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samboct -> RE: Gulf oil platform explodes, burning off La. coast (9/3/2010 3:13:58 PM)
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"Sure...to what? First of all wind energy is now being assailed because it is claimed there is an increasing body of evidence that blade-rate vibration/noise (..caused by turbine blades passing the supporting post...) can be harmful.
Ethanol? you mean the fuel that takes more energy to produce than it provides?
Natural Gas? Yes...a big possibility but it has to be drilled-for...or created/processed from things like oil shales...
SOLAR? ...zero chance of running large transportation vehicles such as ships or trains from SOLAR...
coal? ..... doesn't burn well in your car....or your home furnace.....but it does work in power plants...but you'll piss-off Al Gore.......
wood? ......we have lost enough forests worldwide.....and Al will get even MORE pissed...
fuel cells? ....sure...and who will pay for them?....look recently at the price per kw for even the most basic fuel cells?
.....fusion? .....yes...my grandkids' grandkids MAY have that option....
The reality is that there is no realistic replacement for oil, so we need to develop ways to use it more efficiently. As for accidents....they are going to happen. Perhaps this one WAS sabotage....no one knows right now....but if you look back at history and see how many "gushers" (...not THAT kind of gusher.... lol..) were the "norm" in the early days of oil exploration.....you might be thankful it is done as efficiently and safely as it is the world over. Think we just drill here? ...look at these........ "
Sorry- but this is like saying that the automobile will never replace the horse- it doesn't have enough range, its tires need to get replaced too often, it doesn't know how to get itself back to the barn, etc. One other tidbit- the automobile was widely heralded as producing LESS pollution than the horse- and given the amount of horse urine and fecal matter that had to be disposed of daily- was absolutely right.
The nonsense about the wind industry producing "harmful turbines" is on par with electrical cables doing "things to the cows milk". Most turbines are far away from humans anyhow and on the east coast, we're looking at offshore installations.
While ethanol- politically mandated fuel that it is, certainly is not a long term viable alternative, that does not mean that other biofuel projects won't work. Biodiesel is already on par with diesel at $3/gal.
Natural gas- we've just had large finds that dramatically increase the US reserves of natural gas. Natural gas works really well in gas turbines- which in contrast to coal or oil fired plants, can spin up quickly, supplementing the gaps from renewable energy production. I gnash my teeth that $#@%@#$% GE is the company that's got this market cornered, but it's hard to argue with for a number of years. While not perfect, natural gas is a lower carbon fuel than either coal or oil.
Solar- well, there are two options here. We can either use mother nature to produce biofuels which get their chemical energy from photoysynthesis- i.e. the SUN, or we can try and do synthetic chemistry using photons to produce liquid fuels. Possible long term solution, but there's nothing short term that looks promising that I've seen.
Coal- the only way we know to safely sequester the carbon in coal is to leave it in the ground. Also reduces mining deaths and environmental damage from mine tailings and other operations.
Wood- actually, growing some types of wood for fuel could make sense. A fast growing poplar that could be processed into biodiesel is an interesting concept. This would require wood farming - not to different from any other crop. I think the poplar could be harvested in less than 2 years. We've got lots of available cropland in this country still.
Fuel cells- something of a chicken and egg problem- prices are high because the production volumes are small, and volumes are small because prices are high. However, fuel cells will likely remain an expensive option used when space is limited. They can make a lot more sense when combined with landfills.
Archer- to your point about electric vehicles....
Most of us don't take long trips on such a regular basis. The options are- keep a liquid fuel powered vehicle for those trips- or carry a trailer for your EV which has a small diesel generator in it. Basically it's current hybrid techology, done without linking the internal combustion motor to the drive train. Also note that most hybrids today really suck, with better batteries, the Prius should easily pull 80-100 mpg. Again- it's a problem that nobody's written a contract that says if you provide such and such performance- we'll buy it in volume. The post office actually had a lot to do with developing aviation in terms of blind flying and improved aircraft as well as passenger lines- carrying the mail paid the bills to start. We need to do something similar....
Sam
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