Philip Winestone wrote:
For countries such as the US and Canada, renewable power such as solar energy is quite inadequate.
That's incorrect. The U.S. wind power in the top ~5 states is larger than the power from all of the oil produced in the Middle East. (That is, wind power from places where turbines are allowed, excluding national parks, bird migratory lanes, urban areas and so on.) Solar power in the southeast could also easily supply all U.S. energy needs. As I recall, advanced, large scale solar in the Mohave desert could probably supply the entire world with energy, but the cost would be prohibitive.
There are areas in the U.S. without much renewable power, such as Georgia and Washington DC. (If we could harness stupidity, cupidity and hot air, Washington alone could supply the whole nation.)
Power sources such as small hydro, where to some extent the power output is consistent, is attractive, as is biomass to some extent.
Hydro is tapped out. Biomass is far too small to make a significant difference. Biomass is a form of solar energy which happens to be less than 0.1% efficient, which is ridiculous.
- Jed
