Dan Minette schreef:
> Like nuclear? I was asked to give a talk on the next 50 years of energy. I
> predicted that solar would multiply by 100 fold, and be 0.5% of the total
> energy budget. Of all energy sources, the use of coal should increase the
> most.
Don't you think wind energy would do much better. In The Netherlands and as far
as I know in Germany there are already large windparks built to get cheap and
clean energy. Of course the Dutch have a tradition to uphold in the wind
department but that doesn't mean that it couldn't work anywhere else as well.
As for solar power.... I kind of doubt it's a long term solution. The solar
panels have to be made first. They are expensive to produce if you calculate in
terms of energy necessary. They only last 10 to 15 years in which they only
produce a litlle more energy then was used up in their original construction.
Unless there have been made some major improvements, I'm currently unaware off,
they seem to me, a rather inefficient way of producing energy. IIRC there is
only a small amount of light energy converted into electricity. The rest is
heat. Granted, the use of this surpluss heat (to improve efficiency of solar
energy panels) has been somewhat improved (I'm thinking solar boilers here). But
I haven't heard of any major improvements lately on that all important energy
conversion figure.
How about wave energy? In France and (I think) Japan there are some projects
that produced moderate but encouraging results sofar. Thermal energy seems to
work in New Zealand and Iceland as far as I know.
I guess it all boils down to what kind of region you're in and what kind of
natural resource is available for energy conversion. I wonder if somewhere far
far in the future people will migrate to places with some specific sort of
natural energy reserve is present......
Well the Dutch are OK for a while, plenty of wind, lots of shoreline. That is
... as long as the sea level stays put. ;o)
Sonja
