[Graeme]

‘Sustainable Energy -- Without The Hot Air
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he average energy consumption on earth is 56 kilowatt-hours per day per person. You can visualize this personal energy consumption in terms of light bulbs: 56 kilowatt-hours per day is the energy consumption of 56 ordinary 40-watt bulbs left switched on all the time. The world’s population density is roughly 50 people per square kilometer, or 0.4 square mile. Countries, of course, vary significantly around the world average.
That means such countries could match today’s power consumption if they covered, for example, 20 percent of their land with energy crops; or 4 percent of their land with wind farms; or 2 percent of their land with solar parks in the traditional Bavarian style; or 0.5 percent of their land with desert solar power stations (assuming they have desert).

[cipi604]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', 'T')hat means such countries could match today’s power consumption if they covered, for example, 20 percent of their land with energy crops; or 4 percent of their land with wind farms; or 2 percent of their land with solar parks in the traditional Bavarian style; or 0.5 percent of their land with desert solar power stations (assuming they have desert). nytimes

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', '[')b]‘Sustainable Energy -- Without The Hot Air
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he average energy consumption on earth is 56 kilowatt-hours per day per person. You can visualize this personal energy consumption in terms of light bulbs: 56 kilowatt-hours per day is the energy consumption of 56 ordinary 40-watt bulbs left switched on all the time..... countries could match today’s power consumption.....

[waegari]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cipi604', 'w')indfarms need energy storage,max output just 10% of the time, permanent winds exist anywhere?!

[ian807]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('waegari', 'N')ot to mention the fact that wind farms are not ecologically neutral:

[efarmer]

"Great nations are simply the operating fronts of behind-the-scenes, vastly ambitious individuals who had become so effectively powerful because of their ability to remain invisible while operating behind the national scenery."
Buckminster Fuller

At some point we have to face facts. Our way of life in America and our peers is based on extremely wasteful exploits of energy and materials that embody energy. The illusion of civilization is only possible under this system until such time as easy energy and material exploits are exhausted. The past is littered with the burnt out hulls of Communism, Socialism, Nationalism, Theocracy, and Royalty. Capitalism is an exploit hull that consumes itself to where it just fails and lacks the fuel to burn out and join the legacy hulls. We have to synthesize a new system, or fade out.

The choice is how we intend to use the remaining ingredients we have to work with. The trend is to get the consumption engine running at high RPM again and give it a James Dean ending.

Our political arguments seem to be based on where the waste nozzle is aimed and delivers it's payload and not on any evolution of strategy.
We are still working with the principle of our first big discovery, fire.
We burn until it rains or we run out of fuel, but we have developed an unbelievably diverse set of cover stories and competing fantasies.

So tell me kids, do you want to burn and win, or think and worry?

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'Y')our typical American uses much more. For instance, take Al Gore----he uses 605 KWh every day just in electricity......when you add in travel by car and private airplanes, and all the energy used on farms and in truck transport and store operation to supply the food to keep Al Gore going, a typical well-off american, concerned about energy use, still needs many many times energy then the global average would suggest.

[PrestonSturges]

[quote="article']Wind farms may also result in important changes in local climatology,
>potentially impacting, for example, agricultural interests located within
>and immediately around areas encompassed by wind farms. The turbulence
>induced by the propellers of wind turbines mixes air along with the heat
>and moisture it contains -- the effects can spread for miles around. This is
>especially true at night when the disturbed airflow is not masked by the
>natural turbulence caused by solar heating.[/quote]
This could be a huge benefit for fruit orchards that can have their crops wiped out by a late frost.