drbob66

The Five Most Important Energy Forecasts of 2008

Interesting reading in those links you provided. Thanks!


On Dec 10 02:23 PM frflyer wrote:

> The hand
> You mentioned line loss over long distances.
> That's why all the sensible energy plans call for new high voltage
> DC transmission lines or HVDC to bring power from solar and wind
> farms to other parts of the country. There is much less line loss
> with HVDC over long distances. Anything over 30 miles favors DC
> in fact. Don't confuse this with the use of superconductors that
> john s. gordon mentions in his comment.
>
>
> Andy 1234 -you may be an engineer, but you are under-informed.
> The numbers have been crunched and these ideas are mostly well thought
> out. Solar thermal power plants with heat storage can act as base
> load power, as they produce a steady output of power even at night.

>
> What's more, they can store heat 20-100 times cheaper than storing
> electricity.
> They will be able to provide power at 5-8 cents a kWh once they are
> up to scale in several years.
> They are fast to build and use ordinary building materials. So low
> tech we could have done it 100 years ago. They can be air or water
> cooled, and can even desalinize water at the same time, when water
> cooled. Molten salt is the best medium for storing heat. United
> Technology's Sunstrand/Rockedyne division has developed advanced
> systems for molten salt use. They have also created a new solar
> thermal company called Solar Reserve. There are about 10 companies
> I've heard of in solar thermal.
>
> See the article in Scientific American that proposes building solar
> plants in the southwest, achieving 69% solar grid by 2050 and spending
> less in tax dollars over 35-40 years than we spent on the internet
> in the last 35 years.
> One fourth or less than we now give oil companies in subsidies and
> tax credits.
> www.sciam.com/article....
>
> For more on solar thermal:
>
> www.salon.com/news/fea...

>
>
> climateprogress.org/20.../

>
>
> solarsouthwest.org/
>
> Combining centralized solar in the southwest with distributed power
> from solar panels all over the country will give us solar on a vast
> scale. Photovoltaics are within a few years of grid parity, not
> including the external or hidden costs of fossil fuels.
>
> Wind is also much cheaper to build than coal or nuclear plants and
> about a third the cost of building nuclear. A recent govt report
> says we could have 20% wind power by 2030. Solar could be bigger.
>
>
> Geothermal with advanced technology could be huge.
>
> The costs of not switching to renewable energy far exceeds the cost
> of doing it.
>
> In the U.S. with a tiny fraction of our power coming from wind and
> solar, we talk constantly about the "intermittency&amp... of solar
> and wind.
> Meanwhile Denmark already has 20% wind power. Parts of Denmark and
> Germany have 40% wind power.
>
> Yes we need more storage solutions, better battery technology etc.
> What people don't get is that we can make a big start toward renewables
> with current technology.
>
> I would argue that solar is already cheaper than fossil fuels when
> you consider the hidden costs of those. and wind is already cheaper
> without those considerations.
>
> While there are several energy plans I've seen they all have the
> same elements. Solar, Wind, HVDC, plug in hybrids, biomass, geothermal,
> energy conservation and efficiency, etc.
>
> I recommend reading the following articles.
>
>
> www.setamericafree.org...
>
> An Introductin to Core Climate Solutions
> analyses and updates the solutions outlined in the Science magazine
> article on stablilization wedges below.
> climateprogress.org/20.../

>
>
> Science magazine article on Stablilization Wedges to solve global
> warminghttp://carbonse...
>
> climateprogress.org/20.../

>
>
> www.americanprogressac...

>
>
> climateprogress.org/20.../

>
>
>
> What makes it hard for renewable to compete with fossil fuels is
> the massive subsidies fossil fuels and nuclear receive.
>
> See my comments on subsidies at yesterday's article on solar at
> Seeking Alpha
> seekingalpha.com/artic...