mdmrjsds

Six Reasons for Cloudy Skies on the Solar Energy Industry

On Nov 18 02:05 PM frflyer wrote:

[snip]
>
>
> It isn't sustainable in any way. How about peak uranium in ten years
> or so.
> Nuclear power requires enormous amounts of water for cooling. In
> a world facing water problems in the future, we don't need that.

>
> Nuclear power doesn't give us energy independence. We import 65%
> of our oil and 90% of our uranium. And now Russia is being lined
> up as a future source of 20% of our uranium.
>
[snip]
>
> from the Lean Guide to Nuclear Energy
> ""The world’s endowment of uranium ore is now so depleted that the
> nuclear industry will never, from its own resources, be able to generate
> the energy it needs to clear up its own backlog of waste."
> "Shortages of uranium – and the lack of realistic alternatives –leading
> to interruptions in supply, can be expected to start in the middle
> years of the decade 2010-2019, and to deepen thereafter."
> "Every stage in the nuclear process, except fission, produces carbon
> dioxide. As the richest ores are used up, emissions will rise."

I went to the first link I found www.world-nuclear.org/...
on world uranium supply and found this.

* The world's known uranium resources increased 15% in two years to 2007 due to increased mineral exploration.

...Current usage is about 65,000 tU/yr. Thus the world's present measured resources of uranium (5.5 Mt) in the cost category somewhat below present spot prices and used only in conventional reactors, are enough to last for over 80 years. This represents a higher level of assured resources than is normal for most minerals. Further exploration and higher prices will certainly, on the basis of present geological knowledge, yield further resources as present ones are used up. ...

You do your argument a disservice by using exageration. If you are so far off in this, what about any of your arguments?

I have nothing against solar. I only want my lights to come on when I turn on the switch, and my AC to run when it's hot. And I want to pay a reasonable price to have that happen. As soon as solar has a payback period less than 20 years I will probably install it (nanosolar is talking $1/watt, but that is probably vaporware).

It sounds like for you it is a religion or a crusade.
>
>We could power the whole country with these, using less land than we >now use for coal plants and coal mines. And they will compete head on >with fossil fuel plants cost wise.
>salon.com/news/fea...
>Excellent article on solar thermal.

Here is a response to the article at the link you give above that gives a saner viewpoint.
... More Engineers please...

Can we get an Engineer to write one of these articles sometimes instead of someone who has seen many presentations?

"must provide thousands of gigawatts of power..."

Yes, we have a word for this - terawatts. Reminds me of Once Upon a Time in the West - "thousands of thousands!" "They've got a word for that - million".

A 92milex92mile CSP array will also be unfeasibly vast (around 8,400 square miles).

There is no "silver bullet". There is no magical technology, like a plug-in hybrid, that will solve everything (as an engineer working on hybrid vehicles, I have quite a good insight into the difficulties getting them mass produced and into public hands). What we need is a good, diverse mix of technologies - yes, there are large CSP arrays in Spain and other areas of Europe, for instance, but this is diversified with other technologies including nuclear (fast-breeder reactors, very safe and very efficient), photovoltaic, hydroelectric (using various types of generator, not encased solely in huge dams). Likewise, for vehicles, hybrid vehicles operating on a mix of fossil/bio-fuel generators with supplemental "green" mains supply (plug-in, to use the popular phrase) are the most pressing solution at the present, along with a transition to fewer vehicles and more comprehensive public transport network (difficult for some in the US to comprehend). Hydrogen vehicle technology presents an important development, but Honda's FCX-demonstrators aside, this will not be practicable or cheap for the intermediate future.

Fewer random people who read stuff and view presentations writing articles like this please, and more from engineers and scientists working in the field. ...