In reply to Hoyt A. Stearns Jr.'s message of Mon, 1 Jan 2007 15:53:17 -0700: Hi, [snip] >This has been discussed before on this list, and it turned out that >artificially generated heat is insignificant compared to solar influx. [snip] I'm well aware of that, I was primarily responsible for demonstrating it. Our current heat output is negligible, however that doesn't mean we should waste energy frivolously. Once you start down that path, there may be no stopping, and with a growing World population that is also getting wealthier at the same time (read increasing the per capita energy consumption), it could eventually become a significant problem.
Besides, there is a chance that the power source for the Steorn motors is the kinetic energy of solar wind that encounters the Earth's magnetic field. The amount of energy available from that source varies from 1-10 times the current human power consumption for the planet, which means that if we were to switch entirely to Steorn motors as our power source, we might well find ourselves running out quite soon. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://users.bigpond.net.au/rvanspaa/ Competition provides the motivation, Cooperation provides the means.
