Quote:
Originally Posted by kach22i
You made your case by taking the most extreme example saying why try, it's pointless.
Quite honestly, that is your problem.
There are people out there "trying", I've seen them give public demonstrations and think there is hope for progress.
If you do not believe in progress, why do you use any technology beyond the stone age level is my question to you.
https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/t...of-the-future/
At the college lecture I went to last year they were just entering a commercial licensing agreement with a manufacturer. |
No matter the improvements in solar collectors, you must still store that energy after collection and transport it. Luckily, electricity is relatively easy to transport. The storage part, not so much.
I live in a decades old house that is now surrounded by much newer housing developments. Many have solar panels on their roofs as add-ons or as perks during construction. I've had several Solar Panel Companies come to my home to try to get me to put their panels on our roofs. They do their calculations and come to the conclusion they cannot put much of a dent in my electric needs. I work out of my home with two out-buildings in back that contain a prototype machine shop and wood/plastic fabrication shop. If my son has his way, a small forge area will grow between them, expanding on our heat treatment oven. We simply use far too much energy for any reasonable solar array, on site, to help us. Wind power is not allowed as we are now in city jurisdiction.
I am an example of what Oil Pan4 is talking about. Too much of our modern lives use far too much energy due to the need for CONCENTRATED energy. Large city centers as well as industrial centers need that intense concentrated energy. Renewables can provide that but only by massive farms outside the need centers. Also, this means storage will need to be implemented because a few days of cloud or still air would mean the end to productive or comfortable activity. Since storage is not available in most places, fossil fuel power is used as that baseline. Since you must build this baseline power to cover this need, it is going to be a large power plant. This means you have doubled your power capability and the associated costs. It is far better to simply build a power plant to cover all the needs. But if emissions to the environment are a concern, that power plant had better be nuclear.
I am all for renewables. Go ahead and put it on your roofs and businesses. Just realize it is not the end all and be all for a modern society.
I grew up on a South Pacific Island though my Great Grandfather was North American Blackfeet. I grew up riding a water buffalo. Our ranch provided all we needed and our excess was sold and traded for the things we could not make or grow ourselves. Our heating was wood. We collected rain water or hand carried it from the stream. Waste was collected and composted. We were happy and healthy. I can live that life. But, can you persuade the rest of the 3rd world that they should continue to live that way too?