🚀 go-pugleaf

Ant, I'm Australian, and I realized after posting that it was probably a
contraction of Anthony.  My apologies; it was a case of Usenet finger--I
pushed the Send button too quickly.

Apart from that lapse, however, I did play the ball, not the man.  And if
you're trying to accuse me of right-wing thought (by association), you would
be mistaken.  I'm as worried about climate change as most "clean energy"
advocates -- I just have a different perspective.

I grew up in Sydney and Canberra, so I know the climate.  BC is rainier than
most of Australia, sure, but the same constraints apply:

-Extremely dilute energy source.
-Roofs that don't point in the right direction.
-Low PV efficiency.
-Risk in manufacturing and installation.
-Reduced functionality in inclement weather.
-Aesthetics
-Cost
-Battery and inverter inefficiencies.

...and so on.  None of these is a show-stopper, and I think solar is great
for remote and other off-grid locations.  I just don't see how you plan to
get reliable baseload.

I'm a little frustrated with the climate change debate: the business lobby
pretends either that it isn't happening or that it'll be good for us, and
the environmentalists pretend that the solutions are simple (Solar panels on
every rooftop!  Wind! Biomass! 50% increase in home energy efficiency!)

The problem is this:  I can hold a kg of wood in my hand: that's 1 kWh, give
or take. Coal: 3kWh.  Oil:  4kWh.  Gas:  about 6kWh.  Uranium: 400,000kWh.
How much in a handful of sunlight or wind?  By my rough calculation (1 hand
= about 0.018 sq.m x 1kW per sq.m for sunlight) = 0.018kW times however many
hours you hold it out.  I know someone's going to miss the point and jump on
me for a ludicrous comparison, but that IS the point.  I don't know wind, by
the way - I suspect it's better than sun.


"ant" <dont-look@evil.spam> wrote in message
news:2oE_4.8819$N4.323789@ozemail.com.au...
>
> seems like a case of playing the man not the issues, of course murry would
> take one of the less sunny parts of north America, i should have been more
> precise in my terms and said the USA excluding Alaska. but i suspect that
> BC has good wind resources, perhaps the potential for micro hydro plants.
> certainly for all of mainland Australia the rule applies.
>
> BTW ant is a contraction of Anthony, common in Australia. funny how some
> people take offence at a name. another reason for the spamblock is many
> people i know of who dont use them and post to political groups end up
> getting threatened and intimidated, we have a case pending at the moment
> where a political worker misused his access to the electoral role to
obtain
> a paesons full name and home address, even went round there, and the same
> person has apparently made threats against the safety of other
participants
> of the newsgroup, like most far right political thinkers he believes that
> violence is an acceptable political tool if his ideas have not been
> accepted. so hiding ones identity is prudent, it is interesting that it is
> only the left wing and environmental agitators who seem to get the death
> threats and intimidation when they are doing nothing more then speakingthe
> truth.
>
>
> ant
>
>
> "In the United States, free markets have contributed to social breakdown
> on a scale unknown in any other developed country. Families are weaker
> in America than in any other developed country. At the same time,
> social order has been propped up by a policy of mass incarceration ...
> Levels of inequity resemble those of Latin American countries more than
> those of any European society." - John Gray - British Conservative
> Politician under Margaret Thatcher - "False Dawn" - The Decline of
> Global Capitalism.
>
>
>