[maverickdoc]

I Just saw an Tim Russert interview with him. He is sounding more and more like a neo con.

Here is and interesting commentary by him:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/opini ... 20Friedman


"You give me $18-a-barrel oil and I will give you political and economic reform from Algeria to Iran. All these regimes have huge population bubbles and too few jobs. They make up the gap with oil revenues. Shrink the oil revenue and they will have to open up their economies and their schools and liberate their women so that their people can compete. It is that simple"

TOO BAD HE DOES NOT SAY HOW HE WILL GET OIL PRICES DOWN TO $18

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('maverickdoc', 'T')OO BAD HE DOES NOT SAY HOW HE WILL GET OIL PRICES DOWN TO $18

[BabyPeanut]

I liked this post
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl ... d=11675226

[rerere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'I') liked this post
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl ... d=11675226

[basketballjones]

what he doesn't say but is a logical extension is that the area you'd need to cover in solar panels to generate the currect energy consumption of the US is way more than is viable.

I also find it quite amazing that there has been no discussion of peak oil on slashdot.

[JayHMorrison]

Viewing solar from the basis that it must provide 100% is silly. Without storage systems of electricity, it is pointless.

Just from a grid stability standpoint, I have read articles that it is difficult to manage more than 10% to 15% of the total power as solar. Above 20% wind is getting tough to manage.

Solar power has an advantage as a distributed power source in homes and buildings, to suppliment the power of that specific building. Any excess power can be resold to the grid via net metering.

Centralized solar power makes no sense.

[BabyPeanut]

We need to legislate against that "night" thing. Solar power takes quite a hit when night falls. Clouds are bad enough but it gets so dark at night.

[Aaron]

http://globaldimming.com/

[BabyPeanut]

My point people love to post how much energy solar produces but never speak of the fact that you can only get that energy for part of the day.

If I was there school teacher I would make them write

Solar power is intermittent.

100 times on the chalk board.

[JayHMorrison]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'M')y point people love to post how much energy solar produces but never speak of the fact that you can only get that energy for part of the day.

[BabyPeanut]

A better battery technology or a better electrical transmission technology would make solar and wind a bigger player.

With a battery solar would work at night and wind would not need a breeze all the time. Charge it when there's the most power and discharge in the time of need.

With better transmission you could harness the wind where it alwyas blows and the sun where there's never a cloud and pipe it to the less abundant areas.

[clv101]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'S')olar power is intermittent.

[Wildwell]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('clv101', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'S')olar power is intermittent.

[gnm]

There is a wonderous invention called batteries that solves the intermittent problem with solar. There are also projects which use the power to produce hydrogen so you can store greater amounts of power than the batteries would handle. But solar panels are really only suited for onsite applications. Line losses and system inefficenies make solar power farms barely feasible. It has been tried before - the Carrizozo (sp?) solar power plant in CA I think was one attempt 20 years ago...

-G

[nocar]

Has anybody with knowledge checked their claim that the solar panels are 30% efficient? I do not know very much about solar, but I believe I have otherwise seen efficiency rates well below 10 percent.

One reason I know very little about solar is that I know that for us, close to the 60th parallell, it can never be the solution. We need power for light and heating in winter when there is no sun - it barely goes above the horizon for a couple of hours and then it is usually cloudy anyway.

No need for AC in our summers, when there is some sun shine.

Still, I have met people with a big solar panel on their sailboat to power their refridgerator. That makes sense - you get power when you most need it. But how many years will the solar panel last - anybody knows?
/nocar

[JohnDenver]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he largest uranium mines are in the United States, Canada, France, Australia, South Africa and Russia. Many of the mining areas are on land occupied by indigenous people, for example the Aborigines of Australia.

According to Aboriginal mythology, the Rainbow Serpent, asleep in the earth, guards over those elemental powers which lie outside of humankind’s control. Any attempt to seize these underworld elements will disturb the sleep of the serpent, provoking its vengeance: a terrible deluge of destruction and death.

‘The Rainbow Serpent has been wakened. Men turned into shadows, cancer, women giving birth to jellyfish babies, leukaemia - since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, since the Bravo test in the Bikini Islands, and since the Chernobyl catastrophe in April of 1986, we know that the Rainbow Serpent doesn’t differentiate between uranium’s military and peaceful uses. Death everywhere it touches. But what we perhaps don’t realise is that the destructive properties of uranium are unleashed the moment it’s mined from the ground’. Extracted from the World Uranium Hearing.

[Specop_007]

GreenPeace are a bunch of fucking loonies. Like a Democrat thats undergone advanced re-education really.

[holmes]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'G')reenPeace are a bunch of fucking loonies. Like a Democrat thats undergone advanced re-education really.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JohnDenver', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he largest uranium mines are in the United States, Canada, France, Australia, South Africa and Russia. Many of the mining areas are on land occupied by indigenous people, for example the Aborigines of Australia.

According to Aboriginal mythology, the Rainbow Serpent, asleep in the earth, guards over those elemental powers which lie outside of humankind’s control. Any attempt to seize these underworld elements will disturb the sleep of the serpent, provoking its vengeance: a terrible deluge of destruction and death.

‘The Rainbow Serpent has been wakened. Men turned into shadows, cancer, women giving birth to jellyfish babies, leukaemia - since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, since the Bravo test in the Bikini Islands, and since the Chernobyl catastrophe in April of 1986, we know that the Rainbow Serpent doesn’t differentiate between uranium’s military and peaceful uses. Death everywhere it touches. But what we perhaps don’t realise is that the destructive properties of uranium are unleashed the moment it’s mined from the ground’. Extracted from the World Uranium Hearing.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('holmes', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'G')reenPeace are a bunch of fucking loonies. Like a Democrat thats undergone advanced re-education really.