Why Renewable Energy Won't Work
 

Very Good article using math and Physics to explain to non scientist, why renewable energy can't provide our energy needs. This is a matter of Physics not R&D money or good intentions.

Nuclear Energy can provide our needs for thousands of years. The article also provides the math on this.

Energy Tribune- Understanding E = mc2



This paper (from 1983) discusses how long we can use nuclear energy using breeder reactors.

http://www.sustainablenuclear.org/PA...11983cohen.pdf

Re: Why Renewable Energy Won't Work
 

Sounds great, in theory...

But here are some facts, which largely explain why we haven't built a single nuke plant in 30 years:

- nuclear plants will not power vehicles
- nuclear plants still require massive amounts of fossil fuels to build, secure and maintain ...
- nuclear plants require astronomical financial cost; the only energy technology with both up-front and back-end capital costs.
- nuclear plants can not keep crops safe from insects, nor harvest and distribute the food necessary to feed 7-8 billion human beings.
- nuclear plants require "lead-in" time of 9-12 years in order to permit, build and finish the process of making electricity.
- nuclear plants will not produce plastics, asphalt or tires.
- nuclear plants require uranium and/or thorium, both of which are limited resources, and neither of which come anywhere near meeting global demand (and that's just today's rate of demand).
- nuclear plants produce some of the most dangerous material on the face of the earth, and no one knows what to do with the stuff. It's so bad, that the waste sits on site while governments still try to figure out where to put it. No real progress has been made in that regard, and there it still sits.

Re: Why Renewable Energy Won't Work
 

The reason we haven't built plants are the enviro activist.


If you want to have electric vehicles you need a cheap source of electricity and lot more electricity. I would still use hydrocarbons for transportation uses, BTW if you want synthetic fuel from coal nuke energy can power these processes.[/quote]

No more than coal or other energy plants, far less than so called 'renewable' sources.

Due in large part to legal problems caused by government and enviros.


But they can provide the electricity to cook the food, heat the homes, and power the workplaces for all the homo sapiens for the foreseeable future.



This is why we should have been doing this for the past 30 years, BTW the regulatory process is artificially long due to government, there are field proven designs ready to go that have been used around the world.


But they can power the manufacturing plants that produce them.

[/quote]
- nuclear plants require uranium and/or thorium, both of which are limited resources, and neither of which come anywhere near meeting global demand (and that's just today's rate of demand).[/quote]


Incorrect see the 2nd link from the U of Pitts, we have enough for tens million years at electrical production levels greater than todays usage. Hopefully we will figure out fusion then we have a truly 'unlimited' source of energy.



This is a political problem not a technical problem. Eventually we can recycle all the waste product Breeder reactors will recycle and use the most toxic materials.


BTW i take it you see no solution to our energy needs other than death and poverty due to peak oil....Or do you see a solution for all the issues you raise above?

Thanks for raising valid concerns. :)

Re: Why Renewable Energy Won't Work
 

You're wrong on so many points, but one thing you're correct about is that we should have started "transferrence" 30 years ago.

this is flat incorrect... i've posted "solutions" (such as they may be) many times over -- you're either too self-absorbed to have let it register, or being disingenuous. ... nothing will completely mitigate the full consequences of this phenomenon, and our lifestyles are going to have to change whether we like it or not.

anyhow, once again, the 25 points from MCR's most recent book:

A Presidential Energy Policy:
25 Points Addressing the Siamese Twins of Energy and Money:


1. Create a second strategic petroleum reserve of 750 million barrels of refined products for state and local governments.

2. Establish a new and uniform crude oil reserve accounting system for the United States. Through international agreements with the International Energy Agency and the United Nations, move for uniform global transparent and reliable reserve estimation and depletion rates.

3. Enact the Oil Depletion Protocol. Use all available diplomatic and economic means to encourage global ratification. Done to avoid profiteering from shortage such that oil prices may remain in reasonable relationship with production cost, and ... to set the provision that the world and every nation shall aim to reduce oil consumption by at least the depletion rate.

4. Immediately declassify the May, 2001, National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG) records.

5. Impose an immediate moratorium on all highway and airport expansion, including NAFTA superhighways.

6. Completely rebuild and expand America's rail system.

7. Feed-in tarrifs. Implemented to mandate that electric utilities will pay back 3% above market rates for all surplus electricity generated from renewable sources, especially including homes and businesses.

8. End speculation and immediately halt all derivatives contracts on non-renewable energy sources.

9. Enact a national speed limit of 55 mph, and strictly enforce it.

10. Eliminate all federal subsidies for ethanol and biofuel production.

11. Create feed-in tarrifs for local food production point of origin labeling.

12. Stimulate and strengthen local food production through federal and local governments - make vacant urban land available for cultivation.

13. Soil assessment - the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior shall be directed with the utmost urgency to evaluate soil conditions around the country.

14. Create a federal clearing house to track and report on all state and local initiatives/progress with respect to relocalization and energy use. In order to (1.) identify regions that are most vulnerable to energy shortages and any unique conditions that may exacerbate that vulnerability. ... 2)...

15. Draft and pass a new Public Utility Holding Company Act that will provide that all public utility companies must maintain sufficient energy reserves, infrastructure and resources.... Mandate and enforce infrastructure repair and maintainance standards for all public utilities.

16. Rebuild the grid and energy infrastructure including oil and natural gas pipelines.

17. Create a public energy oversight board to police and monitor advertising and public dissemination of information about energy.

18. Redraft the tax code of the United States. Thereby doing what is possible to make it more profitable to produce alternative or energy-saving regimes. Require all corporations to use accepted accounting practices.

19. A new nuclear intiative that relies heavily on the dismantling of a portion of U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal for uranium supply. Get a better grasp of global uranium supply shortages.

20. Draft new federal building codes for home and office construction.

21. Education. Direct the Secretary of Education to develop energy-curriculum standards in mathematics and basic sciences.

22. Efficiency - reduce federal government energy use by 15%.

23. Drastically reduce overseas military deployment.

24. Decriminalize the hemp plant and encourage widespread domestic production. Acknowledge its undeniable use for textiles and fabrics, fiber and pulp paper, paints and varnishes, lighting oil, medicines, food oil and protein and building materials.

25. Open a rational, open and ethical domestic and global dialogue on the population problem.

Re: Why Renewable Energy Won't Work
 

#23 @ $400.00 per gallon for fuel in Afghanistan this makes mucho sense..

Here is another factoid, there are over 700 bases in 130 countries around the world... all of which have to buy a lot of fuel, and continue the drain on the economy..

There are 6,000 bases on the mainland US and it's territories...

53 cents of every federal dollar goes to the military... it goes on and on.

Re: Why Renewable Energy Won't Work
 

Paragraph 23:
"The problem arises when solar enthusiasts try to claim solar power can provide base load power for an industrial society. There is no technology for storing commercial quantities of electricity. Until something is developed – which seems unlikely – wind and solar can serve only as intermittent, unpredictable resources."

Final two paragraphs:
"This is what people finds hard to grasp. It is almost beyond our comprehension. How can we run an entire city for five years on six ounces of matter with almost no environmental impact? It all seems so incomprehensible that we make up problems in order to make things seem normal again. A reactor is a bomb waiting to go off. The waste lasts forever, what will we ever do with it? There is something sinister about drawing power from the nucleus of the atom. The technology is beyond human capabilities.


But the technology is not beyond human capabilities. Nor is there anything sinister about nuclear power. It is just beyond anything we ever imagined before the beginning of the 20th century. In the opening years of the 21st century, it is time to start imagining it."
___________________________

So I get it now. Future tech breakthroughs and development of commercially viable energy storage capabilites for wind and solar are "unlikely", however, when regarding safe and long-term human-life viable storage of nuclear waste we simply need to "start imagining it".

Sorry, PF13, but the writer has some 'splainin' to do about that disconnect.

Re: Why Renewable Energy Won't Work
 

I agree with this point.

I have never been opposed to Nuke plants in my adult life. I went to a protest in Seabrook when I was 17 mainly because a chick I was chasing went.

Either way, we need to wean off of fossil fuels or at least limit their use to the military (which could be cut down to a fraction of what it is now when we become independent) and air travel. All power plants could be replaced by nukes as far as I'm concerned. We can store or recycle the waste until we're technologically able to dispose of it permanently. That would be a great bridge to the next phase of energy production in the not-so-distant future, whether it be fusion reaction, advanced solar collection, or geothermal sources.

The toxicity and environmental effects of nukes vs. fossil fuel combustion is huge. Many nations use it safely and are free to live in peace without involvement in the Middle East.

No question in my mind. Build them yesterday.

Re: Why Renewable Energy Won't Work
 

No, you're wrong, PC.

There's a left-leaning science writer who thought the same thing until she, as a science reporter, looked into the matter.

Gwyenth Cravens has written a book. I won't bother telling you to read it, since people don't read anymore.

But for anyone who might still do such an activity, here it is: Amazon.com: Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy (Vintage) (9780307385871): Gwyneth Cravens, Richard Rhodes: BooksWilliam Tucker, a gadfly writer living in one of the boroughs of NYC (I helped edit one of his obscure books on rent control in the early 1990s.), also has a book out trumpeting the merits of nuclear power.

Here's a transcript of a conversation he had with Dennis Prager:The Dennis Prager Show

Re: Why Renewable Energy Won't Work
 

Look at the energy density and intermittent nature of solar there is no way to run an industrial economy using this highly inefficient technology. The math doesn't work, you are limited by physics and not R&D.


Breeder reactors reduce the waste material by 'recycling it' there are solutions for low level waste (ie Yucca mtn for example) we haven't done it for political reasons. Japan for example is doing what we will not.

Re: Why Renewable Energy Won't Work
 

If Three Mile Island can come close to happening and Chernobyl can actually happen by accident, what about 20 guys with AK's and the technological knowledge to force it to happen? I have to think that if its possible for an accident to occur then a successful attack where the terrorists control the plant for even a hour will lead to a catastrophe that won't go away for 1000's of years. Do we really want to give our enemies that many more targets?