Posted on 07/03/2008 8:27:18 AM PDT by Red Badger
Yes, but Thomas Edison was right about that. Burning candles in 2008 is either for ambiance reasons or for generating scents in the house. If we want real light today, we turn on the electricity.
Nuclear power may never become too cheap to meter (especially for Aluminium factories) but it may:
1) Become cheaper than alternative sources (very likely)
2) Become more effective to be charged as a flat monthly fee for a typical residential household with lines that max at 200A (possible)
3) Become significantly cheaper than it is now if we could recycle the waste without a bunch of technology hating commies throwing roadblocks in the way of people who want to actually accomplish things!
What about geothermal induced earthquakes? You couldn’t take too much of it near the surface without causing changes. The low cost/low hanging fruit is limited but I agree we could develop some new technologies to use more of it. Maybe slow motion robotic moles could be developed to run water lines at lower cost enabling some practical home heating and cooling.
Yes, I know. For that we need PEBBLE BED REACTORS outside EVERY home!....right beside the Geothermal heating and A/C units!............
No, Brazil set out to build 100% alcohol fueled cars and trucks because they have millions of acres of sugar cane fields. But now they have their own oil wells!.............
“Why the hell aren’t we doing this?”
As a 5th generation Southern Californian, if the so called polutants (smog) were eliminated all you imigrants from elsewhere wouldn’t be encouraged to go back to where you came from!
In the 40s and early 50s when I was growing up and smog was so thick in los Angeles that aqt times iT made the school librear hazy from one end to the other, no one was bothered by it except imigrants from the east coast.
Had the same word for them then as no, LEAVE!!!!
IIRC, there's a new-ish geothermal plant near Reno that's producing power. A few years back I was somewhat involved with a pilot geothermal plant in southern Idaho but they were having many problems with corrosion and mineral deposits in the plumbing.
Believe me, it isn't as easy as just tapping into the hot water and letting it do its thing. Geothermal water is loaded with all sorts of goodies: gold, silver, copper and many other minerals, some quite nasty. They can really plug up the "works" in elaborate heat-exchange equipment. They're the source of many ore deposits, like the famous Comstock Lode. In the U.S. geothermal energy remains one of those vague unproven "alternative" energy sources that the enviros claim will replace oil quickly -- not!
if all the alleged atmospheric pollutants that are flying in the air today caused by coal and oil usage is replaced by water vapor, I have a nagging feeling that we just might be opening a pandoras box.
Overall, I can't see how artificially charging our atmosphere with water vapor could be advantageous to the planet. Look what happens to your bathroom walls, ceiling and mirror when you take a shower with the door closed........
We can do the same thing the Icelanders are doing, but with the understanding that nuke power would be our engine rather than geothermal.
If you favor hydrogen-powered cars, and battery-powered cars, then you have to be thinking about nukes. We should be building about fifty of them right now.
If you want to get off of foreign power sources, the immediate short-term answer is drill like crazy and build coal-to-diesel plants left and right. The long term answer is nuclear.
China is currently (pun intended) building 35 NEW NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS, with plans for 300 MORE!.................At least our money is paying for somebody's nuclear power..............
Wow. China is determined to be energy independent.
We do the same.
“We do the same.”
Dang. Should read “We should do the same”...
Exactly. I look at my house, all the goods within it, my vehicle, my recreational toys, everything.....and I can't find one thing that doesn't have something to do with oil.
I assume it's the same for the No-Drill Hypocrites...if they took a few minutes to think about it...but that might hurt.
Didn’t Brazil go all biofuels, a long time ago?
In a word, NO!
Brazil does use biofuels (sugarcane ethanol) to supplement its domestic oil supplies, but it still uses plenty of oil. However, it has stopped importing it.
Easy heat, but equally important is the ice - gives a constant delta-T Stirling engines love.
That must be what i am remembering...reading that they had gone self sufficient, and stopped importing any foreign oil.
Yea, unfortunately we don’t have volcanoes like Iceland.
What do you think rain is? Condensed water vapor. Some parts of the world would benefit from more rain. Oceans cover most of the globe and their evaporation in sunlight contributes more vapor to the atmosphere than man ever could. The atmosphere can absorb only so much moisture. When the air reaches saturation point, then the rest will condense and fall as rain.
Good points.
You're absolutely right, via natural causes. Now you intend to super saturate it via artificial means - burning hydrogen. Rain you say? Quite likely and a hell of a lot of it...........
Nothing like increased water vapor in the atmosphere to increase the greenhouse effect......
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