Nuclear Energy (1 Viewer)

[puzzled]

Heck if I know where he got that?

His memory which is obviously better than yours

 

[Thales750]

LOL... electric cars - the Future of automobiling is over a century old...

True enough but the power utilization curve is just now becoming practical, due to rare earth magnets and exotic battery elements.

Funny though, we sent the first hydrogen fuel cells into space in the 60s.

 

[Fifty2One]

But currently commercially generating hydrogen is by Electrolysis which consumes a lot of electricity so again you need to consider where the energy came from to make the fuel.
I put up a couple of small wind turbines to generate some electricity for a couple of electric vehicles. Works quite well but I will eventually need send the batteries for recycling. Our solar lights in the out buildings also have batteries for storage so those also go to the recyclers once they are no longer storing electricity efficiently.
We also manufacture our own ethanol fuel.

Absolutely Brian, I have always spoken against electric cars for that very reason, and I was always dismayed that most people that have supported electric cars never considered where the energy came from to start with.
Hydrogen fuel cells require energy from fuel separate from the fuel cell activity. You might think of a fuel cell as a clean, high yield battery.

No matter what the storage mechanism, the power grid has to be expanded to accommodate the extra load put on it by “charging” all those cars. In a coal burning society like the US, increases in electric cars means more pollution per mile driven than using gasoline powered vehicles.

Having said that though, we are changing quickly in the US to favor Natural Gas because they recently discovered an extremely large field (natural gas) stretching from North Texas to Pennsylvania (or so) There should be enough gas in this discovery to power the nation’s existing grid, plus convert a substantial number of cars to electric and still provide energy for about a hundred years.

That does not eliminate the need for developing non-fossil fuel technologies. One of the neglected conversations concerning energy is the very real need to develop massive power hungry desalination and delivery mechanisms for huge amounts of agricultural water. The United States pumps around a trillion gallons a year from the Ogallala Aquifer, the life blood of American agriculture. In India, since adopting American high yield methodologies, they are now experiencing salt water infusion into their aquifers due to reverse flow.

Ultimately fusion nuclear reactors will replace fission reactors, but in the mean time we need to continue to reduce our personal consumption, hopefully by higher yields as well as more thoughtful personal habits and at the same time increase production at the source.

But one thing to consider is that personal mobility is maybe the highest form of personal freedom. I’m a subway dweller and as such will not be a candidate for electric vehicles for some time to come, but millions of people living closer in would be. We just need to make sure the grid exist to support them.

For further reading on the Ogallala Aquifer
http://www.geology.iastate.edu/gccourse/issues/society/ogallala/ogallala.html

 

[georgedwilkinson]

His memory which is obviously better than yours

The point is, puzzled/Rich, the United States is huge. There are an uncountable number of municipal utility districts, deed restricted communities, city governments, county governments, etc. all with their own rules and regulations. I can't remember a place I have been in the US where I haven't seen solar power of one form or another. Yes, some building codes may be more restrictive than others, or some community deed restrictions may consider certain types of apparatus added to homes in their area to be eye-sores. But, you cannot brush the entire country with the same brush stroke. Every area is different. There is no single US law or restriction that keeps people from embracing solar power.

The reason SOME people have chosen not to go with solar power in the US is that there is no financial incentive. In some areas, it is not feasible at all because of local weather patterns. However, many people use solar power/heating in the US, especially in the south. I haven't seen it as a problem, even when they have to abide by a local ordinance (which you must do whenever you build anything onto your home).

 

[KenHigg]

The only reason I can think of for not allowing them would be in historical districts where they would be, as you say, eye-sores.

 

[Thales750]

The only reason I can think of for not allowing them would be in historical districts where they would be, as you say, eye-sores.

The federal government is restricted in our constitution from gaining too much power over local citizens. Something some British minds (Rich, Col, and Rich’s alter ego Puzzled) have a hard time grasping. Possibly since they still think of us as colonies and have not accepted that we developed this system of government in response to being dictated to, by a government across the Atlantic.

In very few cases are any home owners restricted from making energy improvement, accept in cases where Home Owners Association restrict it. But in those cases the person elected to live there because of the restrictions, not inspite of them. The funny thing about HOAs is that everyone want to keep the property values high, but they don’t think the restrictions should apply to them.

In the United States the federal government exerts its will over the country by modifying tax law, and by controlling funding for projects. A concept lost on certain people (before mentioned) from across the pond.

Side bar on Alter Ego: isn’t the point of an alter ego to actually act like someone else? I think his alter ego exist to show that at least one other person in the world shares his distorted views.

Maybe he’s lonely; we should be nice to him.

 

[Rich]

The federal government is restricted in our constitution from gaining too much power over local citizens. Something some British minds (Rich, Col, and Rich’s alter ego Puzzled) have a hard time grasping.

So much for a United country, you ought to try being a democracy, you know like Iran was before Americans changed it

 

[Rabbie]

So much for a United country, you ought to try being a democracy, you know like Iran was before Americans changed it

When was Iran democratic? The Shah ran a very autocratic regime which was replace by an equally undemocratic Islamic regime. Explain please

 

[Thales750]

When was Iran democratic? The Shah ran a very autocratic regime which was replace by an equally undemocratic Islamic regime. Explain please

There you go with facts again.

 

[Rich]

When was Iran democratic? The Shah ran a very autocratic regime which was replace by an equally undemocratic Islamic regime. Explain please

The Shah was the puppet installed by the US to control the US interests