lntwo

Alt. Energy: More Technology Than Energy?

John E. - while high oil increases awareness and development of alt energy, our cars will be ostensibly running on gas for the near future, so the link to oil price is less direct than one might think. Since wind and solar generate electricity the driving issue is coal use ( repeat after me: "would you like mercury with that") and CO2 production. I could go on about the need to limit CO2 and the revised forecasts on near term sea level rise and all the other cheerful consequences but I'm sure anyone reading this thread is familiar with these issues.

However a point that is frequently ignored with wind and solar is the benefit to developing countries; aside from the obvious there is the water conservation aspect - coal and nuclear power generation are very water intensive, and water availability is an increasing pinch point in the developing world. Not to mention that coal and nuclear are localized, infrastructure intensive technologies.

Long on PBW, GEX, and a variety of oil companies,

Cheers all.