Renewable energy - Thoughts?

[Phillip V]

Drill for more natural gas and oil. Build the pipelines. Allow the exportation of American liquefied natural gas. Build nuclear power plants again.

Remove tariffs on Chinese wind and solar products.

None of that is actually renewable. 

Stepping stones. Cheap non-renewable energy will keep our economy running cheaply and richly in the medium-term until scientists figure out cheap, renewable energy.

[derspiess]

Do we even have a good industry for these?  It seemed like the Germans, Japanese, and Chinese dominate in these products.

Seems to me wind turbines get built in the US by subsidiaries of foreign companies.  One up the road from me is Spanish owned.

I imagine it's cost-prohibitive to ship wind turbines because the parts are so fucking gigantor.

I had seen them from a distance quite a while ago, but never realized how monstrous those are until seeing a semi hauling one gigantic propeller blade on I-275 a couple years ago. 

[Admiral Yi]

I had seen them from a distance quite a while ago, but never realized how monstrous those are until seeing a semi hauling one gigantic propeller blade on I-275 a couple years ago.

Same here.  On I-80.

[merithyn]

Each blade is ~50 yards long.

I absolutely love driving through the wind farms around here. There's an indescribable beauty and grace to them. I've never understood the oposition's argument that they're ugly.

[derspiess]

Each blade is ~50 yards long.

I absolutely love driving through the wind farms around here. There's an indescribable beauty and grace to them. I've never understood the oposition's argument that they're ugly.

Once the 'wow' factor wears off I do think they are a bit on the ugly side.  I'd rather see plain old farmland.

[Barrister]

I think the first few times you see them they are quite striking.

But after driving past a few thousand I can see how they'd lose their appeal.

[DGuller]

The only wind turbines I've seen are the five turbines near the entrance to Atlantic City.  I think they make the place look better.  Then again, to one side of them, you have a swamp, and to the other side of them, you have Atlantic City, so the bar is set fairly low.

[crazy canuck]

easy.  You import electricity from places wich produces clean energy.  BC would make millions.  Quebec would see millions in the streets protesting about neo-liberalism and destruction of our rivers.

Not quite so easy.  Take BC as an example - during high use periods we actually have to import energy if our hydro generators cant keep up with production.  Granted we also export into the American grid but it is not the panacea you make it out to be.  Again going back to the problem of having energy generation at the same time as peak usage.

But, if you build wind turbines as complementary to a river dam, you'll reduce the cost of your projects.  Without subsidies.

Which goes back to the premise of my point.  If you do not live in a jurisdiction that has hydro then the thing that is being supplmented is carbon based generation so all a carbon tax does is make energy consumption more expensive without solving the problem.

[MadImmortalMan]

Actually, you can make oil out of trash. Two birds with one stone.

[crazy canuck]

But, if you build wind turbines as complementary to a river dam, you'll reduce the cost of your projects.  Without subsidies.

I was thinking that a 30/30/30/10 wind/solar/nuclear/fossil fuels split would work well.

Get used to a lot of times when you dont have power - especially at night when there is no wind.

[Valmy]

Get used to a lot of times when you dont have power - especially at night when there is no wind.

I think you mean there is no sun.

[crazy canuck]

Get used to a lot of times when you dont have power - especially at night when there is no wind.

I think you mean there is no sun.

Yeah, that generally happens at night..... 

[CountDeMoney]

I priced solar for my home a few years back and it just wasn't worth the expense.

Don't participate in the process in order to drive down costs or anything.

[CountDeMoney]

Nuclear is an answer to the problem of certainty of power generation.  But the resistance to it has little to do with the cost

Resistance to it has everything to do with cost. 
See: Constellation Energy, Calvert Cliffs #3, and Exelon Corp, Zion Station, IL and Victoria, TX.

[merithyn]

Once the 'wow' factor wears off I do think they are a bit on the ugly side.  I'd rather see plain old farmland.

I think the first few times you see them they are quite striking.

But after driving past a few thousand I can see how they'd lose their appeal.

I've driven through them hundreds of times, and it hasn't yet, but sure, I could see that being a problem for some.