Here is SA a lot of the problem is that electricity costs me 2.5 US cents a Kw/hr, and some of the biggest users pay 0.5 US cents, Very difficult for renewable energy to compete with. Of course it is highly subsidised. George Tyler ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Axtell" To: Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 1:44 AM Subject: Re: [OT]: Lead poisoning > You're out of touch. > > In the American west, railroads use solar power to supply and control > switching gear, such as warning signals and hydraulic-electric track > switching. In some cities, traffic lighting operates almost entirely on > solar energy, TO SAVE MONEY. > > I can't speak for other countries. But the situation in the USA is this: > > In the late 40's the US proceeded with atomic bomb development. Once they'd > created enough bombs to last for the forseeable future (50,000 or so), they > wondered what they were going to do with the thousands of highly skilled > Nuclear engineers and physicists they'd fathered. So they invented a means > of generating heat with the nuclear bomb, and created a nuclear power > plant? Same as a petroleum plant, except that the heat is generated by > nuclear chain reaction. Simple, right? > > In fact, were atomic bombs NOT the primary product, no nuclear power plant > would be economically viable. The problem of waste, which has a half-life > of 100,000 years, is so serious that nobody in their right mind plans on > using or making more nuclear power plants for the purpose of electrical > generation. Processing fuel cells for the spent uranium after they are used > to generate electricity is the primary way weapons-grade plutonium is made, > see? Notice that countries NOT interested in bombs have few (or NO) nuclear > power plants. > > Now, lets look at solar power. 95% of all long-term space vehicles generate > their power from solar cells (the rest? fuel cells, but one or two use > nuclear energy). Yet in the past 5 years, explosive improvements have been > made, and solar cells can be made that convert 80+% of the sunlight > striking it. The conversion is made with little heat, and as DC is easy to > control and use to generate electricity. It needs NO heat, it needs no > water. The cells last 20+ years without replacement. > > Wind farms are very successful, thanks to some excellent designs from > Holland and Sweden. Didn't you read about the flap with the wind farm to be > put out at sea 10 miles from Cape Cod? These electromechanical devices have > more maintainence than solar, but return on investment in less than 8 > years, less in califiornia, where they shined during the recent power > shortages there. > > No, the return on investment is good enough to do it on a grand scale. But > they won't. Politicians are rarely visionaries. These are certainly not. > > --Bob > > At 05:15 PM 7/14/2003 -0600, you wrote: > >If its so "trivial" one would think there would be a good many more solar > >farms out there. Same goes for wind farms. People have been working on > >these for a long time; why isn't there a more resonable return on investment > >yet if it can be done so easily? > > > >----- Original Message ----- > > > > Incredible, since I swelter every day of the year living in a place with > > > endless sunshine- an energy source totally free, without waste, without a > > > storage problem, the ORIGINAL source of all energy on earth. It would be > > > trivial to trap that sunshine and turn it into electricity, and would > > > provide some US engineers a few jobs, too. > > > >-- > >http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! > >email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body > > --------------- > NOTICE > > 1. This account can accept email & attachments up to 10M in size. > 2. Federal Monitors: At request of client, some attachments are encrypted. > Please DO NOT delay traffic; please reply with credentials for password. > -------------- > > -- > http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! > email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu