Interesting (non automotive) article on renewable power

[A Horse With No Name]

http://www.american.com/archive/2008/novem...nergy-delusion/

Chris

[loki]

During the early 1970s we were told by the promoters of nuclear energy that by the year 2000 America’s coal-based electricity generation plants would be relics of the past and that all electricity would come from nuclear fission.

this was before or just after roe v wade... so ... if you add say another 30 million more people to our pop, then the energy we would need would be...~10% more, i bet most greenies would say, good,..... but that's a lot of potential brain power. just saying, they were hoping for the best and what they got was regulation killing that dream and not the huge need that was to put that technology on top.

[PurdueGuy]

Lotta good info in that article, though it is a long read.

Cliff's notes:

It takes a long time to transition from one energy technology to the next.

People who insist that we can change our energy technology (say, from fossil fuels to wind and other renewables) within a short time span haven't counted the cost.

We may be able to speed up transition with aggressive, persistent plans, but it will still take a long, long time.

Nuclear would be a much larger producer of the US's electricity if people would quit equating nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and Washington would stop screwing with regulations all the time. It's the same problem that has hindered autos from having diesel options - the constant change in regulation scares away development for fear that a developed product will then be rendered unsellable and the whole project will be a major capital loss for the company.