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To: stuartcr

Yeah, storms are so darned uncooperative. And who wants a 23 ton monster from the sky crashing down on their house? Or elementary school? Or hospital? Or shopping center? Or WTC?

The stormy weather problem also kicks the butt of photovoltaics, due to the need for very large arrays of them required to meet power needs. And of course, the problems keep piling up. Besides a little thing called sunset, the grid runs on AC, while photovoltaics produce DC (AC can go a lot further by power line), so some of this lovely "free" electricity would be lost in conversion. That increases the needed array size. Average overcast increases it further. Maintenance of the arrays -- whether they're covering whole counties in underpopulated, arid areas of the SW US, or covering the sides of skyscrapers in overcast northern snowbelt states -- would become a nightmare long before the array was constructed.

Not to mention, sand mining would be necessary, and we all know how cooperative the Luddites are about that.

Gas hydrates on the ocean floor can supply our civilization for thousands of years. By the time they run out (and who's to say they will, being biological products) other sources will be available. And the Luddites will still be screaming about something, because that's all they know how to do.


11 posted on 08/17/2005 10:02:08 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated by FR profile on Sunday, August 14, 2005.)
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To: SunkenCiv

It's a nice exercise, but an impractical idea.


16 posted on 08/17/2005 10:12:56 AM PDT by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
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