On 24/11/14 08:17, Andy Farkas wrote: > "Renewable energy 'simply WON'T WORK': Top Google engineers > Windmills, solar, tidal - all a 'false hope', say Stanford PhDs > <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/21/renewable_energy_simply_wont_work_google_renewables_engineers/> > > >... renewables will never ... cut CO2 ...
A few problems with this article. First of all, it starts from the assumption that Google projects are usually a success and so if their renewable energy project failed, then the task must be all but impossible. However, most Google projects fail, not because Google has hopeless engineers, but because (as the article says), they try some very difficult projects. Just because Google can't see how to do cheap renewable energy, does not make it impossible. Next of all, the challenge Google set itself was a very large one: renewable energy cheaper than coal. But the price for coal sourced electricity in the article does not appear to include the cost of disposing of the carbon dioxide pollution burning coal creates. With this logic, I could save the cost of a garbage collection at home by burning my rubbish in the backyard. This would create clouds of stinking smoke, but most of it would blow over to my neighbors and so not be my problem. Burning coal creates a global pollution problem, which has to be controlled by legislation, or a price mechanism, or both. The article suggests Google gave up on renewables in 2011, which is unfortunate, as around this time solar panels started becoming very cheap and also storage options started to become cheaper. As the article says, it is difficult to use solar or wind power for on-demand power as the sun does not shine, and the wind does not blow, on demand (I had a masters of engineering student do a study on that). But coal is also not suited to on demand power supply: it takes many hours to start up a coal fired station and it has to be kept operating, in case someone needs the power. This could be radically changed with a combination of demand management (using smart networked devices), demand pricing and storage. The most polluting fossil fuels could be phased out while introducing the most affordable of the renewable sources. The article goes on to advocate nuclear power. But this would take a considerable capital investment. ps: This could be an assignment topic for my ICT Sustainability students in 2015: http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/ -- Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150 The Higher Education Whisperer http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/ PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia http://www.tomw.net.au Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science, Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/ _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
