Germany's solar power equals 20 nuke plants.

[PA5COR]

Another advantage of using solar/windgenerators etc is that you do it locally, less transport losses too, which can be quite high...

Lots of farmers here have their own 50 or 100 KWH windgenerator, delivering/selling the over capacity to the grid.
Windgenerators deliver power also at night, in case of overcapacity water gets pumped into a higher basin, and used at night to deliver energy again, in Spain they use melted salt ( 800 degrees F ) that can be stored and reused at night.

[NQ6U]

Solar is starting to get big here in sunny San Diego County. Rooftop collectors are showing everywhere and big business (such as Qualcomm) and apartment complexes have begun to shade their parking lots with solar "trees." Not only does it keep the employees/tenants' cars out of the sun, they pay for themselves in a few years.

[W5GA]

Wind power causes climate change. Not quite the panacea that everyone thinks it is.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ear...new-study.html

[n2ize]

Wind power causes climate change. Not quite the panacea that everyone thinks it is.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ear...new-study.html

The bottom line is that there is no free ride. Everything has it's price. Wind and solar are good alternatives but they all cause pollution, if not so much during the actual operation then during the fabrication, delivery, implementation, disposal, replacement, etc. And in other ways as pointed out here.

I am currently very interested in "clean coal" as an energy source. I have been studying it extensively and it looks extremely promising. Plus coal is extremely abundant. Modern clean coal combustion is far safer and cleaner than traditional coal combustion. And much more efficient.

[KG4NEL]

I am currently very interested in "clean coal" as an energy source. I have been studying it extensively and it looks extremely promising. Plus coal is extremely abundant. Modern clean coal combustion is far safer and cleaner than traditional coal combustion. And much more efficient.

I'm willing to bet the supply chain for making a wind turbine causes less damage than mountaintop removal in WV does.

[n2ize]

I'm willing to bet the supply chain for making a wind turbine causes less damage than mountaintop removal in WV does.

maybe. But that is a matter of how we get the coal as opposed to the coal itself.

[KG4NEL]

maybe. But that is a matter of how we get the coal as opposed to the coal itself.

Natural gas has the same problem - the fact that it burns clean isn't a lot of solace for the family who can light their tap water on fire, just as it isn't for the families whose water is red from the pollutants in the fill that used to be the mountain next door. Really eye opening to see it, from the times I drove through there...

I'm sure it's possible to do it a lot safer, but will the shareholders and boards of the producers do it on their own - not likely.

[N7YA]

I was concerned about wind energy and had questions, so i asked the experts at the oil company and they told me, power is power, your tv or blender doesnt know the difference. So i figured, screw it, as long as i have my conveniences, who cares? I felt much better after that!

[PA5COR]

Locally air will mix, no added heat is produced though so the net warming is 0.

Produced electricity offset to electricity produced by using coal or naturl gas is a big bonus, the mixed air is very local, and can be a bonus in cold times warming up the ground preventing crops to freeze, as said, there is no added heat, just mixing of layers of air.


From your article:

However Prof Zhou pointed out the most extreme changes were just at night and the overall changes may be smaller.
Also, it is much smaller than the estimated change caused by other factors such as man made global warming.
“Overall, the warming effect reported in this study is local and is small compared to the strong background year-to-year land surface temperature changes,” he added.
So.. lots of hogwash about nothing..

[N2RJ]

Cor, where does Germany get power from at night?

Our cooperative has about 100 kW of solar at its offices but it is only active during the day. In fact when I look at the monitoring graph, I see maximum production occurring just around noon and actually that varies during the seasons. Cloudy days like all this week, forget it. On a heavily clouded day, they are lucky to produce even 2 kW. Of course in full sun it is not a problem.

I actually like solar, but the problem of getting energy at night is still there. You can pump water up a hill and then use that you drive a hydroturbine, this requires more complication and more real estate.

Canada gets 70% of its power from Hydro. I think they got it right. Of all the renewables, Hydro is the most reliable and the most time tested. We get approximately 70% of all power from Hydro and nuclear power over here. However, that may be less this year due to one of the nuclear reactors being shut down for repairs. The Cooperative wanted a large solar farm, but town that had the approvals decided to not approve it because of aesthetic concerns from residents. I guess they'd rather have sulfur dioxide raining down upon them instead of watching the solar farm which really doesn't produce any noise or other pollution.

In the end I think we need to move towards an all of the above solution instead of just one or two renewables that look like they might solve the problem but really don't. Solar should be part of the complete energy mix that includes other clean energy sources including nuclear power.