city go up in a mushroom cloud. Unless Israel attacks Iran - very likely now that McCain won't be there to do it.
On wind power, it's a crock. Read any credible study done on it and you will see that it's a crock. All of the hundreds of thousands of California acres that are covered in windmills generate less than 2% of the power. Nuclear is the only way to go, the way it's done in your beloved Europe.
Even that crazy Texan billionaire who is pushing wind power admitted in an interview that it's probably not feasible. He openly said he's in it for the money. Sounds like the oilmen are simply moving to a new profit center.
iTulip identifies the next bubble (Jan '08). What is it...
Alternative Energy and Infrastructure.
The Next Big U.S. Bubble: Janszen on CNBC
.
By far the cheapest, most reliable, and most immediate course of action is to reduce our use of energy. Why does no one get this?
Tax fossil fuels to reflect their true costs and watch use drop and innovation florish. Use the $ to build your new grid. No new gov't spending required. Problem solved, next.
Thank you, Frank!
My husband is an engineer who works primarily at power plants and on pipelines. Wind is a crock. He spent weeks climbing up and around the windmills in California (Enron Wind, now GE). They don't work. Inefficient to the point of stupidity. Enron was trying to figure out why. (They didn't pay "the consultant's" bill...GE's suing to get the report, heh, heh, heh).
So, be careful...avoid wind as an investment.
"Enron Wind"
'nuff said.
Try Vestas.
Being against wind power is like being against breathing air.
Some people just cannot be helped. The ignorance has destroyed their brains.
"Wind is a crock."
My GreatGrandad had a windmill and he got his water out of the ground just fine. Nary a picowatt wasted.
Excuse me, but why do I not hear a damn thing about Hydrogen Fuel Cells? See Honda FCX if you want to see the future of energy.
The lemming processional has begun.
Unfortunately I was around and inpacted by the 70's gas crisis. I joined the crowd of believers that Congress with it's CAFE mandates (up to 40 mpg), the solar tax credits and a nation of 55 mph thrifty drivers would save every petro molecule. And I did follow the Energy Scripture as a good citizen.
Then the Arab Cartel opened the spigot and this is what I saw. CAFE rules relaxed to a joke point, Solar abandoned and those jillions of SUV drivers in the 80's and 90's driving their fat a@#$s to MCD's for a Mcfatal meal.
My first engineering job out of college was with Bechtel, which constructed Nuc Plants. As it turned out, dispite the media, those in Congress were paying lip service in the 70's. I personally witnessed the demise of the Nuc Industry under Repub's rule.
My second job was with a Copper company that did Solar and that went down the tubes too. I got smart after that and made a bundle and retired.
So I am more than cynical about the success of alternate energy as long as the Arabs hold the trump card.
I fear that the Country will invest into alternate energy and then the Arabs will drop the hammer and drop prices, causing the financials to be a no trade and another crisis.
However we must shed foreign dependence, and Corporate America cannot drive this train. The ROI will never trade, if the Arabs have an influence.
Just like National Defense, Alternate Energy should not be quantified in financial terms. This Program should be run like FDR's Civilian Conservation Corp or Eisenhowers Interstate Road Network. A definitive Program structured like NASA'a moonshot, would kick the ass of Russia, the ARABS, and Venezuela. Think about the power of such a Program.
Let me educate you keith. First of all, wind and solar right now are kind of a scam. It is a way we can feel good about ourselves. I work in the nuclear industry and have been in the power industry since I started working.
I would love it if wind and solar would be our only power, LOVE IT. I would gladly change careers. However, did you ever wonder how much oil is needed to make just one solar panel? How much oil is required to make one wind unit? Also, do you know anything about the environmental effects from wind or solar?
Illinois has wind farms. They also have a big problem, they are destroying the migratory bird popluation.
Do you know how many chemicals are used to make solar panels? Where do you think those chemicals go, how do you think we get them? Many of the products come from mining which is largely unregulated.
The real truth is that our way of life will not go one unless we use oil, it sucks. I hate that I know that. I wish I could be wideeyed and uniformed and think wind, solar, and waves would save the day. Don't even get me started on hydro power.
I think we should promote research in these areas but the reality is, our lives, as they exist now, are directly tied to oil.
Please, please, educate yourself before you spew this nonsense. You only fuel the fire of ingnorance.
bob
You got it right, Keith: renewable electricity (plus much higher efficiency).
Use it to electrify transportation - battery-electric cars and plug-in hybrids, electric rail and transit.
Why hydrogen fuel cells, ross, when batteries are much cheaper and more efficient?
Screw renewables, too expensive.
Compared to what, yoski? Depleting oil and natural gas? Dirty coal? Really-expensive (and very slow to build) nuclear?
I looked into solar panels for my house and did some spreadsheet calculations. My house is in Arizona, like many of you HP/S&A people.
My assumptions:
- SRP is my utility company
- worst-case effiency degradation (90% effecient after 10 years, 80% after 20 years)
- Tax incentives same as 2008 tax year
I found that to make solar panels a break-even proposition in the first 20 years, energy costs would need to rise 2% more per year than inflation.
Sure, it is possible that better technology is right around the corner, but I couldn't find any breakthrough technology that is going to be ready for mass production in the next 3-5 years.
If energy costs go up, the price of panels will skyrocket. It is also possible that the tax incentives will go away at some point, but who knows.
When you think about it, panels are a pretty good energy hedge. If energy costs go up, you could end up making money on this deal. That forgets about any benefit to the economy/environment. I also like the insurance policy against rolling brownouts which many argue are likely.
Some argue that the solar water heater pays for itself without energy inflation and is a more efficient use of the sun's energy, but I don't need a new water heater. Also, they wear out sooner than panels and my plumber says he doesn't go near 'em.
If anyone wants to see my spreadsheet, I can put it on the web. (It's not with me at the moment.) You can modify it using your own assumptions, including how much sun your locale gets.
I could see using the windmills built on the water to produce hydrogen through hydrolysis. Canisters that can be swapped into and out of cars could be refilled there. The only problem is that Honda FCX type cars currently cost about 1 million dollars. I don't have that much money burning a hole in my pocket to replace my 1999 Ford Contour when the day comes to replace it.
Lets face it: all alternative energy plans, especially in reference to cars, have downsides. I feel though that the more widespread use of ethanol has less negative downsides than just about any other.
Without a doubt Keith,
Energy independents generated in a clean and efficient way is
"THE issue" of this decade.
We are soo close, we have all this knowledge,and tools.
So many things we can do NOW, like Wind, Solar, Nuclear,Water-current, Gravity, etc.
People all across the world are tinkering, inventing, and experimenting.
The break through is around the corner, or may already be here, just needs to flower.
Need to support a gas tax to do this. Renewables are a long term investment and w/o financial motivation we're going to be in the same boat as we were earlier this year with susceptibility to gas prices, OPEC, etc.
Except no one is talking about this, probably because it's political suicide to do so but it really is the right thing to do.
Keith Said: "Being against wind power is like being against breathing air."
Being for wind power is like trying to light up NYC with a few candles.
Sure sounds nice, but it can't be done.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/105385-obama-s-green-obsession-more-harm-than-good
let us take a swift look at some basic facts. The upper limit for a windmill is about 59.3 per cent. This is called the Betz limit. What it tells us is that it is impossible for any windmill or wind turbine to turn more than 59.3 per cent of the wind’s energy into mechanical or electrical energy. In English so plain that even Obama and his advisors can grasp it - wind power is dilute and that's where its diseconomies of scale come from.
Another insurmountable technical problem is the scientific fact that the maximum power one can extract from a windmill is also proportional to the third power of the wind’s velocity. This means that even small changes in wind velocity will generate huge disproportionate changes in output, even with the best designed windmills.
A 1978 British study should give you some ideal of how inefficient these projects are. It calculated that it would take 20 million windmills with 100 foot diameter blades to meet the country's electricity needs.
Denmark is one country whose energy mistakes have been ignored. It allowed itself to be conned by green fanatics into diverting masses of scarce capital into building wind farms, much to the disgust of real scientists and engineers. The country is now in the ridiculous situation where its theoretical generating capacity is three times that of peak demand.
"Some people just cannot be helped. The ignorance has destroyed their brains."
Finding answers to today's enormous challenges will require open minds and flexible thinking.
We want a cure. Would you like a placebo?
AND...those who disagree with you are not necessarily ignorant...unless you are all knowing. Are you?
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