Originally posted by KazetNagorra Solar is too expensive (at the moment). Wind doesn't produce constant power.
That's dated information re solar power. It's made some huge strides over the past few years, and the tax breaks for installation as well as the experiments in various municipalities to pay for the installation and then allow the owner to pay it off in installments with their property taxes have expanded the possibilities greatly.
It's still fresh however. The first solar panel produced by automated manufacturing rolled off the lines about a decade ago.
Originally posted by Kunsoo That's dated information re solar power. It's made some huge strides over the past few years, and the tax breaks for installation as well as the experiments in various municipalities to pay for the installation and then allow the owner to pay it off in installments with their property taxes have expanded the possibilities greatly.
It's still fresh however ...[text shortened]... irst solar panel produced by automated manufacturing rolled off the lines about a decade ago.
the biggest problem with solar panels is space. I'd love to install solar panels in my yard. With the tax breaks and energy savings it would pay for itself in a few years. But you need a large patch of open land unobstructed by trees and I don't have that.
What would really work is covering the roofs of apartment buildings in big cities with solar panels.
Originally posted by sh76 and have power lines running under the Med, perhaps?
You could bounce the energy around the globe using microwave links and satellites. Yes it would be inefficient, but you would have an over abundance of solar energy to tap!
Originally posted by no1marauder Finally, an industrialized country with a sensible energy policy. And this with a Center-Right government! Details here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43214183/ns/business-oil_and_energy/
Some highlights:
"We want the electricity of the future to be safe, reliable and economically viable," Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters ...[text shortened]... heme was scrapped and cleaner more environmentally friendly measures put in its place.
They'll just continue to buy nuke generated power from France.
Originally posted by no1marauder No, it isn't. It is between using our resources to build and maintain (at huge cost and substantial risk) nuclear power plants or using those resources to develop more efficient and less dangerous alternatives.
The nuclear plants in Germany are already built. Shutting them down early results in a much higher cost per unit over all because the economics of nuclear include a very high construction cost which gets paid off over time. Shutting down a nuclear plant sooner than necessary is more expensive than keeping it running.
I don't know how you calculate efficiency. I don' think it even makes sense in this context. Please explain for example how solar is 'more efficient' than nuclear.
Originally posted by no1marauder Yeah, it's real "clean" in Northern Japan these days ...........................
Yes it is. Its a lot cleaner than it would have been if they had been using coal power instead of nuclear. Its a lot cleaner than most parts of China that is heavily dependent on coal.
Originally posted by Kunsoo That's dated information re solar power. It's made some huge strides over the past few years, and the tax breaks for installation as well as the experiments in various municipalities to pay for the installation and then allow the owner to pay it off in installments with their property taxes have expanded the possibilities greatly.
It's still fresh however ...[text shortened]... irst solar panel produced by automated manufacturing rolled off the lines about a decade ago.
Not really. It's still a lot more expensive to build a solar plant to generate power than to build a coal plant. That's not to say solar power is useless, just that its use is situational at the moment.
Originally posted by AThousandYoung Deserts. The Sahara should be a giant solar power plant.
Transporting energy long distances leads to losses. I've heard conflicting reports about the importance of these. Some say they are a big deterrent to a project like that, others say that it's not that bad.
Germany to abandon Nuclear Power by 2022
30 May '11 21:42
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