Most energy solutions are fake. The last couple of decades it was hydrogen, where is that nowadays? Now it's wind, solar, etc... they will cycle through all the non-solutions until there is no more oil. Regarding solar, new batteries are being developed that are huge tanks of liquid with one electrode also being liquid. These things can be made with capacity to power a small city on the [relatively] cheap... The US can cut energy usage anytime they want, they hate high quality things and ideas in the US. Houses in the Mojave Desert can be cooled by building them on thicker slabs with cooling passages and cool air forced through in the night by a squirrel cage fan. It's very, very cheap to operate and if it works there it works anywhere else probably. They instead build houses with forced air units that use lots of energy.. it's bullshit, this "technical decisions by politics" we have going here... if we fully used the solar energy falling on the Mojave Desert we could, with existing technology, supply cheap electricity to all of the Western US and Canada and Northern Mexico.. not to mention that they have the Sonoran Desert in Northern Mexico where temperatures can reach 140 degrees...
Wind power exists for one purpose and one purpose only - being a voter-friendly place to dump subsidy money. In terms of actual energy production and efficiency, it's a disaster.
......................................................................................... Interesting.... Is there a link to the battery....? Solar heat transfer to electric motors....and batteries in some form....are the future.... Burning biomass is better than processing....another heat transfer method....
This is interesting if not hyperbol. Here is one link of many found on goog http://www.physorg.com/news155569564.html
........................................................................... Solar thermal....not solar panels ....is the way to go.... The battery info....this is in the right direction.... And oddly enough....burning biomass is more efficient than processing it.... It seems as though the direction is going to quickly change to these two areas....away from processing biomass for fuels, wind, and solar panels....these are dead ends....
Burning biomass means not returning the biomass to the soil. Effectively, what you are doing is burning the next generation's soil. Bad idea. But there are no good ones - the ONLY solutions are to use less and eat less. Which NO society has ever voluntarily done until pushed to the brink.
........................................................................................... There are all types of biomass that both rob and/or compliment the soil.... ie soybeans rotated with corn..... One has to properly farm biomass.... This requires expertise in both the soil types and plants....locations.... ie Brazil processes sugarcane....and burns biomass waste for electricity....and adds some biomass back to the soil.... However solar thermal and batteries are far more preferable.... Even Buffett's senior partner was discussing this very idea....ie BYD which was a recent investment..... The world has to move in this direction....
At the end of 2008 the U.S. had over 21,000MW of wind power and 8,300MW of solar power in operational use. The most efficient solar conversion system is the Stirling engine, which just over 31%, but there's only one in use, a 25kW test system at Sandia Labs. The most popular solar system in use, a parabolic trough mirror gets about 20% efficiency. The most widely used wind Turbine, the Vestas V80, peaks out at 70% efficiency and nets over 40% on average. The DoE estimates that the plains states region has enough wind resource to power the entire nation. Off-shore wind power could provide the same amount and the wind available around the great lakes could provide 80% of the nation's needs. That's 280% of the nation's current needs using current turbine technology. Yeah, solar's a real winner...
Solar cells have to become cheaper and much more efficient before they can become a viable alternative to oil. The technology is coming but not here yet. That is one reason why we need to keep drilling for oil. Obama's plan (as he has said on the campaign trail) is to see oil become so expensive that green energy is forced on us at a much higher cost than we are used to paying for energy. We could ease our pain if the dems would allow oil and gas production but they won't. http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/06-04-2009/0005038352&EDATE=