Mike Carrell writes: > My point in the essay is that wind and solar have well known problems, and > hydrogen storage and distribution on the scale necessary to sustain our > present lifestyle is not attractive. However, BLP technologies offer a way > forward which can work along with hydrogen produced from wind and solar > sources.
Point taken. Wind and solar sure do have problems. Anyone who seriously advocates them, as I do, should acknowledge this. In many ways uranium fission would be better, especially with a next generation reactor. And if BLP can be made to work, I would be the first to agree it is even more promising than CF, in both the short term and long term. This is a strange analogy, but as I see it, the energy crisis resembles a frightening fatal illness, such as AIDS. Wind and solar are analogous to AZT and other viricides: they can bring us back to health and probably let us live out a natural life, but they will be very expensive and restrictive. We will have to put up with wind turbines everywhere you turn. We will never have HUGE amounts of energy for desalination megaprojects or projects put all highways underground. Energy will remain expensive forever. Something like BLP (or CF) on the other hand, would be like a magic cure for AIDS. Not only will it work overnight and kill every last virus, it will also restore the patient to the very peak of health at age 18; it will give him the strength of ten men; permanently remove the need for sleep, and give him X-ray vision and the ability to read two books simultaneously while driving a car and singing an aria. The only conventional energy source that offers the same kind of unlimited power and incredible capablities that BLP or CF offer is spaced-based solar. I guess that would be solar-to-microwave, in the latest incarnation. (Right?) And as I see it, the only way to get that is with a space elevator. I wish the people in Washington would take that seriously, instead of chasing off after expeditions to Mars. I wish they would ditch the International Space Station and get on with elevators instead. - Jed
