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Old 02-26-2010, 12:47 AM
 
Location: TX
867 posts, read 2,968,579 times
Reputation: 547

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Quote:
Originally Posted by jimboburnsy View Post
However, my pea-brained view is that alternative methods of power generation is something to be welcomed from anyone's perspective (particularly career oilmen) since it has the effect of extending natural resource reserves, lowering commodity prices and perpetuating the viability of oil & gas.

Here's the deal. Part of the beauty of alternative energy generation (let's take solar) is that the process becomes decentralized. Anyone with a decent sized roof can produce the energy. Not everyone can produce oil and gas. That would change the game. Even if oil and gas were to remain viable, it's not an energy form that average Joes can produce. It is bought, usually at a gas station, and most of our gas doesn't even come from our own country. http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/country/cou...ta.cfm?fips=US When you have an electric car (not abundant yet, but in infancy) and produce your own energy from solar panels on your roof and backyard or maybe a fuel cell, you bypass that process entirely. You buy the panels and have them installed, maybe sprayed on http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/08...ar-three-years and Voila!

Yes, there are lots of issues that have to be worked out in the mean time (mainly cost), but I personally feel that it's inevitable and when it does happen it will be a nice transition. With half-electric cars (hybrids), many would argue the process is already underway, albeit fairly slowly. Hybrid cars are the bridge until we get to the other side -- full electric.


Cost aside, It's also the DIY convenience -- the ability to make your own energy without running down to the Shell station.

Last edited by Alphalogica; 02-26-2010 at 02:04 AM..
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Old 02-26-2010, 06:05 AM
 
Location: Houston, TX
8,892 posts, read 19,911,882 times
Reputation: 6360
Oil isn't wrecking the environment - most major companies are very environmentally conscientious and make safety a priority. Lot of things have taken place over the past 20 years to ensure that the process continues to improve and get safer. When there are spills now - it is typically unknowns. Even the talk of global warming and climate change is dying down because it can't truly be substantiated. Some of the big majors are dropping out of that committee on climate change because they have been spinning their wheels and their dollars the past few years on something uncertain. Forgot who the latest was to drop out of that.
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Old 02-26-2010, 09:01 AM
 
Location: Houston, TX (Bellaire)
4,900 posts, read 13,685,901 times
Reputation: 4188
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alphalogica View Post
Part of the beauty of alternative energy generation (let's take solar) is that the process becomes decentralized. Anyone with a decent sized roof can produce the energy. Not everyone can produce oil and gas.
This is not a very good comparison. Anyone can buy a storage tank for gas or oil on their property and go off the grid. Its not like people can build and service their own solar panel arrays, you still have to buy those from a manufacturer (who is probably making them in a factory powered by oil, gas or coal).
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Old 02-26-2010, 09:13 AM
 
Location: Charleston Sc and Western NC
9,273 posts, read 26,409,216 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris_ut View Post
This is not a very good comparison. Anyone can buy a storage tank for gas or oil on their property and go off the grid. Its not like people can build and service their own solar panel arrays, you still have to buy those from a manufacturer (who is probably making them in a factory powered by oil, gas or coal).

This.

And I have priced solar panels for my country place...yeah, very cost prohibitive at this point. I think it would take me 20-30 years to pay myself back.

Besides, gas demand is at it's lowest since 2004.
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Old 02-26-2010, 09:36 AM
 
Location: Houston, TX
8,892 posts, read 19,911,882 times
Reputation: 6360
energy is about so much more than your car's gas tanks. Products made from exploration and the oil & gas/petrochemical industry are part of your everyday life that you don't even think about - plastics - the thin battery covering that goes on the batteries of hybrid cars to keep them from overheating. All sorts of components of your everyday life. If you think you can do w/o oil and gas then take a look around your home - because you are going to start being w/o a lot of various items.
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Old 02-26-2010, 10:59 AM
 
Location: TX
867 posts, read 2,968,579 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris_ut View Post
This is not a very good comparison. Anyone can buy a storage tank for gas or oil on their property and go off the grid. Its not like people can build and service their own solar panel arrays, you still have to buy those from a manufacturer (who is probably making them in a factory powered by oil, gas or coal).

In theory, the average sized home roof has the surface area that could power the house and then some (family cars), the problem is solar panels as of 2010 are still very expensive and not very efficient. Think cell phones around 1989. It took a few years for the parts to get small and cheap enough for everyone to use as it took advances in computing (size/power of microchips) for PCs and cell-phones to become widespread. I will find supporting links soon.

Last edited by Alphalogica; 02-26-2010 at 11:11 AM..
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Old 02-26-2010, 11:04 AM
 
Location: TX
867 posts, read 2,968,579 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by texas7 View Post
energy is about so much more than your car's gas tanks. Products made from exploration and the oil & gas/petrochemical industry are part of your everyday life that you don't even think about - plastics - the thin battery covering that goes on the batteries of hybrid cars to keep them from overheating. All sorts of components of your everyday life. If you think you can do w/o oil and gas then take a look around your home - because you are going to start being w/o a lot of various items.

Bioplastic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not the be all end all, but definitely a step in the right direction.
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Old 02-26-2010, 11:04 AM
 
Location: Charleston Sc and Western NC
9,273 posts, read 26,409,216 times
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yes and please calculate the semi-annual replacement cost after our hail storms. I get it at least twice a year. About every three years it's a major storm.


We will be dependant on fossil fuels in one way or another for at least another century.
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Old 02-26-2010, 11:07 AM
 
Location: TX
867 posts, read 2,968,579 times
Reputation: 547
Quote:
Originally Posted by EasilyAmused View Post
yes and please calculate the semi-annual replacement cost after our hail storms. I get it at least twice a year. About every three years it's a major storm.


We will be dependant on fossil fuels in one way or another for at least another century.

Spray-On Solar-Power Cells Are True Breakthrough

http://www.livescience.com/technolog...lar-cells.html

Solar panels come in many forms all being researched as we speak. There are spray-on solar panels (like spray on truck bed liners) that could greatly reduce the cost and increase ease of installation. They do work, but aren't yet commercially viable. The people working on it is a chemical engineering research team from UT. http://www.che.utexas.edu/korgel-group/

Last edited by Alphalogica; 02-26-2010 at 11:16 AM..
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Old 02-26-2010, 11:33 AM
 
Location: Houston, TX (Bellaire)
4,900 posts, read 13,685,901 times
Reputation: 4188
I hear a lot of "could/might/someday/eventually" which is what they have been saying for 30 years. Someday this will happen but not anytime soon. Like EA said I think in the next hundred years in likely but not in the next decade.
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