Re: [Vo]: Biofuel Bonanza

[Jed Rothwell]

leaking pen wrote:

Also, large ponds that are heated...   that waste heat goes straight 
up, and will change weather patterns.

Well, we are only talking about doing this with waste heat from 
generators, and that already goes straight up. It is mostly released 
in the form of steam from the large conical cooling towers that many 
people mistakenly believe are nuclear reactors. (By the way, this 
steam kills millions of birds, many more than wind turbines do.)

Still, this is a point well taken, and it might be a good idea to 
reduce evaporation from ponds, especially in arid places. In the 
photos of algae production in power plants that I saw recently, the 
algae was grown in large plastic bags exposed to sunlight. This would 
prevent evaporation. I cannot find those photos, but they are out 
there . . . somewhere.

- Jed