Excellent point Chris. I was in China last summer, and saw solar hot water heating units literally covering all rooftops of apartment buildings in many cities. I was last there 8 years ago, and don't recall seeing any. These were free-standing units, and were for sale everywhere. Seeing so many in use in such a short span of years made me wonder why it hasn't happened here!
Peter Woodbury Christopher A. Farmer wrote: > Hello All, > I have been watching this debate for a few days now before chiming in. While > I agree with David's point that if biofuels are to work, we must first reduce > the demand on them by utilizing other renewable energy sources like the sun. > I would, however like to caution everyone that a high-tech fix usually has > high capital costs and that lower tech fixes are often the best approach. In > most cases, simpler solutions like passive or active solar water heating are > much more efficient and durable than PV, not to mention simpler. This kind of > thinking needs to manifest itself in our national energy policy in terms of > massive demand side management and simple solutions to our remaining energy > demand. > ~Chris Farmer > > --- DAVID WHITACRE wrote: > This may sound very pie-in-the-sky, but how about this proposition: > > The amount of energy we should use is the amount that can be captured by = > covering every existing roof with the highest-tech energy capture device = > currently available--photovoltaics, I assume. > > Surely someone has calculated how much energy this would capture, and = > how it stacks up against our current energy use? Presumably we would = > need to massively reduce energy use for this to come close to meeting = > our needs, but ultimately it would seem the moral path to head down. = > (Along with other renewables, especially wind, though I like this a lot = > better than fueling machines with photosynthate when people are = > starving) > --- end of quote --- > > > ___________________________________ > -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Dr. Peter Woodbury, Research Associate Crop and Soil Sciences Department 233 Emerson Hall Cornell University, Ithaca NY, 14853 607.255.1448 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
