On Morning Joe this morning, Joe was going on and on about how we have to use alternative energy sources and that the president should order a 45 mpg CAFE. Most Americans don’t want to drive those little “Smart” cars. I know I don’t. This is a very good article. Thanks for posting.
He misses only one thing. Solar One, the tower thermal-based solar power plant, had a liquid sodium storage mechanism to provide power 24/7.
I still say we go nuclear as the stabilizer, with solar, wind and anything else to provide peak.
Good article - thanks for posting.
The few times that I’ve seen windmill farms, most of them weren’t turning. Oops.
Michigan is a beautiful microcosm of the problems with renew ables.
First we have the legislature forcing electric and gas producers to reduce output.
Then we have the state refusing to grant permits to clean coal plants citing a lack of demand for the energy they would produce.
While we’re refusing the clean coal fired plants, we’re giving permits for wind farms despite the lack of demand that prevents the coal fired plants.
The wind farms are all at the low end of the 1 to 7 potential energy scale that the state has adopted.
Meanwhile we have some 300 unused dams in Michigan. Many of those could probably be fitted with turbines to produce energy to feed into the grid. They wouldn’t be huge producers but they would help. Instead we’re tearing the dams out as fast as we can.
Basically it all comes down to being forced to use wind at a much higher cost.
Very good article!!
Even an idiot like me could understand it!
Let’s see that is 40 watts a square foot never happen!
One suggestion for “storage” a teacher made to our class was to build reservoirs and pump water “up” to them during off peak hours using the excess power from windmills, solar, etc. During peak hours, the water can be used for hydroelectric power. Conversion efficiency is an issue, but if the power is just going to be wasted anyways... and of course it shares the hydroelectric issues.
Those clouds are water vapor.....the predominant greenhouse gas
Jimmy Carter and W.
Real world physics is a hard task master.
“The Idiot’s Guide to Why Renewable Energy is Not the Answer”
Well I am hoping that solar works well at least for individual homes because I plan to get that for my new house within a year of closing. Not that I am worried about the environment, I am just not looking forward to the power bills we will see once Obummer passes Cap & Tax.
ping
bttt
The points made by the author are points I've been using for years when I hear libtards go on their "renewable energy" kicks.
Wind farms? Only when it's windy, and never near actual people.
Ethanol? Who ever said it's a good idea to start burning our food.
Biomass? There ain't enough landmass.
Solar? On average, it's unavailable 50% of the time.
They have conniptions when I tell them the only real long-term solution we have is nuclear fission. They really go nuts when I tell them the French are the best at it.
Actually geothermal is not limited to places close to volcanism. The earth gets very hot the deeper you go. Check out the hot dry rock geothermal concept:
http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/ees/ees11/geophysics/other/hdr.shtml
I know they have had a lot of technical hurdles getting this concept to work, but if they ever did it would be another cog in the energy solution.