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5 dollar gas...are we ready?

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Re: 5 dollar gas...are we ready?

Do you really think it would be a good idea to burn through 99.9% of the water on earth?

You do know that most of the water on earth is ocean, yes? Not to mention the water content in perspiration, maybe we'll harvest sulfuric acid from Venus and extract hydrogen there (OK, probably won't happen)
 
Re: 5 dollar gas...are we ready?

I was wondering the same thing :p

Let me connect the dots. We've been told that the way we consume energy won't change in this country. If in some world that were true, why bother trying to improve technology?

It is kind of fun to watch these 'it can never happen due to physics' predictions against green energy fail. On a related note, Denmark just produced more electricity by wind than it uses.
 
Re: 5 dollar gas...are we ready?

Ironically, one key input for magnetic confinement fusion is helium, which is used in the cryogenic magnets they use to contain the fusion. There's a funky way to set up a loop circuit in liquid helium that produces extremely powerful magnetic fields. If there turns out to be a helium shortage before we get the fusion reactor working, oops! :o


If my understanding is correct, we have to solve five problems, not two (several of these might already have been pretty well worked out....):
-- how to get fusion started in the first place
-- how to contain it once it gets going
-- how to fuel it so that it keeps running sustainably
-- how to transform the heat generated into other forms of energy
-- how to dispose of the waste product generated
 
Let me connect the dots. We've been told that the way we consume energy won't change in this country. If in some world that were true, why bother trying to improve technology?

It is kind of fun to watch these 'it can never happen due to physics' predictions against green energy fail. On a related note, Denmark just produced more electricity by wind than it uses.

On a related note Germany just admitted that they are not getting close to their green energy goals. In spite of some of the highest rates in the world to pay for the initiative.
 
Re: 5 dollar gas...are we ready?

Let me connect the dots. We've been told that the way we consume energy won't change in this country. If in some world that were true, why bother trying to improve technology?
Are you reading the same board we are reading? I've been around here A LOT, and I don't recall ever reading anything remotely like that.

It is kind of fun to watch these 'it can never happen due to physics' predictions against green energy fail. On a related note, Denmark just produced more electricity by wind than it uses.
I'd love to see an example of one of these predictions that has been invalidated. Just one.
 
Let me connect the dots. We've been told that the way we consume energy won't change in this country. If in some world that were true, why bother trying to improve technology?

It is kind of fun to watch these 'it can never happen due to physics' predictions against green energy fail. On a related note, Denmark just produced more electricity by wind than it uses.
Awesome, that means they can cut loose the power coming in from other countries,have they done that yet?
 
Awesome, that means they can cut loose the power coming in from other countries,have they done that yet?
I knew this couldn't be true, so I dug a little. Turns out that Denmark got about 33% of its electricity from wind last year. They had 2 days during the year when the turbines produced more energy than the country needed. Not quite time to cut the power lines yet.
 
Re: 5 dollar gas...are we ready?

I knew this couldn't be true, so I dug a little. Turns out that Denmark got about 33% of its electricity from wind last year. They had 2 days during the year when the turbines produced more energy than the country needed. Not quite time to cut the power lines yet.

And of course we all know the wind ALWAYS blows, just like the sun ALWAYS shines.

Still waiting to hear what country that was that gets 15% of their energy demand from solar.
 
Re: 5 dollar gas...are we ready?

It is kind of fun to watch these 'it can never happen due to physics' predictions against green energy fail. On a related note, Denmark just produced more electricity by wind than it uses.
You still haven't found where anything said was about fusion....which is what this conversation is about. Quit embarrassing yourself.
 
Re: 5 dollar gas...are we ready?

And of course we all know the wind ALWAYS blows, just like the sun ALWAYS shines.

Still waiting to hear what country that was that gets 15% of their energy demand from solar.

Cars were said to be incapable of going above 70 mpg (that's already happened) and solar?

Well, you might have known that I couldn't resist commenting on a solar energy story...

In this case, however, I think an "emerging market" like India might be one of the few places where solar can make some sense. Still not going to be viable in the first world market, though.

Worldwide solar power is growing at a 50% CAGR over the last 7 years...must be all India.
 
Re: 5 dollar gas...are we ready?

Cars were said to be incapable of going above 70 mpg (that's already happened)
Really? That's funny, because Wiki still lists the highest production MPG car ever as the 2000 Honda Insight at 61 highway (53 combined). MPGe is not the same thing as MPG. At the time "70 mpg is the upper bound" predictions were being made, there was no such thing as a plug-in hybrid, so that wasn't a consideration. It is still true that no ICE-powered production car (which is what the prediction addressed) has beaten 70 mpg.

Worldwide solar power is growing at a 50% CAGR over the last 7 years...must be all India.
How exactly does that contradict the prediction that solar will not be a viable fossil fuel replacement for the first world?
 
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Re: 5 dollar gas...are we ready?

Let me connect the dots. We've been told that the way we consume energy won't change in this country. If in some world that were true, why bother trying to improve technology?

It is kind of fun to watch these 'it can never happen due to physics' predictions against green energy fail. On a related note, Denmark just produced more electricity by wind than it uses.

The country will adjust based upon the height of the barrier of entry and the associated demand. Would they change this second? Probably not, seeing as how the infrastructure is not set up. Look at how telecommunications companies reacted to the dot-com boom, though.

As for your European tirade, there are a number of factors you are missing, such as how much electricity is being used, associated rates not only per house, but per square mile of land area both rural and urban, and while we're on the subject of land area, how much land is being used for the energy conversion, and associated weather considerations. It reminds me of your argument for any communist policy you and your ilk have supported. You take one small area where it happens to have seen success, and extrapolate it without looking into the specifics of what is demanded and how it is met.
 
Worldwide solar power is growing at a 50% CAGR over the last 7 years...must be all India.

How's that big investment in Solyandra working for you?

We just looked at a photovoltaic array for a project we're doing. Sized to provide about 2% of the total energy demand of the building. Simple payback? 31 years.
 
Re: 5 dollar gas...are we ready?

Before it was created in the last few years, MPGe was MPG. The same thing. It wasn't even considered on this board until December. So now its what was intended years ago when the claim was made? Ah...no.

At the time "70 mpg is the upper bound" predictions were being made, there was no such thing as a plug-in hybrid, so that wasn't a consideration.

That was the shocker then...is that the engineers here still said it was impossible to go above 70 mpg and couldn't see that this was a possibility. And the same perspective is...

Still not going to be viable in the first world market, though.

So Germany progressed from 0.5% of its total energy consumption in 2007 coming from solar to over 5.0% today (and this in a country with half the hours of sun of the US southwest).

How is that not viable in the first world?

How's that big investment in Solyandra working for you?

I like Solar City...not many investments are up 7 times in the last 14 months.

Ironically, one key input for magnetic confinement fusion is helium, which is used in the cryogenic magnets they use to contain the fusion. There's a funky way to set up a loop circuit in liquid helium that produces extremely powerful magnetic fields. If there turns out to be a helium shortage before we get the fusion reactor working, oops! :o


If my understanding is correct, we have to solve five problems, not two (several of these might already have been pretty well worked out....):
-- how to get fusion started in the first place
-- how to contain it once it gets going
-- how to fuel it so that it keeps running sustainably
-- how to transform the heat generated into other forms of energy
-- how to dispose of the waste product generated

Ask Japan about its appetite for this approach. These types of technologies are transitory. As electricity goes to renewables (Solar, Wind, Bio, Hydro) and cars go to electric...the need for fusion will be minimal.

Don't know if I'll be posting on this again...I've got things to do this weekend.
 
Re: 5 dollar gas...are we ready?

How's that big investment in Solyandra working for you?

We just looked at a photovoltaic array for a project we're doing. Sized to provide about 2% of the total energy demand of the building. Simple payback? 31 years.

Residential might work with incentives, the prices are dropping on panels. But I'm talking grid tied and not off the grid
 
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