Hydro is by far the best method of producing clean energy- and lots of it! But, we have just about maxed out our ability to get more hydro. For many years we have set up plants along the drop of large rivers to capture as much as we can. Even the Edison Lakes in California were made to capture the snow and allow multiple drops for power plants.
Too bad. But solar is so inefficient as to make it only a distant dream for large amounts of power. Plus it is very expensive.
But someone, somewhere will figure out a better way of capturing the sun, if the federal government will just stay out of it. They will push and fund some friend or donor’s method to the exclusion of others, and that will kill any other way that might be much better.
There may be some Steve Jobs in a garage somewhere that will find a way. References :
Comment by Warren W- a Mormon engineer — @
About 4-6 months ago there was an article in Scientific America. The authors proposed a large network of solar cells in the US mid-west, where there is lots of sun. The authors gave a timetable and costs, and seemed quite accurate. I don’t remember the numbers, but I think it was $40B and 2020 and we would get a large portion of our electric power from these arrays.
Hydro is all used up, we will get no more from that.
Wind power will probably never be a major player, but it can contribute a fair hunk of cheap power to the grid.
Nuclear is probably the leading contender for electric power, being proven technology and pollution free.
Don’t forget geothermal, wave power and tidal power. They all can contribute a fair amount of power.
Another contender, being explored in Japan, is a large solar array in space, possibly at one of the Lagrange points, where it can get continuous sun. This would beam power to earth where the microwaves are converted to electric power.
Hydro is by far the best method of producing clean energy- and lots of it! But, we have just about maxed out our ability to get more hydro. For many years we have set up plants along the drop of large rivers to capture as much as we can. Even the Edison Lakes in California were made to capture the snow and allow multiple drops for power plants.
Too bad. But solar is so inefficient as to make it only a distant dream for large amounts of power. Plus it is very expensive.
But someone, somewhere will figure out a better way of capturing the sun, if the federal government will just stay out of it. They will push and fund some friend or donor’s method to the exclusion of others, and that will kill any other way that might be much better.
There may be some Steve Jobs in a garage somewhere that will find a way.
References :
Comment by Warren W- a Mormon engineer — @
About 4-6 months ago there was an article in Scientific America. The authors proposed a large network of solar cells in the US mid-west, where there is lots of sun. The authors gave a timetable and costs, and seemed quite accurate. I don’t remember the numbers, but I think it was $40B and 2020 and we would get a large portion of our electric power from these arrays.
Hydro is all used up, we will get no more from that.
Wind power will probably never be a major player, but it can contribute a fair hunk of cheap power to the grid.
Nuclear is probably the leading contender for electric power, being proven technology and pollution free.
Don’t forget geothermal, wave power and tidal power. They all can contribute a fair amount of power.
Another contender, being explored in Japan, is a large solar array in space, possibly at one of the Lagrange points, where it can get continuous sun. This would beam power to earth where the microwaves are converted to electric power.
.
References :
Comment by billrussell42 — @