Posted on 11/24/2011 11:10:45 AM PST by motivated
"Clean." "Green." What do those words mean? When President Obama talks about "clean energy," some people think of "clean coal" and low-carbon nuclear power, while others envision shiny solar panels and wind turbines. And when politicians tout "green jobs," they might just as easily be talking about employment at General Motors as at Greenpeace. "Clean" and "green" are wide open to interpretation and misappropriation; that's why they're so often mentioned in quotation marks. Not so for renewable energy, however.
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Renewable energy sounds so much more natural and believable than a perpetual-motion machine, but there's one big problem: Unless you're planning to live without electricity and motorized transportation, you need more than just wind, water, sunlight, and plants for energy. You need raw materials, real estate, and other things that will run out one day. You need stuff that has to be mined, drilled, transported, and bulldozed -- not simply harvested or farmed. You need non-renewable resources:
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Ping.
Renewable resources are expensive and apart from sunlight, they don’t pay for themselves. The truth is that in an advanced society, we can’t really go back to “Green” even if we wanted to.
If you are referring to the normal cycles of global climate change then no amount of "combat" will prevent the inevitable. If you are referring to the myth of 'man made climate change, then I refuse to accept the premise in the first place.
From the article:
Renewable energy sounds so much more natural and believable than a perpetual-motion machine...
It never before occurred to me that the sloppy-think concept of "Renewable Energy" is actually a convoluted way to get around the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Don Lancaster showed that all these efforts to create energy out of the ether will always cost more than they produce.
I agree with you and don’t agree with ‘climate change’ as something that’s actually happening, but some people do ‘feel’ that climate change is happening and that text is for them to consider.
Only thing comes close to dependable “green” energy production would be.. hydraulic production.. in rivers and tides..
Tide water production could out produce dams in some/most places.. rivers and streams could out produce wind by a long shot.. especially in large rivers...
The energy available is large and constant.. tide water is barely touched.. Hard to imagine this source has not been tapped even to this day.. This energy could be transported by microwave..if not thru mere conduits.. Many places are extremely rich in tide water possibilities..
we get clean renewable energy every day, Its called the SUN!
The basic problem with it is it assumes demand is inelastic. In the real world, there will be increasing demand simply because there are more people. Renewable energy nowhere gets close to satisfying increased demand. And the notion we can do it cheaply and conveniently - with solar, wind and biomass fuel technologies is a mirage. We will be dependent on fossil and nuclear energy resources - in a word - non-renewables for a long time to come simply because nothing else comes close to satisfying the needs of our energy-intensive civilization.
Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. That is the great enemy of green solutions. Anything electrical and/or mechanical will break, period. Solar panels only have an expected service life of 10 years before they too deteriorate in performance and reliability. Also, as time moves along, the price of everything goes up so replacement costs are more than the original and those replacement parts also have a disposal cost as well.
I’ll bet the eco-nuts have not found a way to mount all of those little cells without the plastic panels that are a product of the oil industry. So if they just say lets use wood, then we will have to cut down their precious trees. But then again, the fact that southern pines are harvested just like their veggies has escaped them as well.
We get clean renewable energy ALMOST every day, too...it’s called RAIN!
Rain is a greenhouse gas that causes us to overheat when the sun comes out. Ever notice how hot it gets when it rains and humidity is up and the sun comes out./s
My bad - happy Thanksgiving!!
HA...you aren’t from the NW US are you! Heat? during rain? (Yes, I saw the /s)
Renewable energy source:
When President Obama talks about “clean energy,”
It’s a code to all his friends to say their company is in “clean energy” , so he can give them tons of free cash .
Ping.
At have a relative with three kids - they faced a $1,000 electric heating bill last winter - a surprise, so they put in a wood burning stove type heater, secured access to wood at a reasonable price - done deal - no more huge heating bills. Of course, wood in not cheap especially in some areas and at stores, but it’s a great renewable heat source.
At have a relative with three kids - they faced a $1,000 electric heating bill last winter - a surprise, so they put in a wood burning stove type heater, secured access to wood at a reasonable price - done deal - no more huge heating bills. Of course, wood in not cheap especially in some areas and at stores, but it’s a great renewable heat source.
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