[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Incidentally, I'm not quite sure I follow what this has to do with my seemingly tyrannical support of the Ominous Solar Tower National Project (Shortened to: OSTNP) other than I guess it is being argued that it will generate meaningless make-work. If so, not sure I buy that.
No one said that the project would generate make-work. We said, quite clearly, it would take up more land than the US highway system, and cause visual pollution everywhere. Other renewable energy sources are much more promising. Perhaps the amount of land the tower takes up can be reduced. (I do not see how, because the land is where the solar energy is collected.) Perhaps the 200 MW prototype in Australia is small, and these towers might be scaled up to produce 5,000 or 10,000 MW at a single location. In that case I would withdraw my objection.
The thing might work better as a microwave collector in conjunction with space-based power systems.
With apologies to Jed up front: You may call yourself a proud card-carrying Luddite, but I submit to you that from my perspective you appear to be a wannabe Luddite, and only when it suits the current argument. Seems to me there is something really bizarre about claiming to be a Luddite while simultaneously passionately supporting CF and other exotic forms of energy.
I was kidding, although I certainly do agree with Lord Byron. I sympathize with the Luddites, and I loathe the notion that all technology is good, or inevitable. Generally, I agree with whatever Arthur C. Clarke has to say. See "Profiles of the Future."
- Jed
