Posted on 11/22/2014 11:38:11 AM PST by Vince Ferrer
One more liberal myth blows up in their faces
You’re average Joe knew that 6 years ago. Guess Google engineers aren’t all that good.
This should come to no surprise to anyone who knows basic physics. To be usable, energy cannot be accumulated, it must be unleashed.
Looks like it is fusion or nothing.
Solar is viable only on a personal basis when used with passive solar sun etc. When you get into those huge solar plants without engineers or solar experts to take care of what is being collected, it goes belly up. The wind turbines seem okay in small areas, but aren’t substantial for a whole grid to run off of.
Now, this was tried forty years ago and didn’t work either. Is it those who try to run it, or is it that it was meant for the private person, who can implement for personal use and has time to correct any ongoing issues?
Look at billions wasted by taxpayers on those solar companies now closed....of course the democrats got their donations from our money first.
Solar and such are compromises that are suitable for individuals off grid and military operations for the field, remote sites etc. and all kinds of better than nothings, but not for nations and cities.
Well, you know the old saying........
“Horsepower is work, but torque is one of The MONKEES.”
Fusion or fission. The cost of permitting and the length of time to build facilities, leading to unacceptable IDC costs, are also problematic. There will be a day though, maybe not in our lifetimes.
Anything else is pixie dust.
They started with the wrong idea: to provide *most* energy with renewable resources. The truth is that *some* renewable energy is fine and dandy, but only for *marginal* uses.
Most of the time, marginal uses are less valuable, because primary energy provision is more than adequate, and does a great job at low cost.
However, when there are *peaks* of energy consumption, renewable resources are quite handy. Oddly enough, mostly by making primary energy provision more efficient.
As an M.E., I’ve been saying for decades that widespread wind and solar are pipedreams. Sure, they have their niche, when ready or reliable infrastructure is unavailable. But the physical plant (both space and materials) to extract a low density energy source makes it highly impractical on a large scale.
Solar energy. Our fair-weather friend.
Humans have largely abandoned wind energy except for recreational fun over the last few centuries.
You pretty much covered it.
There’s a place for it but not large scale.
A 2012 comprehensive life-cycle analysis in Journal of Industrial Ecology shows that almost half the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from an electric car come from the energy used to produce the car, especially the battery. The mining of lithium, for instance, is a less than green activity. By contrast, the manufacture of a gas-powered car accounts for 17% of its lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions. When an electric car rolls off the production line, it has already been responsible for 30,000 pounds of carbon-dioxide emission. The amount for making a conventional car: 14,000 pounds.
The production of the electric car results in sizeable emissions —the equivalent of 80,000 miles of travel in a typical gasoline powered vehicle.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324128504578346913994914472
Batteries have severely underperformed for the last 100 years or so.
PV is cool modern tech though.
Well, the glib answer is it’s too early to tell.
The real answer is just the name ‘renewable energy’ is a con. The law of thermodynamics tells us that no matter what, it’s going to cost you somewhere, and there will be waste in the form of heat, and as noted in the past, the mere construction of batteries, power conversion equipment are expensive and energy intensive themselves.
We are entering the phase of mass robotification. Very early mind you, but I can’t envision how much acceleration is behind that technology. Asteroid mining and orbital energy collectors have a lot of conceptual pressure, meaning at some point there will be breakout technology. It may be 10 years or 100 years but it will happen if we haven’t destroyed ourselves beforehand or neutered ourselves into a dead end society with socialism/communism. That breakthrough that propels us forward will undoubtedly be in energy generation/collecting.
That's what happens when drinking Kool-Aid is mistaken for thought.
Just blinded by faith.
Also hydro. But then that resource is by definition limited and much of it has already been developed.
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