A Skeptic Looks at Alternative Energy

[WireFree]

An interesting article - http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/rene...ative-energy/0

[TJ99]

Great article, thanks.

I'll be watching this thread to see when you-know-who comes in, declares it all a conservative conspiracy, ignores the evidence and announces that solar power is cheap, outputs are massive, and that all existing energy sources can and should be converted cheaply and quickly.

[Budza]

Cool site. Thanks.

[fonoi]

I think we all knew what he is saying, alternative energy is expensive and inefficient. That being said I wonder how the cost ratio looks if you add carbon tax.

Energy like this has its uses as inefficient as it may be, if I had enough land I would put up some solar and wind generators. Heck if you are lucky enough to be near the sea, wave generators are said to be even more efficient. The cost may be high but I would say relying on the national grid may come with a higher cost. (blackouts, load shedding, disaster etc) This is for personal use obviously.

To be used to feed the national grid I agree it is too inefficient at the moment, but having no backup is also stupid as inefficient as it may be.

[WireFree]

Energy like this has its uses as inefficient as it may be, if I had enough land I would put up some solar and wind generators.

Yes. But the alternative approaches are also at too early stages to evaluate the environmental effects.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ear...new-study.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ene...-protests.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ene...wind-farm.html

Could this article also point to the possible future effects of wind turbine farms - http://www.mindbullets.net/Subscript...ndBulletID=600

WireFree

[fonoi]

Very true, which is why I say its more suited for personal use at the moment.

[TJ99]

I think we all knew what he is saying, alternative energy is expensive and inefficient. That being said I wonder how the cost ratio looks if you add carbon tax.

So, it's more expensive than the alternative, unless you take into account the artifical BS charges put there specifically to make the alternatives expensive? Got it.

Energy like this has its uses as inefficient as it may be, if I had enough land I would put up some solar and wind generators. Heck if you are lucky enough to be near the sea, wave generators are said to be even more efficient. The cost may be high but I would say relying on the national grid may come with a higher cost. (blackouts, load shedding, disaster etc) This is for personal use obviously.

I agree completely. But what people tend to forget is that the electricity we use at home is only a tiny fraction (a drop in the bucket really) of the electricity consumption of the world. The vast majority of electricty is used in heavy industries like mining, refining, manufacturing, etc. and keeping infrastructure going. Sure, solar panels and the like can provide us with a nice backup source for home use and reduce our dependancy on the grid, but it can't supply our massive energy needs in the same way that current sources can, at anywhere near the same cost. We need the tech to be improved a lot first if we ever want to see mass adoption. We need something that's intrinsically cheap while polluting less, not subsidies or penalties to force people to use a certain energy source.

[Archer]

Sure, solar panels and the like can provide us with a nice backup source for home use and reduce our dependancy on the grid, but it can't supply our massive energy needs in the same way that current sources can, at anywhere near the same cost. We need the tech to be improved a lot first if we ever want to see mass adoption. We need something that's intrinsically cheap while polluting less, not subsidies or penalties to force people to use a certain energy source.

That.
A million times that.

[Pietleeu]

At this stage its very inefficient to produce components and batteries (by means of conventional coal fired electricity). But at some stage there will be a crossover, where the electricity used will come from the same source its creating... And at some stage renewable energy wil be so widely available that we probably wont even need batteries....just the way coal and gasoline is so widely available. I think its great that governments are getting closer to enforcing and promoting renewables. When I watched "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore it really scared me.. I was amazed at what just a 2'C in global temp can do...