Al,
re: nukes
jh: Both Obama and Hillary are on record opposing the disposal site.
Al: So?
You have to understand the strategy of anti nuke crowd. They know that one way to sabotage nuclear energy is to block the only (the best) disposal site in the country. Then they say that nuclear energy is a problem because there is no disposal site.
So the position on disposal site in Nevada is a proxy of whether you are for the only viable alternative energy source (nuclear) or you are full of shit.
Obama and Hillary are both full of shit - or are trading the good of the country for short term political gains in the primary elections - if you are assuming that they are lying about being opposed to Yucca Mountain disposal site.
re: fluorecsents
Mine work great. I use them everywhere, including outdoors in the flood lights over the garage. I have not had to replace a single one for four years.
Like I said, I may just be unlucky, or there is something fishy with compact fluorescents in particular. I bought fairly expensive ones in hardware stores or cheap ones at IKEA, and like I said, they are of poor quality or longevity.
I have no problem with long fluorescent tubes in the office.
re: solar
Save for the panel, the rest of the parts for a grid system are as old as dirt. What's the problem?
I was looking at these some time ago. There are number of bells and whistles one can get, such as some on-site storage, timers for water heaters, for when to send to the grid, when to charge etc. While it would be fine for me, since I am a tinkerer to some extend, I could see this being a bit over the head of an average person who has not mastered VCR.
But I guess the simplest system of always sending excess to the grid is the most foolproof method - as long as the power from solar as percentage of total rounds to zero.
It gets a hell lot more complicated if a massive rollout takes place (heavily subsidized by government). We could end up with power grid quality of Ceausescu's Romania.
You presuppose that coal would be replaced by nukes...but the economics of nukes are awful.
There are 2 problems: High upfront cost and sabotage by environmentalists (+ NIMBYs). High upfront cost dictates that the plant is in production quickly. The saboteurs can create delays, which make the economics awful.
It is very much like building a semiconductor fab. They are like printing money if they are in full production making the right product. With electricity being a commodity, the variable of having the right product is not present. Only issue is timing and lack of disruption once the construction begins.
Joe |
