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I'm looking out the window of the hotel Neptune in Rostock De. right now. Must be a 100 plus wind towers not turning but the plume from the coal plant cooling tower hasn't stopped which tells me they have been shoveling the coal to it hard!!!
Let's be honest. Renewables are pretty much feel-good solutions that are not adequate technologies to fill our power requirements. As we start putting millions of electric cars on our roads, power needs are only going to grow more quickly.
Groups have latched onto green energy because they know its easy to exploit. These companies suck in billions in subsidies and some have already dried up and blown away. Being green companies give them a shield to deflect criticism -- they're in it for the money as much as Exxon or BP, but they get a pass for being green, regardless that they really don't contribute any significant amount of power to the grid.
They will always be at best, supplemental energy sources. I'm not saying we shouldn't support them (I'd love to have solar on my house if it financially made sense), but they're hardly the eco-friendly good guys they market themselves as.
Rather than pouring money into these dead-end technologies, we should be funding research on exciting new ones like Thorium, which can theoretically yield as much power as a nuclear plant but without the risk of meltdown and the dangerous radioactive byproduct. Other countries have started building Thorium reactors to see if the tech is viable, but we're too busy funding windmills that kill thousands of birds and make bats' lungs explode if they get too close.
The Scots generate 50% of their energy from wind, wave, and tide (mostly, tide). We haven't put much effort into tidal generators... yet with our immense coastlines, it seems extremely plausible (and better, environmentally then damming rivers).
We have a lot of NIMBY's on our coasts. People who love the idea of renewable energy but don't want to see it.
We have a lot of NIMBY's on our coasts. People who love the idea of renewable energy but don't want to see it.
There definitely is a lot of that in life.
To Quote Tommy Frank from 2005... It's easy to protest, it is hard to do.
I brought up the subject of subsidization in another thread and those many of the individuals who complain about crony capitalism, etc... were all for subsidizing wind and solar. When I brought up Bell, and it's monopoly for 50 years of the entire phone industry, the only response was 'nobody has land lines anymore'.
People, I fear, never learn that government deciding on an industry to build infrastructure always leads to monopoly that decades take to undo.
To Quote Tommy Frank from 2005... It's easy to protest, it is hard to do.
I brought up the subject of subsidization in another thread and those many of the individuals who complain about crony capitalism, etc... were all for subsidizing wind and solar. When I brought up Bell, and it's monopoly for 50 years of the entire phone industry, the only response was 'nobody has land lines anymore'.
People, I fear, never learn that government deciding on an industry to build infrastructure always leads to monopoly that decades take to undo.
Monopolies occur regardless, look at the late 19th and early 20tb century.
The Scots generate 50% of their energy from wind, wave, and tide (mostly, tide). We haven't put much effort into tidal generators... yet with our immense coastlines, it seems extremely plausible (and better, environmentally then damming rivers).
Scotland generates nothing from tide or wave. They tried to develop it but have not been able to get to a commercially viable solution. Most renewables in Scotland are wind or hydro. Wind is (or has been) heavily subsidized. It is also controversial because the massive wind turbines are considered to be an eyesore as well as being environmentally damaging and especially to bird populations.
Scotland is still reliant on coal fired, gas fired and nuclear power stations to provide the base load. Renewables cannot do that. Scotland is also connected to the Uk grid so they have back up for the renewables.
... For reasons laid out in the article they require massive subsidies
Personally I am not in favor of subsidies to any industry.
Quote:
... The short version of the problem is that solar power is quite available in the middle of a sunny day, other times not so much. Wind power is similarly intermittent.
This is not a new idea.
Everyone knows the sun only shines during the day and the wind only blows when it is blowing.
I am very happy with being on Solar Power.
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