There's a lot of good news in this forum, and that really helps.

[More Than A Feeling]

All of these articles about new wind and solar power plants going online are quite relaxing. It's a nice break from the "We're all going to DIE!" variety. I know those are important because some people still don't get it (possibly because it pays not to get it), but its so sad to constantly read about the dangers and the failures. That way lies the temptation to give up in despair, and that serves no purpose and solves nothing.

So keep up the good work people! Keep letting us know that people are listening and we might just have the strength to keep fighting until our environmental problems at last get reversed.

[Dogmudgeon]

1. I hate to throw cold water on your optimism, but ...

... have you looked closely at most of that news?

Most of the posts are press releases. PR. I've kept an eye on several of the companies, and most of them go out of business quickly. But one that has really done well is from Spain, Gamesa Eolica. Solucar, likewise, is a new company with some of the same principals developing solar thermal technology. So that's two. I am certain that there are more than that, but the fact that upward of one hundred press releases are posted here each week with so little action is not an encouraging sign.

Second, the amounts of power involved are insignificant, so even when the projects do come on line, they are little more than showpieces. Nearly all the wind farms in North America are strategically planned to be visible from busy highways. Most "green energy" you can buy from a utility is about 1% from wind, but costs a whole lot more. It's little more than greenwash.

Third, wind and solar energy are relatively inefficient. They typically produce power at about 10-30% of their rated capacity. They also require extra infrastructure to store the power they produce. This is fine when we can build more of the units, but it leads to a lot of inflated expectations. A few aerogenerators like nice on a hillside, but it's not serious energy.

What do I keep my eye on? Stories about big installation projects. A 10 MW wind farm is NOT a big deal. Coal, nuclear, natural gas and oil power plants are in the range of 500-2000 MW (0.5-2 GW). They also produce power at over 80% of rated capacity and power storage is not required. We need building projects for wind farms that produce a gigawatt and can store it with as little loss as possible. That would require about ten gigawatts of capacity. And it's certainly do-able, but nobody is doing it, even after nearly a decade of renewed interest in alternative energy development.

That is what the alt-energy sector needs to aim for. We have the technology -- we need the financing, the labor, and the implementation. We need it soon, and if we are determined to NOT have nuclear energy, we will need that much more of it. For every gigawatt nuke -- or coal plant, or natural gas plant -- we aim to decommission, we need about 5000 aerogenerators (or 2500 of Gamesa's or GE's 2 MW behemoths).

It will be a big job. Enormous. The task of the century. I have no doubt that we can accomplish it. But not with a flurry of press releases announcing a megawatt here and a megawatt there, trying to attract some spare venture capital. None of us should be thinking small.

--p!

[NMDemDist2]

2. I was watching UCTV last night (California University TV) and the CEO

of USBancorp was giving a lecture and said they had a 'green plan' that included CFL bulbs and more aggressive lending to green companies

they unveiled it at their April shareholder's meeting, but their site is down so I couldn't go get a link :cry: