Total biomass is very much part of the equation when you're running a solar energy collector, i should think ... it's all about what percentage of solar power you can convert to motive power, you're into horsepower/hectare and watts/acre and things of that sort
All energy we use outside of nuclear is solar energy, really - fossil fuels are the products of a growth process way back when, hydro is driven by the power of the sun evaporating water at low altitude so it can precipitate out higher, from where we run it through turbines ... ethanol is distilled solar energy, it's a matter of efficiency, i just can't see how making it from grains works out, since such a small portion of total biomass is used
There are other considerations, of course ... a corn-country vote is worth much more than an urban vote in the US where this ethanol-from-grains business got rolling - Harper is copying the political formula imho, it's that simple ... and behind this is the fact that you can burn ethanol in a gasoline engine, which for some reason is the most popular north american engine ... the euros know diesel to be far more efficient
Biodiesel from algae looks to me to have more future, you just get more driving per acre of sunlight per day ... it would be only part of an overall energy independence strategy, advances in battery technology would help a lot too, likely there will come also a way of making solar cells quite cheaply, then building them into roof systems, instead of building a roof and then sticking something on top of it you place modular roof/cell panels up there with a crane, then plug the solar in and stick gutters on the edges, it does both jobs by design ... likely there will be some ethanol production, plus other biomass processes, and wind, and tide/wave power probably to some extent, mostly a whole lot of nuclear ... and we'd better get this stuff rolling while we've still got a bit of high-grade fossil fuels left to make it possible
'I still think the best part of the deal is that producers are getting a better price for their product. You don’t, fair enough.'
Either i have not expressed myself well, or you have not read my typing well, if you can say that, because it is just fine with me if family farmers can make a go of it, and yes i know they've had some hard times .... what i don't agree with is using tax money to distort a market into doing things in a stupid way - this isn't going to benefit anybody for long ... 'Things that cannot last, don't'
Grains may well have been getting priced up anyway, as asian incomes increase they will want to eat more meat, and it takes a lot of grain to feed animals ... it wouldn't be too long before two forces that make grain cheap are winding down - the availability of cheap fossil fuels to chase around all those acres with machines and transport stuff to and fro, and the ability of the US to keep subsidising their agriculture to the extent they do ['corn' gets more subsidy money there than any other crop, by far, even before all the ethanol subsidies kick in, it's a purely political thing] ... one thing the rising price of corn has done is to slightly improve the living standards of campesinos back in the hills down south, they had been completely screwed by NAFTA letting in the heavily subsidised US grain, it's a little easier for them now ... at the same time there have been 'tortilla riots' in urban centres, price of masa went up dramatically and those who grow no corn don't think much of that ... some win and some lose by any market movement like that
How many litres of diesel-fuel-equivalent do you get per year per hectare using this feed-wheat-to-ethanol process, and how does that compare to other solar energy collection processes, these are the questions to ask, and i doubt they have been asked by the politicians, what they asked was, How do we get votes in this or that area ... same old same old ... i'm not that interested in this stuff really John, haven't kept up with Boom Boom Room lately, too bad as it can be a good thread ... are you doing anything in the minerals juniors? ... cheers |
