[biblewonk]

In 1990 the Scientific American Sept issue was entitled "Energy for Planet Earth" Wind delivers something like 14,000 times all the energy that is generated and consumed in 1990. So you install windmills to capture 10 times the wind needed to generate electricity, upgrade the grid transmission system and you've got the 25% wind reliability factor covered.

Then your replace standard flourescent light bulbs which drop 90% of the electrical energy as heat in the ballast resistor and not lumens through the flouresed gas and you can have a 9 times improvement in light per electrical watt input. Since 25% of all electricity is used to create light this could be a big savings. The new RF flouresecent lightbulbs were available in 1990. If we wanted a cogent energy plan we would offer tax incentives to building owners to dfo this retro fit!

I love you man!!

[newgeezer]

I wonder how much money was squandered on manned space programs, and how far that could have gone toward providing the power infrastructure for the 21st century.