Originally Posted by
Sparky
There are many alternatives to energy take your pick(wind, solar, ethanol, hydrogen) or a combo of each.
Wind--One wind turbine can power 500 homes. There's enough wind energy in Western South Dakota to power the whole country. The coal lobby has blocked all effort for any wind farms in that area.
Solar--Technology is advancing dramatically, and becoming very practical and econmical.
Ethanol--Corn sucks for ethanol, the only reason we use it is because we grow it in abundance. Switchgrass is not only native, it grows fast, needs no fertilizers, and one acre can produce 1,000 gallons of ethanol a year. That's almost 10 times what corn can produce.
Hydrogen--The true answer to long term renewable energy. If we would of taken the trillion dollars spent in Iraq for their oil and invested it in a "Manhatten Project" type approach to our energy needs, the Middle East would be somebody elses problem.
Oil companies are the biggest lobby against any government research for alternative energy.
You couldn't sweep that many generalizations with a broom! One turbine will power 500 homes? Please provide your supporting documentation. Here is mine.
From the Texas State Energy Conservation Office. "
It takes only one MW to serve the electricity needs of 250 to 300 homes on average each day" That is only household use averaged for the year. Double that for the peak summer months. From the same source,
"The Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center in Texas remains the largest wind farm in the world with a total capacity of 735 megawatts (MW) spread across approximately 47,000 acres in Taylor and Nolan counties near Abilene in west central Texas.
The wind plant consists of 291 1.5-MW wind turbines from General Electric and 130 2.3-MW wind turbines from Siemens.
One MW is enough electricity to serve 250 to 300 homes on average each day."
Do the math, how many acres of land to power the whole state much less a region or country.
You ever seen one of these turbines? They are BIG. Wind is a nice supplement but not the answer. OBTW, an oil company wanted to put wind farms off the East Coast and the rich Libs in Martha's Vinyard (Kennedy) squashed the project.
Solar technology is nowhere near efficient or powerful enough to power a home much less a city.
The ethanol process takes more energy than it produces. No matter what you use you still have to farm it. Bought milk or bread lately? How about meat or a tortilla. The price of food is going through the roof because we are burning it. Switchgrass would cause the same problem. Fossil fuels to farm it and produce it plus all the arable land it would take from food production.
Hydrogen is promising but it still takes more energy to produce hydrogen from water than it gives. Besides H is very flammable and unstable, Hindenburg comes to mind.
All these alternative sources only address electricity generation. The answer there has got to be nuclear. Clean, efficient, and safe. Reactors make their own fuel so it is the ultimate renewable fuel.
As far as transport, nothing has more energy per molecule than gasoline. That is why we use it. We have soooo much oil that we aren't allowed to get because of politics. If I were king, I could lower the price of crude with one announcement. We are drilling in AK and the Gulf. Poof! Markets react to new supply and price goes down. But alas, I am not king.... :-)