Oh, incidentally, if I were to choose a way for people to become somewhat
energy independent (ie - not hooked up to some grid and thus not totally
dependent on giant energy purveyors) I would far rather put my energy into
developing viable cold fusion applications, and not waste my time on the
other stuff we've already discussed.
Philip.
At 04:21 PM 3/15/2006 -0500, you wrote:
Philip Winestone wrote:
For countries such as the US and Canada, renewable power such as solar
energy is quite inadequate.
That's incorrect. The U.S. wind power in the top ~5 states is larger than
the power from all of the oil produced in the Middle East. (That is, wind
power from places where turbines are allowed, excluding national parks,
bird migratory lanes, urban areas and so on.) Solar power in the southeast
could also easily supply all U.S. energy needs. As I recall, advanced,
large scale solar in the Mohave desert could probably supply the entire
world with energy, but the cost would be prohibitive.
There are areas in the U.S. without much renewable power, such as Georgia
and Washington DC. (If we could harness stupidity, cupidity and hot air,
Washington alone could supply the whole nation.)
Power sources such as small hydro, where to some extent the power output
is consistent, is attractive, as is biomass to some extent.
Hydro is tapped out. Biomass is far too small to make a significant
difference. Biomass is a form of solar energy which happens to be less
than 0.1% efficient, which is ridiculous.
- Jed
