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As the smoke cleared, Jeff Fink <[email protected]> mounted the barricade and roared out: > Solar electric, I read, uses indium which is in short supply and isn't > even mineable. The production process releases some kind of > hexafluoride chemical that causes an atmospheric problem. The panels > use more electricity to produce than they save over a lifetime. They > deteriorate over time. There are overwhelming transmission losses in > any grid that could get the power from the day side of the planet to > the night side. Need I go on? These are certainly serious issues. Perhaps even insurmountable ones. However -- I don't believe they are. The pollution issue, for instance is almost certainly only one tied to profit motive. And certainly as well: economies of scale would cut down production costs. And is it even really true solar cells never produce as much electricity as their manufacture consumes? Frankly, I find that hard to believe. Besides too -- not all solar tek uses rare elements, etc. Cheap, replaceable ones are a real possibility. > These are technical problems that could some day be overcome. My point > is: They are here and now serious problems, and afaik their solutions > are not on the horizon. The point is, again: to develop ekonomies of skale. And be serious about this. You're not really focusing on that. The horizon is here. The time is now. Some day is today. The matter is no longer hypothetical, even if capitalist governments still have their collective selfish heads up their fat asses... > I'm a slow typist. Let me know if I must respond to solar thermal and > wind power to. What -- they have problems too..?? ;P > These alternatives cannot compete economically with present generating > methods unless they are heavily subsidized by the government. So we have a > choice. We can pay $1.00 per kwh to the power company or pay some portion > of it to the tax man. Which do you prefer? History is replete with examples of necessary government subsidization of teknologikal research. Indeed: much of capitalist tek business would not today exist if "Big Government" hadn't footed the bill with *public money* for research up front, first. "Free Market" shills going on about "let the Market decide", yadda, are just that. What we require in fact is the equivalent of an energy "Manhattan Project". Controlled energy, that is. ;P - --grok. - -- Build the North America-wide General Strike. TODO el poder a los consejos y las comunas. TOUT le pouvoir aux conseils et communes. ALL power to the councils and communes. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkn2YVkACgkQXo3EtEYbt3FxPwCfWGKIrC5fEeADjBknfgFGGyGB /ZYAnRsJvKZPIQz/Lj39xQ3r4QezIXsA =BFnw -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
