Renewable Energy

[wadea]

I have a feeling that the professors theory about meeting our transportation needs with wind energy relied upon the assumption that you could get the owners of all of America's trains, planes and automobiles to convert or replace their vehicles with electric powered ones. I'm not going to call this impossible, but I will call it difficult. I will also be very impressed the day a jumbo jet can be run coast-to-coast on only electric power. It is possible that we will see something like this in our lifetime. If so, I will be impressed - and happy.

[wadea]

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^^Im pretty sure middle eastern countries have more concerns with the US than just the pruchase of oil. LOL at the theory of introducing renewable sources of energy will combat terrorism

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I disagree.

1. The US needs a reliable source of oil.-->
2. MidEast-on-MidEast religion-fueled violence threatens that supply.-->
3. The US takes sides in an attempt to stabilize the region and secure their oil supply.-->
4. The unchosen group is unhappy and animosity toward the US spreads, leading to Jihad.

The problem in the MidEast is that they don't separate religion from politics. So, as a foreign country, if you play politics with them, you also play religion.

If the US does not need MidEast oil, the root cause of our interactions is eliminated, along with the consequences. The US would interact with these nations no more than they do with any other random nation of similar population size.

As another way of illustrating, picture the MidEast with no oil. If you think the US is involved with an oil-poor MidEast, take a look at Africa. And again, no interaction means no animosity.

[microbet]

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Solar PV is EXTREMELY reliable. EXTREMELY. The first modern PV cell manufactured at Bell labs in 1954 still works. New modules are warrantied for 25 years and will work for much longer. They require little or no maintenance.

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I did not mean mechanically reliable. I mean that the sun doesn't shine 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

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That's true. The recent surge (such as it is) in PV could not be happening without net metering. Most systems are installed on properties that are still connected to the grid. When you use more power than you produce with your PV panels you draw power from the grid. When you produce more than you use, you supply power to the grid and your meter turns backwards. Some systems have separate meters.

Solar PV obviously can not be the only solution for power since it does not produce at night. On a utility level pumping water in conjunction with hydroelectric power is a fairly efficient way to store energy, but at this point I'm just involved in systems that provide power for use on site, not for sale.*

In off-grid settings PV with battery back-up and sometimes with wind power is economically viable even though it is more expensive because bringing in electric power or transporting fuel is even more expensive. That is a very small part of the market though.

*Net metering is sorta for sale, but they just take it off your bill. None of the net metering deals I know about allow you to sell more than you use over the course of a year. (in the US I mean - In Germany - the world leader in Solar - they allow you to sell back w/e you produce)

[MaxWeiss]

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Solar PV is EXTREMELY reliable. EXTREMELY. The first modern PV cell manufactured at Bell labs in 1954 still works. New modules are warrantied for 25 years and will work for much longer. They require little or no maintenance.

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I did not mean mechanically reliable. I mean that the sun doesn't shine 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

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That's why we have capacitors.

[doppelganger]

I watched this last night too and found it interesting. One interesting tidbit was that at some point it will become economically feasible to make oil from coal. The US has the largest coal deposits in the world, essentially turning us into the world equivalent of Saudi Arabia once the cheap oil runs out.

[JeffBship]

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1. The US needs a reliable source of oil.-->
2. MidEast-on-MidEast religion-fueled violence threatens that supply.-->
3. The US takes sides in an attempt to stabilize the region and secure their oil supply.-->
4. The unchosen group is unhappy and animosity toward the US spreads, leading to Jihad.


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It's pretty sad that so many people share this misperception.

Oil has almost no impact on Middle East wars. It's all about Israel and Palestine. The don't hate us because of oil, they hate us because we created and support Israel.

Oil makes them tons of money...which is why Saudi Arabia likes us.

So...the people making the tons of money from oil like the countries buying the oil. The ones that are more religiously ideological, and those that aren't the priviledged ones making tons of money from selling us oil...those are the ones that want to kill us.

'us' here is not just the USofA, btw.

[microbet]

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[ QUOTE ]

1. The US needs a reliable source of oil.-->
2. MidEast-on-MidEast religion-fueled violence threatens that supply.-->
3. The US takes sides in an attempt to stabilize the region and secure their oil supply.-->
4. The unchosen group is unhappy and animosity toward the US spreads, leading to Jihad.


[/ QUOTE ]

It's pretty sad that so many people share this misperception.

Oil has almost no impact on Middle East wars. It's all about Israel and Palestine. The don't hate us because of oil, they hate us because we created and support Israel.

Oil makes them tons of money...which is why Saudi Arabia likes us.

So...the people making the tons of money from oil like the countries buying the oil. The ones that are more religiously ideological, and those that aren't the priviledged ones making tons of money from selling us oil...those are the ones that want to kill us.

'us' here is not just the USofA, btw.

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This belongs in politics for sure, but this is total BS.

Iraq and Iran have a history with the US that has nothing to do with Israel. Saudis don't all love us. They are the ones that crashed the planes in the WTC. Many there resent the US military presence in Saudi Arabia, not Palestine/Israel. And, our support of Israel has a lot to do with projecting power in the area, which has a lot to do with oil.

US/Israeli relations have had a lot to do with US relations with bordering countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) but those have never been the big exporters of oil to the US.

[xorbie]

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^^Im pretty sure middle eastern countries have more concerns with the US than just the pruchase of oil. LOL at the theory of introducing renewable sources of energy will combat terrorism

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It's actually one of the best reasons to ween ourselves off oil. The middle east has little of interest to us with the exception of oil.

[BCPVP]

Cool show (rerun) on Discovery Channel right now about fuels for cars in the future.

[blackize]

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in a class i'm taking this quarter, the professor went through the calculations to show that ALL of america's transportation system (cars/trucks/motorcycles/semi's/planes/etc) could be powered by 120,000 windmills.

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Assuming your professor's calculations are correct, 120,000 windmills produces enough power for all of USA's transportation only when you neglect the energy cost of transporting the energy. There is considerable energy lost just pumping it through powerlines, so a central power station will almost never be the solution.