Jed,
Is 10 billion enough to prove it is not cost effective?
20 billion? 50?
I could have launched those tortoises into earth orbit for $56M in taxpayer
money spent at Ivanpah relocaiting them
I am not much for conspiracy theories although they are fun to read
On Thursday, June 14, 2012, Jed Rothwell wrote:
> Chemical Engineer <cheme...@gmail.com <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
> 'cheme...@gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
> You are right, the government should have given them 5 times as much money
>> to prove that something 5 times more expensive . . .
>
>
> Luz did not use much government money, and their 300 MW plant has been
> operating continuously at a profit since the 1980s, so I suppose they have
> paid back in taxes by now. The government and the power company should have
> licensed them to build a plant 5 times bigger. It would not have cost 5
> times more. That's the whole point! See: economies of scale.
>
>
> The market for CSP(none) drove them out of business not the government.
>>
>
> That is not the story I read, in a book, which I cannot find. It was a
> ploy to destroy the industry. A squeeze play, not unlike GM's successful
> method of destroying electric cars.
>
>
>
>> LENR has the potential to up-end the current market and I am all for
>> that. Let capital markets decide.
>>
>
> Capital markets have never been able to introduce radically new
> technology. As I have often pointed out here, in the last 300 years, just
> about every large-scale technology has been brought to fruition with
> government help. In many cases these technologies have been invented and
> implemented by governments, such as nuclear power, computers, lasers, the
> GPS and human genome reading technology.
>
> Even technology that seems to be brought about by industry was not. Ford
> invented the mass produced automobile, but that is only a small part of the
> transportation system. It is an adjunct to the paved roads and highways,
> which are all built by the government. Ford was taking advantage of a
> government-provided technology. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were also
> johnny-come-latelys who took advantage of microcomputer technology after
> Uncle Sam paid something like ~80% of the money to develop it.
>
> Industry gets the profits, but the taxpayers foot the bills. If cold
> fusion succeeds it will be the same way.
>
> - Jed
>
>
