Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/06/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Chris, I fear the problem is our extreme thirst for power, not the slow development of renewables. Wind turbines are already being made with extra cheap composites, and still are massively more expensive for producing electricity than conventional means. There is not much margin for making them hugely more competitive than they are now, either in terms of electrical efficiency or manufacturing costs. I have a friend in Pamplona who engineers the things. They have built lots of them, in fact every vista of the Pyrenean foothills in this area is ruined by a row of wind turbines along every ridge. Despite this huge number of ideally placed ugly turbines they only get about 10% of their power from them IIRC. There is more potential for improving solar generation technology, but a lot of heavy power demand areas have little sun and low wind levels, making either more a matter of blind hope than practical engineering solutions, IMO. OTOH the increase in our demand for energy has been huge. The energy usage of my grandparents generation was limited partly by money, partly by the habits of the age. Typically only one room in the house was heated in winter. The fire in that room heated water, which basically meant that there was enough hot water for the family washing once a week, and one bathe per person per week... Cars were impossibly expensive, motorcycles with sidecars were eventually affordable. Nowadays everybody expects a bath/shower per day, uses the washing machine at will, drives a ludicrously inefficient car, even when only going a couple of miles (mostly) and heats the whole house in winter, whether rooms are occupied or not. I know people who heat their house to 80F in winter, and cool it to 68F in summer. Something more stupidly and unnecessarily extravagant is difficult to imagine. Not only are we massively, probably 500% or more, more extravagant than our grandparents, but a huge number of people worldwide are working to improve their standard of living and deserve to have the same freedom to p*ss away the resources which we have had for 60+ years... This is a pretty big issue, I would say, the only economic solution I have heard of is Nuclear power, and only France realised this in good time and has good technology, IMO of course. this should probably migrate to the forum! cheers, Frank On 18 Jun, 2010, at 20:10, Chris Crawford wrote: > Using water to generate electricity upsets a lot of environmentalists > because the dams built to catch water for hydro-power disrupt migration > patterns of fish and reduces water levels downstream from the dam. Wind > technology isn't advanced enough to generate the amounts of power needed. > Same with Solar. We'll get there eventually with wind and solar, its being > worked on. > > > > -- > Chris Crawford > Fine Art Photography > Fort Wayne, Indiana > 260-424-0897 > > http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com My portfolio > > http://blog.chriscrawfordphoto.com My latest work! > > > On 6/18/10 2:56 PM, "Tina Manley" <images at comporium.net> wrote: > >> God assumed that we would be smart enough to use the solar, wind, and >> water >> that we are given every day. She was wrong. >> >> Tina >> >> On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 1:41 AM, Nathan Wajsman <photo at >> frozenlight.eu>wrote: >> >>> Not Afghanistan or Pakistan--they have no oil. But sadly, yes, both the >>> West (and India, and China) get most of their oil from nasty places. God >>> did >>> not put enough of it in Norway and Canada and the few other civilized >>> places >>> that have the stuff. >>> >>> Cheers, >>> Nathan >>> >>> >>> >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information